OSDev.org

Ok, I have found http://westhost.com and it is so featureful for the very cheap Big 10 deal, which if I buy an account this month, then I will have that plan for the life of my account. So has anyone had any bad experiences with this host or recommend anything even better?

my needs for hosting:
500MB webspace
10GB bandwidth(or something around there)
php and mysql.
able to use Drupal.
subdomain support
Able to "park" a previously registered domain to that account.
FTP access.

My wants for hosting: (on top of needs)
ssh access with a full shell including gcc and friends.
able to use the "shell_exec" function in php scripts.
1GB of webspace.
runs on a *nix server.

recommend anything even better?

IMO, nothing beats hosting your own server

http://silentflame.com/wiki/Home will do everything you need and want (with the possible exception of GCC), and is very cheap. In addition, they give all their profits to charity. The admin (I know him personally) is extremely competent.

Of course, as Combuster said, there is nothing that will ever beat your own (or a very good friends') server.

Edit: As well, don't over estimate the bandwidth you will use. My personal website only uses about 200-400MB a month, depending on how much I change things. Unless you are planning on hosting large images (of the software or photo variety), you probably won't need a great deal. It's painful to go over limits though, so make sure you do your research.

I agree with the above; setup your own server.

Unless of course you are through an ISP which blocks ports, then setup your own server... on non-blocked ports.

Although, a word of caution, there are usually 'no-server' clauses in ISP contracts.

01000101 wrote:I agree with the above; setup your own server.

Unless of course you are through an ISP which blocks ports, then setup your own server... on non-blocked ports.

Although, a word of caution, there are usually 'no-server' clauses in ISP contracts.

Yeah, I would recommend setting up your own web server (http://www.diywebserver.com). BATW, how would you find your ISP's policies? I don't see anything distinct on the website. I use ATT/Yahoo!. I think I found it under the edit user pane, but I'm not sure.

TheDragon wrote:I use ATT/Yahoo!. I think I found it under the edit user pane, but I'm not sure.

I'm also using AT&T, I've foudn that they're pretty liberal.

However, the best host I've found is NearlyFreeSpeech.NET. They don't charge a monthly fee, but charge for what you actually use - I spend maybe 10 cents a month on my site. You have to pay $0.01/day if you want MySQL, but that's not so bad once you realize that only works out to $3.65 for an entire year. You can put $20 in your account and not have to replenish it for ages.