Webhosting Recommendations?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Pam McLeod on January 8, 2009 at 10:42am

Dean, I've never heard of that issue, unbelievable! We use LunarPages.com and they actually have free K-12 hosting, which is really nice. I've been really happy with them, it's been about a year now. Tech support and customer service are reasonably responsive.

I also loved hosting with CrystalTech.com - best customer service I've ever encountered in hosting. But, their plan got too expensive and I couldn't get Joomla running properly on their service, so we're planning to drop them. Our current website is there, new site in development at LunarPages.

My Big Warning is to stay away from 1and1.com - I have horror stories. Just do a search on "1and1 customer service"

http://www.lunarpages.com/education/
Requirements: http://support.lunarpages.com/knowledge_bases/article/84

Pam

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chris on January 8, 2009 at 5:41pm

I was just going to post about LunarPages, but Pam beat me to it. I also use LunarPages and it's great... they make you jump through a couple hoops to start, but it's totally free... just click on the link that Pam gave you above.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mirna Jope on January 8, 2009 at 8:23pm

It wasn't foolproof when I tried it but someone introduced me to DimDim, which is free.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rolf on January 10, 2009 at 4:18pm

Choosing a good web site provider and registrar is critical for a successful internet business.
I have come to the conclusion that I made the dreadful error of choosing a company because it had a 5 page ad in a popular computer magazine. I believe I have put my trust in a straw man. In my opinion 1and1, with CEO Oliver Mauss, is a horrible company and many customers have voiced a host of complaints on various blogs.
It should be a warning that when their phone is answered by a recording that tells you if you have gotten a notice from NCO, a collection agency, to press a certain number. If they are a reputable business, why do they have to send so many accounts to a collection agency?
Patrick Frey (Patterico) of the Los Angeles District Attorneys Office alleges his domain was high jacked and put up for auction on SEDO. SEDO is an associate company of 1and1.
Patterico: “I believe I’m facing massive incompetence, thievery, or very possibly a deliberate combination of the two. It feels like evil intent — but not for political reasons. It feels like cyber extortion — people going after the almighty dollar. Commenters have pointed out corporate ties between 1&1, which can’t seem to process my timely renewal, and Sedo/Domcollect, which stood to profit from 1&1’s failure. Usually, corporate incompetence does not earn the corporation money — but 1&1 and its related companies have found a way to make money off of their own slipshod procedures.” Patterico was able to regain his domain.
Also Investigative journalist, Kelli Jack, has written 30 articles about this company and has a suit pending against them. Kelli alleges that 1and1 stole her domain name and sold it. Kelli states: "1and1 should be shut down." As of today Kelli is working with the Pennsylvania Attorney General.
I have filed complaints with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission, Eastern Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau, ICANN, and others. I recommend everyone else having a problem consider doing the same.

The Washington DC, Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau has them listed as "Unsatisfactory" Read comments on the BBB why. Read some customer comments on Red Flag.
Warth Publishing Inc

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rich White on January 10, 2009 at 5:49pm

We have used Pair Networks (http://www.pair.com) for around 8 years and they are wonderful ! Their support is great, and network very robust. You would certainly not be disappointed with them. http://www.pair.com

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Blaine Transue on June 9, 2009 at 4:40pm

Hi Dean,

"Obviously picking a webhosting company and plan is a lot more complicated than I thought!"

Let me make it a lot easier.

We offer fully dynamic CMS based websites to all K-12 schools and Districts in the US (and abroad actually). There is no risk or commitment to signup and use the site(s), and activation, once you request your code, can be done in less than 5 minutes.
Rather than go into everything at length here, I'd prefer to point you to a few links, after all there's nothing like seeing it live.
I'd also be more than happy to give you a live online demo at your convenience. If you like what you see, just contact me and we'll set something up. Here are a few links to get you started:
Our home page http://webschoolpro.com
Preview any school in the US, including the schools in your district at http://webschoolpro.com/preview.html (select your state, county district and school)
View schools and districts using WebSchoolPro at http://webschoolpro.com/viewschools.html
Sign up for your risk free, free school site here http://webschoolpro.com/signup.html

Here are a few live district sites you can look at:
http://svusdca.org/
http://riverdelta.org
http://reedschools.org
http://brssd.org

Really, there's absolutely no risk to activate the school sites, and once activated you can immediately dive in and begin editing, making changes, adding pages etc. all via your web browser. Please don't hesitate to send me a message if you need more info.

Best Regards,

Blaine Transue

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eric Jarvis on June 9, 2009 at 5:10pm

I've had good luck with Blue Host (www.bluehost.com). I have a number of WordPress blogs using this company.

I've used iPowerWeb. I haven't had any problems recently, but a WordPress blog they were hosting ran extremely slow. I've also had one of my sites hacked. Probably not their fault though.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on June 10, 2009 at 9:25am

Hi Dean--

Sorry to hear about that. I know you are looking for regular web hosting rather than a prepackaged CMS as you are a WPMU user.

I've been with hostgator for many years and so has our school. I have been very happy with them. The only fine print restrictions are related to percent of processor and memory resources over a a certain time interval and the number of inodes.

I never have run into a problem (though our school is small). We got close with the inodes, but the only consequence of exceeding the allotment is that they will no longer back up automatically. Once I dumped a lot of old software and files, we easily went well under the threshhold.

There are many advantages to a dedicated server though. I personally migrated to a personal server and I can't see ever going back! I would like to migrate our school to a VPS eventually for greater control.

Steve

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on June 10, 2009 at 11:08am

BTW--they are fine with running WPMU. Most hosts are not. We use the business plan.

If you need quick home for the interim, I may be able to help you.

Steve

• ▶ Reply