Calgary Jeep Association
General Forums => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: dunl on December 14, 2008, 12:40:38 AM
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Can anyone give me some pointers or recommendations on finding a host for a website and domain registration?
Thanks.
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domain reg
10dollar.ca
best way I know
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directnic.com
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So with directnec.com its about $15 to have a domain name and starts at $3.95/month moderate (read not free) webhosting and 10dollars.ca is more like $10 for a domain name and $100 a year for webhosting. This gets you a site and hosting, but what are people using for forums? What kinda options are there?
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So with directnec.com its about $15 to have a domain name and starts at $3.95/month moderate (read not free) webhosting and 10dollars.ca is more like $10 for a domain name and $100 a year for webhosting. This gets you a site and hosting, but what are people using for forums? What kinda options are there?
If you look at the verrry bottom on the fine print on this page,.. you see SMF,.. that is forum software,.. There is also vBulletin,.. not easy,.. you need to be somekind of techno geek to get it working right.
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I use phpBB3 for the Antique Willys Forum.....seems to be decent enough, but the only one I've ever used.
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I have a question about hosting....what does a site this size need for a package?
There usually seems to be three levels of packages....personal, small business, and large.
I assume large is not needed and personal is too small?
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This site doesn't take much to run it. I would think most entry level hosting packages would be able to handle a forum with a hundred active users. If you start adding in the ability to save pics or video you may run into disk space or bandwidth problems.
Also you don't need to purchase your domain through your hosting company but sometimes they will give a break on the domain purchase if you're purchasing webspace from them. All the hosting companies & domain registrars mentioned here are decent... I myself often use godaddy for domain purchase and I have hosted several sites at MediaTemple.com
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Is there anything you need to watch out for, or make sure that your hosting company has when you are looking for one?
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I would think for a beginner that any hosting company that gives you PLESK (an admin tool) and a reasonable amount of disk space. Most companies use a standard apache/php/mysql install which is good for most forum/blog type software.
What sort of site are you thinking of setting up?
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Okay, I need to bump this post....
If you've been on the Packrats site, you've probably noticed some hosting issues. If you go there regularly, it must drive you crazy....as it does myself. The contract is up next month, and we need to move from NetFirms, as they keep promising to fix the frequent errors and slow load times. Case in point? How about right now. ::)
So.....I'm taking suggestions again. I'm sure we have lost people due to the issues. :-\
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Check out GoDaddy.com
I moved my clients to them once I got rid of my own servers. Price was reasonable. We were looking for specfic hosting needs and they were able to meet those.
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we are very fast and very stable. www.branzone.com
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hostpapa.ca
Canadian, green, cheap, unlimited emails and free domains with 1yr subscription.
The tempates suck, but use your own.
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Were using phpBB3 for the Red Deer Jeep Packrats. A gallery for members would be nice too. Other than that, maybe eventually a couple of DIY Tech pages.
Seems simple enough......but we need server that people don't come to the site, and never come back because it won't load quick enough (or not at all some days....sheesh).
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First reply I received this year was that it must be software related. ::)
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It works, it doesn't, it works, it doesn't.
Now unless some kind of electronic gremlins are in there changing settings every half month or so....I doubt it is the phpBB3. ;)
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With website hosting you often get what you pay for. There are a ton of folks out there who buy some space in a data center somewhere (or set things up in their basement/garage/shed) and figure they are a hosting company. Even the company that the CJA is hosted on (Fiends beloved branzone) has had several outages over the past 12 months and I've been less than impressed by their service.
I prefer dedicated virtual server type setups since I have more control over how things are installed and therefore uptime. The downside is it's more costly than your cheap hosting solutions (figure $50 a month or so) and it requires more know how to set things up.
Another solution would be to use some sort of cloud solution (ie RackSpace)... this allows you to setup several virtual servers for failover... and you only pay for usage. So it's a more affordable way to mimic an enterprise level solution.
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well, we are promised 99% uptime. that mean we can be down 87 hours a year and not complain. sure Robin, the extra $500 a year may get us that extra 1% uptime, but that's a tad rediculous for something that is a hobby and passtime rather than critical data. the only times i have seen this place go down was near the beginning when they added and upgraded a lot of hardware.
as for my broner for branzone... yea it's a good one.
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LOL... i don't hate branzone... I am just not super impressed... that's not to say they are any worse than any other small hosting company.
I guess I'm a bit of server snob... and you are right... you can spend alot of extra $$$ chasing that elusive extra 5% uptime... and then there's backups etc that add to the cost.
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Well, I have to say that compared to CheapFirms....err...NetFirms, I'm impressed with this site. It loads well, is almost always up, and rarely do I remember having any issues with logging on (even that's foggy....but I think I remember an "upgrade" that took it offline for a little bit). Like I said, it's not like we're hosting a huge gaming site, web portal to the entire known universe, or anything like that.
Waytec can tell you about slow loading times trying to get onto the site....although I think most of that is him forgetting that the mouse isn't a little furry animal. :D
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I have to say that I'm actually pretty impressed with the "up" time on this site. It runs smoothly enough that I don't find myself thinking about it - which is saying something, because I can get cranky ???
There are some other forum sites I use that are run as businesses (sponsors and such) that seem to have a much higher rate of downtime. I think for a non-profit group that relies on IT slaves (sorry...I meant to say experts ;D) who donate their time and knowledge this site does VERY well. Those sites have administrators who actually derive revenue from running them...and they still don't do as well as you guys.
Thanks guys!
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I hear what you're saying...but the "commercial ventures" that I'm thinking of haven't upgraded bupkis in the time that I've been using them ;D
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So for moving to a new server.....best to do it yourself, or have them do it for you? (if they do?)
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Well, I forgot to reply back here.....we moved over to branzone (same server as CJA). We're quite pleased with the speed....compared to before, all the Packrats think they got new computers for Xmas. ;D
Thanks for the suggestions all, and special thx to FiEND for hooking us up with branzone.
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globat.com is one of the better ones ive used, im a web designer and can get it all uploaded and running properly if you need it. if youre happy with what youre using, great.