web hosting company questions

[reboot_this]

Hello fellow SageTVers... Just wondering if anybody has any good ideas for web hosting these days? I searched the SageTV forums for input, but the posts are a bit older, looking for some newer info.

I have been looking at these:

www.bluehost.com
www.hostmonster.com
www.ixwebhosting.com

Anyone have comments/experience with these???

I have also done googles searches for top web hosting and the companies above all hit the upper part of most "top 10" lists. They all look good to me... the ixwebhosting company includes dedicated IPs and domain name free with their packages, which is appealing. Each of the ones above claim to have "unlimited" space and bandwidth, which is good as well.

I mainly want a company that will fulfill their uptime/support claims... read that as I'm looking for a reliable company that is not "here today, gone tomorrow" nor a "reseller" of a bigger company's services. However, I've read that bluehost and hostmonster are owned by the same company. Not sure why that is though...

I don't want to hassle with the "why can't people see my website" thing, I know it happens... but I've read stories about people whose site was down for weeks because of their hosting company! Most "hosting company" reviews I have found are stale thus far.... I'm not looking for a free ride, just a good balance of price vs quality of service.

Thanks in advance for any input!

EDIT:

Also what is your opinion of registering a domain name through a hosting company vs through a domain registrar??? And if a registrar is a better way to go, who has good prices these days? I have not researched this, just looking for some input, thanks!

Now going to do some research on this....

[robogeek]

I've been using dreamhost.com for a couple of years. They have had power problems in the past (summer blackouts in California a couple of summers ago), but have been very stable and reliable for me over the past year and half.

Regarding domain registration, some web host companies will provide you with a free domain registration with your hosting account. Some web hosts will even maintain the domain whois record with their own contact information (dreamhost does), which can be useful to shield you from dirty rotten spammers that mine the whois databases for emails to add to their spam lists. A downside to getting a free domain from the web host is that it may make it more of a hassle to move it to a new web host if you have problems and want a new web host. If you do register your own domain, some web hosts provide the domain registration service for about $10/year as long as you maintain your web hosting account. But, whatever you do, don't pay $35/year for domain names at sites like register.com...I use domainpro.com which provides most domain names for $14.95/year or less with multi-year discounts.

[stuckless]

I've been with RapidVPS for a couple of years. I have a mid-tier virtual hosted server that runs 7 domains, each with php + mysql applications. I haven't had any isues with unscheduled outatages, and their support has been first rate.

Prior to RapidVPS, I had a simple hosting account with godaddy... it was nightmare. My server was pretty much unresponsive most of the time because of their over utilization strategy.

I still have my domain names registered through them, mainly because they are cheap

[steven017]

I've got a simple hosting account from HostMySite. I've had it for about 5 years and haven't had any problems. Downtime is minimal, service has been good, and there haven't been any unscheduled outages to my knowledge, which has been great.

The only potential drawback is that their online support seems to be in India or somewhere like that. I say potential because I've contacted them a couple times with special requests, and I've always had them handled well and properly.

Oh, and I got my domain registration for free from them (free with a hosting plan), which they still offer, and it is registered in your name, not theirs.

Steven

[zoundz]

I've been with IX for a couple of years now. I have had exactly 0 problems with them. I don't put a lot of load on their servers, but so far I have been totally happy with them. FWIW, they recently added some very enthusiastic spam filtering to their mail servers. My spam load went from 6000/month to almost nothing. AFAICT I'm not losing any real email, but then again, that's one of those things that's hard to tell.

Of course YMMV

[[JiF]Mike]

I've been using hostmonster.com for a number of domains that I manage for others. I've had no problems with them. THey even gave me shell access, which for me was important. It's no dedicated server, but I love the price and reliability. Support has always been top notch when I have had little things creep up.

Once, when I first started with them my site got hacked (my fault not theirs) and they had a backup on hand. They restored it no charge and I was back up and running in no time...I wasn't even away they backed up my data. Since then I've never looked anywhere else.

[bluenote]

I use godaddy, but I've only just started using them and what was said above makes me sad and apprehensive. :/

[psklenar]

I used ImageLink USA for 4-5 years until their email servers became blacklisted a few years ago. I've now been with 1&1 for a bit over two years. Hosting has cost less and performance and reliability have been significantly better and they offer some rather nice deals on domain registrations too. Disclaimer - if you follow my link above and order hosting from them, i get a small credit towards my account statement (i'm on a six month billing cycle).

pat----