Web Hosting and features

[chipy]

hi guys, i was debating whether to post here or in Off Topic but this area may be more relevant. i'm looking to get back into web design/dev and looking for a good web host.

i've heard a lot of people say Host Gator is good. i was actually comparing them to Cloud Web (offer from Hot Deals section) when i read something about GoDaddy's hosting being cheap for ASP .Net. when i went to their site, it looked like they also have CMS like Drupal and WordPress installed as well and i've been wanting to test them both out. in comparison, Host Gator only has WordPress installed and no ASP .Net. FYI, i'm wanting to try out both PHP and ASP .Net.

so at this point, i'm tempted to try out GoDaddy's hosting but not sure about their uptime or customer service. does anyone here have experience with them or Host Gator? thx in advance!

EDIT 1: also, what can i do with a reseller account? i heard people talking about selling domains?

EDIT 2: can i host a customer's website if i have a regular hosting plan (e.g. HostGator "Baby") and not a reseller account? pros/cons to doing this?

 

[Cogman]

ASP .NET and ruby on rails are two services I would look into getting. Php... no, not so much. The old days of phps glory are gone, let it die like perl.

I've been doing some development with ASP .NET, and I have to say, the features it has available blow PHP out of the water. Combine that with visual studios and you have one of the best web software development environment out there IMO.

 

[chipy]

thx Cogman. do you recommend a web host that supports ASP .Net?

 

[Cogman]

thx Cogman. do you recommend a web host that supports ASP .Net?

Yes. I've not looked into hosting services, so I couldn't tell you who to go with. I've just seen the languages available. (Technically, ASP .NET is more of a group of features then a language. It uses either VB, or C# in the background with the full weight of the .net framework.)

 

[chipy]

Yes. I've not looked into hosting services, so I couldn't tell you who to go with. I've just seen the languages available. (Technically, ASP .NET is more of a group of features then a language. It uses either VB, or C# in the background with the full weight of the .net framework.)

yup, i want to try out C# and that's why i was looking at ASP .Net. thx man, appreciate your input.

 

[Washoe]

ASP .NET and ruby on rails are two services I would look into getting. Php... no, not so much. The old days of phps glory are gone, let it die like perl.

I've been doing some development with ASP .NET, and I have to say, the features it has available blow PHP out of the water. Combine that with visual studios and you have one of the best web software development environment out there IMO.

Have to disagree here. I was a php developer for 3 years, and now have been in a .net environment for over a year. Personally, I would love to go back to php. I find php much more flexible.

 

[Washoe]

chipy, I host a bunch of sites at totalchoicehosting.com. Never have a problem with downtime or stupid stuff. Believe me lots of hosts you will run into just stupid issues... like their server gets blocked due to spamming reports, or one of their tech support renames a file on the server the wrong way and messes everyone up. There's a whole list of stuff that can happen to cause a problem with your websites. tch never has a problem and I have been with them for at least 5 years now.

edit to add: they support php but not ruby or .net. I have no suggestions on a host that could do all 3.

 

[chipy]

thx Washoe, i'll def look into them. also, awesome paintings and drawings... the portrait was nicely done!

 

[Cogman]

Have to disagree here. I was a php developer for 3 years, and now have been in a .net environment for over a year. Personally, I would love to go back to php. I find php much more flexible.

Really? What can you do with php that you can't do with ASP .Net?

 

[Washoe]

Really? What can you do with php that you can't do with ASP .Net?

Have multiple forms on a web page (for starters)

 

[Washoe]

thx Washoe, i'll def look into them. also, awesome paintings and drawings... the portrait was nicely done!

Thanks a lot

 

[troytime]

i think php is still strong. they're actually moving forward with the language now instead of sitting on php4 like a lame duck.

the php community is stronger than ever. sure there are some blatantly retarded pitfalls in php, but every language has something against it. (just like every snobbish programmer)

 

[Cogman]

Have multiple forms on a web page (for starters)

That is an interesting limitation (ASP initiate here). However, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to overcome. Creating a new view would be about all you would have to do.

 

[Cogman]

I guess the thing that I'm really liking about ASP that isn't so much present in PHP is the ability to split the html from the code (In the MVC mode). It just seams more seamlessly modular then php is/was.

 

[Washoe]

That is an interesting limitation (ASP initiate here). However, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to overcome.

Well that's the issue that came to mind because I'm dealing with it right now. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to overcome. Let's say I want to put a search form in the upper header of every web page on my site. What happens in .NET by default is, if you come to a page where another form already exists (login page, for example), then if you try to click the search button on that page, the login will try to submit. How to get around that? There's no easy answer, and if you search the asp.net forums you'll find several different methods people try to use. What I am doing is I wrap each 'form' in an asp-Panel tag, then give each of those panel tags a default onclick button. It doesn't always work so easily, unfortunately. Right now I have this membership form I am doing and in the middle of the form I put a Login button for people who are already a member but might want to use this form to renew their membership. Instead of my login button taking you to the login page, it tries to submit the membership form! And I am not finding a way around it yet. I'm wrapping my button in asp-Panel tags, I'm wrapping my form submit in another asp-Panel (it's to the point where I have asp-Panel tags all over my site), I give them all default onclick attributes, and it's still a no-go.

So that is one complaint I have with .net. Another issue I find is that it doesn't always play nice with jquery... with jquery you can often look for the ID of an element, but guess what - asp.NET renames the IDs of any element that has runat="server" in it, which makes finding the correct ID kind of a hassle sometimes. In some cases, I have to find the re-named ID, then tell jquery to look for that instead. But in some situations, I don't yet know what the ID is going to be and I have to find a way around that.

With php it's more straightforward, and you can place a php variable just about anywhere you want on the page. You can put php script in the middle of javascript or jquery... whereas with .NET I feel more limited with what can be done.

I see your next post where you mentioned the separation of HTML from the code. Yes that is kind of a nice thing with .net. What it is basically is like a built-in CMS. With PHP you have to go out and find a good CMS or framework like Cake. Put the framework together, and then you can separate your HTML from your code and functions.

See, .NET is like you have to work within the framework that is built in to it. While the framework has nice features, it ends up having limitations. The whole idea of wrapping everything within the body into a single form just annoys me. And there's no way around it - it's not like you can remove the framework and get the bare basics. With PHP I feel I am getting those bare basics, and if I actually needed a framework, then I could make that happen.

But troytime said it very well anyway - every language has something against it. Ultimately though if given the choice... yeah give me my PHP!

cheers! (sorry for the book haha)