i need to switch web hosts: who is good and how do i do it?

[scaryfastskier]

The company (www.behosted.com) hosting my webpage and personal email has shut off service rather randomly. After I called them, they said I have not been paying my bill (which I have). After faxing them credit card statements showing I have, the have not returned my phonecalls or reinstated service. This is going on month 2 now. Yes I have gone without my personal email for 2 months.

-Who is a good hosting company?
my old plan was ~$10 a month for 750mb storage and unlimited transfer. i would like something similar. cheap = big bonus. I like cpanel as well, but its not a requirement. I am more or less an internet noob, so nothing too crazy.

How do i get my domain switched to the new company?

thank you,
grant

* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.

[scaryfastskier]

another question: what the hell is a linux or windows NT server? i don't have either of those operating systems... i am assuming this is all on their end and doesn't effect me at all? ixwebhosting.com is the site i am browsing right now.

grant

[scaryfastskier]

nevermind about the linux/windows stuff.... i found the faq page! woot! anyone use these IX hosters?
grant

Linux or Windows Hosting - which is right for me?


Deciding which plan-type is right for you is often a difficult decision. We hope this explanation can help you in choosing the correct hosting platform for your website. We offer a choice between Windows-based and Linux-based web hosting platforms. While both are very reliable and widely used platforms, each has their own quirks.


Windows hosting is often mistaken as a "must pick" only because the operating system you are running may be Windows. In fact, the majority of all websites on the Internet are hosted on the Linux platform, so most websites you have been visiting are likely to be hosted on Linux servers.


If you have Windows on your machine, you can still manage a website hosted on a Linux server and also browse any website hosted on a Linux server. You only need Windows-based hosting if you need Microsoft-specific applications, such as ASP, ASP.Net, MS SQL Server or MS Access databases.


If you do not need any of these Microsoft-specific applications - or if you don't even know what they are, then the better choice will always be to host your website a Linux server. Linux servers host the majority of all websites on the Internet and will provide you with highly reliable hosting services. For more details, please view our Linux Hosting Plans.

[boomtonic]

If you registered your own domin name, then you should be able to control the DNS entries, which point to the host.

As for a provider, I'm currently with hostgator. I haven't been there for too long, but they seem decent, have cpanel, and right now have an "unlimited number of sites" promo that effectively lets your account function like a reseller account.

[scaryfastskier]

i can't log onto my site because the service was shut off. so i don't know how to change the DNS stuff.

thanks for the link! i'll be checking them out as well.

grant

[Guru Imakuni]

DNS is controlled through your domain registrar I believe.

I have had excellent results with http://www.dathorn.com/. Never had any downtime that I noticed and had a good size of space relative to the price and what is being offered at other hosting companies. http://www.hostcolor.com was also really good when I purchased the mini-plan for my friends' band site. Compare dathorn with hostcolor and you can see that for $67 a year more you could double your webspace with dathorn. That is only worthwhile if you need 2GB of space though. I had the dathorn plan because I had multiple domains under the account and one site that mirrored gaming clients (not warez) so it was nice to have the space and not necessarily the bandwith. I can't say anything bad about dathorn.com though - I highly recommend them!

I wouldn't risk going with a random host that has good deals. A lot of companies just suck. Out of the 3 I've personally used for myself 2 have been attrocious. One said I had unlimited bandwith but they would cap my concurrent max output at something like 56k and then when it was hit my site would be deactivated!

[Sirkbac]

try block 9 hosting, thats who I currently use.

1GB space, 40GB traffic - $8.30 monthly
http://block9hosting.net/clients/ste...5f806996e7dbec

The special I got in on is gone, 9GB, 490GB traffic - $10. But the one listed above is plenty, and a much better deal than you had before.

[boomtonic]

Sirk - That's a SWEET deal you got! I'm doing $15/mo for 4gb/30gb (but I did get the unlimited domain name thing.

Originally Posted by scaryfastskier

i can't log onto my site because the service was shut off. so i don't know how to change the DNS stuff.

thanks for the link! i'll be checking them out as well.

grant

If you registered the website name through them, that's bad. If you did it directly through godaddy, netsol, etc. then you should be ok. I am assuming based on your post that it is the former.

What is the site? PM if posting it is undesireable.

[jamesaru]

I'm using iPowerWeb (which I heard about from someone on this site I think) and it's working out well. Tons of features included with really easy setup (like blog, gallery, etc.). Kinda nice if you don't know how to set it up (or if you don't want to mess with it).

1 gig storage
1 domain registration
10 subdomains
500 emails
cgi-bin, perl, php, mysql, etc.
lots of usage statistics
plus alot more
http://ipowerweb.com/products/webhosting/index.html


-james
-FreeStuffWatch.com

[Guru Imakuni]

A comment on Sirkbac's post, just an observation I've made:

A lot of hosts give you tons of bandwith but not a proportionate amount of space (which is all relative I suppose). Take for example Dathorn's 2GB and Block9's 1GB of space. You get 20GB of bandwith at Dathorn and 50GB at Block9. So it would be easier to store on Dathorn's servers and exceed your bandwith limit where as you could bet cut off on uploads at Block9 but never come close to that 50GB of bandwith. Companies offer high bandwith or webspace to counteract the other. For example you may see a site offer 100mb of space and 20GB but that's completely useless because there's no way you can use up 20GB of bandwith on a 100mb site unless you're hosting warez or porn.

By the way, nice find Sirkbac! If I ever need to release/mirror a large mod or something I'm signing up with them. In all realistic purposes it seems Block9 is the better choice just because it's cheaper per year.

[Sirkbac]

yeah, some hosting setups are pretty lame. TONS of bandwidth on no webspace. I remember having 200MB and 5GB of traffic for 18 a month. For me I don't come close to the 490GB traffic limit, but it's nice not having to worry about stuff being linked to hell and killing my hosting. I've been making use of my windfall and hooking friends up with hosting and mail off my site.

[andywrx]

I have the 300mb storage / 8GB bw problem...but I paid $20 for the year.
hostpc.com - they answer all my dummy questions pretty quick, too. I like 'em.

[scaryfastskier]

Originally Posted by boomtonic

Sirk - That's a SWEET deal you got! I'm doing $15/mo for 4gb/30gb (but I did get the unlimited domain name thing.



If you registered the website name through them, that's bad. If you did it directly through godaddy, netsol, etc. then you should be ok. I am assuming based on your post that it is the former.

What is the site? PM if posting it is undesireable.

www.teamdisaster.org i definetly registered with them. I guess I know better now.

grant

[Keshav]

I don't know about cheap, but IMHO he.net is the best, problem free service I've had for anything computer or non-computer related. They even send me holiday cards.

You get what you pay for.

[Guru Imakuni]

Originally Posted by scaryfastskier

www.teamdisaster.org i definetly registered with them. I guess I know better now.

grant

If a whois lookup has your name as the owner then you should legally be able to transfer it. A site like www.registerfly.com might be able to transfer it over for you. I think it's worth a try. I have a coupon code for $6 transfers (gets you renewed for another year too) and I think they lock in the future renewal prices for that domain at $6 too! PM me if you want the code.

[scaryfastskier]

whois say they own it

grant

[boomtonic]

Originally Posted by scaryfastskier

whois say they own it

grant

indeed. Perhaps just registering a new, similar domain name is the fastest way out. Bummer.

[Guru Imakuni]

What happened? The domain was locked when you tried transfering?

You can try contacting them at domains@beglobal.com. That's the email address listed in the teamdisaster.org contact fields when I ran a whois search.