$3.95 Domain Hosting. 200MB/5GB Bandwidth/MySQL etc.

[dexter333]

Brinkster is free. They have ASP and stuff, but they are SLOWWWWWW when you are doing updating on your site. They used to be called eWebCity if I recall correctly.


w00t! 100th post!

 

[darkjester]

<< Try www.techexcell.com <-- 20/year for about the same thing. I just signed up, so I'm not recommending them yet. It's just the best deal I've found yet.
I might post in here after a few days to tell you guys how I fare.
(They cohost with verio, so they should have a decent connection) >>


$20 a year!? :Q That certainly sounds like one of those "too good to be true" deals. Is there anywhere I can see some sort of "rating" for Tech Excell?

Sounds pretty diesel!

 

[Passner]

Hey DixieSys, can I sign up for the hosting of two sites now, and not pay until February, if I do not plan to do anything with those sites until february.
Also, how many hits can a typical site handle within that 5GB allotment? 10K a month, 20K. Also, I told my guitar teacher about you, and he is quite interested.

 

[Hector13]

<< mySQL will start supporting when you start PAYING. >>



Actually they are aiming for stored procedures in version 4.1.
As for transactions, I though they already added support for them, didn't they (perhaps in version 4)?

As for ASP, its garbage anyways (as is IIS), so you should switch to something else anyway. I am not a huge fan of PHP either, but I think it has a great future and I would pick it over ASP anyday.

In any case, it is always good to learn something different. And with Linux, MySQL, and PHP, you have a pretty much free set of development tools that you could install for yourself at home and play around with.

 

[haner]

I can't offer free hosting but I can give us Anandtechers a good deal. Check out my site and take 10% off by putting Anandtech in the comments section when ordering.

 

[jrichrds]

Wow, this reminds of the host I was with 5 months ago. His plans had a lot of bandwidth allowed. He defended himself admirably on webhostingtalk when people told him it'd never work out, saying that he had done the math. A few months after hosting with his company, he divided bandwidth allowances on all plans by 4, and I was on my way to a new host. So much for "the price is guaranteed" blah blah blah.
He was a nice guy...just didn't realize there could be more users like me who actually used up most of the bandwidth allowance. He did offer a full refund to anyone who wasn't happy with the change, which I didn't take cuz I know he did his best.

 

[jrichrds]

Passner,
Just sign up in February.

 

[darkjester]

K, Dixiesys, just signed up. Looking forward to it!

 

[Passner]

jrich, I am just worried about the AT effect and the possibilty that a glut of people signs up soon, and he decides to stop accepting new domains to host, and then I would be left out.
I might get it done in january anyway, so I think I may register soon now that I think about it.

 

[imported_Grimmy]

<< jrich, I am just worried about the AT effect and the possibilty that a glut of people signs up soon, and he decides to stop accepting new domains to host, and then I would be left out.
I might get it done in january anyway, so I think I may register soon now that I think about it. >>



Haha I definitely got some traffic out of the forum, and it has been busy, nothing that wasn't handleable though

We're still a good 400 customers probably even 600 away from even considering turning business away. And I talked to a friend of mine tonight who's out of work and would like to stay home and work and I just might have my first tech support guy which allows me to greatly increase the userbase and still maintain the high standards I want to keep for tech support.



<< Hey DixieSys, can I sign up for the hosting of two sites now, and not pay until February, if I do not plan to do anything with those sites until february. >>



That's fine just let me know and I can get you a signup link with a free month to let you get your stuff built and laid out and all while you get ready to go live.

As for guitars, there's an mp3 or wav (wav I think) of me making noise on my Les Paul at www.grimster.org under the Guitar Abuse link. It's about 3 seconds long so even as a wav it's no big download, you can tell me how horribly I need lessons.



<< Wow, this reminds of the host I was with 5 months ago. His plans had a lot of bandwidth allowed. He defended himself admirably on webhostingtalk when people told him it'd never work out, saying that he had done the math. A few months after hosting with his company, he divided bandwidth allowances on all plans by 4, and I was on my way to a new host. So much for "the price is guaranteed" blah blah blah. >>



I'm actually very curious, do you know how many customers he had when he realized it wasn't working?

I put between 125-175 domains per server, my first server is full and I'm beginning my second. My first server used 30 gigs last month, which is 1/10th of the bandwidth allotment on that server. It has a mix of 2 gig, 3 gig and 5 gig plans on it, even if nearly everyone used their alloted bandwidth it'd still only go over a little bit. Of course it'd be quite odd if that happened since 25GIGS of that 30 was the nightly backups of the server the CUSTOMERS used 6-7 gigs so I just can't see that being a problem. Do you?

The harddrive is 26% full, and the server is 100% full of customers. And if people fill up the drive, I'll put in another drive that's twice as big as the first one and I'm sure that'll be enough

I agree, many people don't know what to expect. I'm not knew at the hosting game.

However I must admit, if I got slashdotted I think it would probably kill me hehehe

 

[bigrash]

can anyone who has experience with TechExcell.com tell me if they're any good?

 

[BlackCatt]

Dixiesys, if you don't mind me asking, how fast are the servers your using to host? Also, where do you have the servers located, at home? Just curious.

It sounds like a pretty sweet gig for you being able to work at home and everything. Hope you get those remaining 400-600 customers quickly and can start reaping the rewards.

 

[imported_Grimmy]

<< Dixiesys, if you don't mind me asking, how fast are the servers your using to host? Also, where do you have the servers located, at home? Just curious.

It sounds like a pretty sweet gig for you being able to work at home and everything. Hope you get those remaining 400-600 customers quickly and can start reaping the rewards. >>



Cobalt RaQ 4i's 450mhz 256megs they're great if you don't overload them with 350 domains (I've heard rumors of 500+ on one!) I put under 200 domains per server and have no complaints for speed.

The servers are in a carrier class data center in Texas with a Cogent gigabit, a couple of OC-3s (3 I think) and a DS3 using various backbones to the internet.

Yeah it's not bad. I wish I were close enough to my servers to drive to them but there is literally nowhere in North Alabama where I live that I'd colo a Nintendo with, much less a server that I count on for my living.

 

[Madman34]

Ok I just signes up with 3-95.com , Everything went smoth and fast. Now I'm just waiting for the DNS to do its thing.

 

[Madman34]

Im glad to say everything is complete. I dont think it could go any smoother. I signed up with 3-95.com and gary had me set up in less then an hour. I registered my Domain with registerfly.com and that took about 10 min. The DNS was pointing to my webpage in less then 10 hours. I couldnt be happier!!!

Madman

 

[AlienWareDude]

I also signed up with Gary at 3-95. His email response was frighteningly fast. I signed up for the 6 pack...

 

[MarkUsG3]

See, I wasn't lying .

 

[mellocj]

OK, I don't post on here very often but I felt that I should post on this thread.

I understand that some of you people may not be serious about running websites, and if you're not, then go ahead and sign up for the $3.95 hosting sites. It sounds to me like these type of sites are just run by one or two guys, out of their house? What happens if the guy in charge has to have a kidney transplant, so he is at the hospital and someone burns his house down? or someone steals his computers? ask these hosting companies how long they have been in business. Ask them how many different links they have to different backbone providers. Ask them how they plan to power their servers if the electrical company browns out for a few days. Ask them what their priority is with their telephone company. Ask them how much extra hardware they keep on-site.

I recommend pair networks. www.pair.com It is the most affordable web hosting company that offers you truly reliable webhosting, that I have found. They have been in business now for 6 years. They have over 600 web servers hosting 121,000 websites, with support personnel 24-hours per day (not some guy sleeping at home with a pager).

So, I don't mean to run everyone away from hosting with a smaller 'garage-style' company, but I urge everyone to take a look at pair. They have a lot of information about their services and data center on their website. I have been a pair customer for about 3 years.

Virtual web/ftp from them starts at $5.95.

 

[Thyme]

Depends what you mean by "serious." If he has to have a kidney transplant, I'll find another cheap server for any extended down thyme. For this price, it's worth that risk. Also, see to both directions of this post that it's not a "garage."

 

[imported_Grimmy]

<< OK, I don't post on here very often but I felt that I should post on this thread.

I understand that some of you people may not be serious about running websites, and if you're not, then go ahead and sign up for the $3.95 hosting sites. It sounds to me like these type of sites are just run by one or two guys, out of their house? What happens if the guy in charge has to have a kidney transplant, so he is at the hospital and someone burns his house down? or someone steals his computers? ask these hosting companies how long they have been in business. Ask them how many different links they have to different backbone providers. Ask them how they plan to power their servers if the electrical company browns out for a few days. Ask them what their priority is with their telephone company. Ask them how much extra hardware they keep on-site.

I recommend pair networks. www.pair.com It is the most affordable web hosting company that offers you truly reliable webhosting, that I have found. They have been in business now for 6 years. They have over 600 web servers hosting 121,000 websites, with support personnel 24-hours per day (not some guy sleeping at home with a pager).

So, I don't mean to run everyone away from hosting with a smaller 'garage-style' company, but I urge everyone to take a look at pair. They have a lot of information about their services and data center on their website. I have been a pair customer for about 3 years.

Virtual web/ftp from them starts at $5.95. >>



My servers are housed in a carrier class facility in Houston Texas. It's a multimillion dollar building with ALL the bells and whistles, formerly owned by one of those spectacular dot-com failures (the man who owns the company that I lease my equipment from for reasons will not say which failed/failing dot com it was, I suspect Verio but who knows).

It is a secure facility to say the least.

If something happens to me, I have people who will gladly take over while I recover. A whole crew as a matter of fact. But why pay them if I don't need to? So as long as I'm healthy I'll handle it myself until the customer base gets large enough to warrant another guy. If I need them they're there, if I don't why spend the cash? Edit: There's a BUTTLOAD of laid off dot com admins in the area, I can get a couple for near MINIMUM WAGE on a temporary basis (a few weeks or so). How about that? Sad I know.

I'm familiar with Pair, they're decent, if a bit large and slow on the tech support. But definitely yes, they're one of the better big guys or have been.

I lease servers so the data center is responsible for hardware replacements. They have over 4000 servers in their NOC so I guess they'll have a couple of old dusty harddrives lying around if mine fails.

Backups are _daily_ currently to one location, soon to two. (2 backups daily).

I'm not some pimpled up 16 year old running a hosting company when I'm not in class. I've started 2 other successful hosting businesses/ISPs for "other" people, this time I'm doing it myself.

I'm small now, 220 customers and counting, EVERYONE had to start with 1 customer you know?

I'm working a deal whereby I will have a dedicated cage with several racks of my own and will begin offering colocation and dedicated servers soon. If things work out, if not I will stay a small web hosting provider and be happy.

Frankly I'd rather host with a slightly smaller company (as in hungry) than someone with 121,000 web sites, who am I to them? I'm no body. But every single customer I have is damned important to me, every one of them.

 

[BlackCatt]

Mellocj,
Take a look at the post by Dixiesys 5 posts above yours. He says the servers are collocated in Texas at a "carrier class data center". Now I don't know everything about data centers, but I do believe that ones that are that size usually have pretty good security as well as UPS and / or backup generators. So that doesn't seem to be an issue.

However the chance you are running with him going into the hospital or some other unforseable problem, this is a real risk. Although, a limited one. It should be taken into consideration when selecting a web host. If you need absolute 24/7 support then you should probably look at a larger company. However for a very large % of the sites out there it probably isn't necessary.

 

[Rooster286]

Dixiesys, do you plan to implement CGI at all?? I use Ultimate Bulliten Board, and actually paid for it so I need my new webhost to support CGI, at least untill my license runs out and I can but get a PHP board software.....let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Thyme]

Rooster286, the front page says CGI-BIN.

I asked what the versions were, so for the curious

PHP 4.06 (Current stable is 4.11)
MySQL 3.23.37 (Current stable is 3.23.47, 4 in alpha)
PHPMyAdmin 2.2.2-rc1 (Current stable is 2.2.2, 2.2.3 in alpha)
There are changelogs on the sites, but nearly all that is missing are errors that probably will not affect us.

Also, a bit unrelated, but I have a domain with NameZero I use mostly for the email forward. It's expiring in Augest. Will I run into any trouble if I just let it expire and register it with registerfly or godaddy?

 

[Hgabriel]

No offense, but If I am just hosting a personal site, I would much rather give the business to an Anandtecher than a corporation.

I've been very satisifed with this $3.95 hosting. As my first paid hosting deal, it has been everything I expected and more. I recommended to a few of my friends as an addition to their ISP web space.

 

[jandaman]

just signed up, hope it works out