Web hosting suggestions?

[TimS]

Greetings.

(I searched the forums to see if this had been discussed yet and didn't find anything, so here goes)

Seeing that MANY of you indies on here have websites up and running that host a downloadable game or five... I was just wondering if anyone has any raving reviews about any particular webhosting service or another for just that purpose. Ideally I'd like something that I could easily scale up when needed (as far as monthly bandwidth, storage space, etc.). I've looked into it a bit and since there are... oh... about a trillion options out there on the web, I figured I'd ask you guys since you seem like an experienced and decent bunch. Thanks a million in advance for any opinions on the matter.

-Tim Scheiman

[Sybixsus]

I use PowWeb. The only major feature it doesn't support is ASP. The bandwidth is 5GB per day and that's your lot. You can't go beyond that. I have a download script which spreads my downloads between multiple sites though, so as soon as I start hitting 5 gigs a day, I'll just sign up for another account and it's 10 gigs a day.

I believe storage is 2 gigs now. It was 1 gig when I signed up, but they often upgrade the service for no extra cost.

Their support is really first rate, and their control panel is excellent. There are so many things that you normally have to do manually that PowWeb have on their control panel. I've looked around to see if there are better deals, but I haven't found one I'd be happier with.

Pretty good for $7 a month including a domain name.

[Reactor]

I heard of many people unhappy with PowWeb, so we went with Lunarpages. Their support is fantastic, but you can get downtime now and then. All in all though, they really are a hassle-free group to go with, provided you're happy with shared hosting.

Whatever group you want to go with, search for comments about them on here-

www.webhostingtalk.com

[queasy]

hey... just wanted to give you some warning on hostsave.com. I'm not sure if it's like this with most cheap providers, but I've found that if your site doesn't drive in a lot of traffic, then it is prone to "Unable to Fetch Domain" and "404 File not found" errors. I lost a lot of potential fans because they received this error and just left.

I've also noticed that the SQL backend is REAALLLY slow. However, I think once you start pushing more data through, it speeds up. I know a friend who's utilizing it quite a bit and it seems alright for them.

My only guess is they use some sort of sharing algorithm whereby big traffic sites get more "time share." My efforts to contact them have also gone unanswered.

The one upside to them is that they're really cheap :)

-j

[Frozen In Ice]

Currently I use LiquidWeb. Never had a problem and any question I've had has been answered promptly and professionally. Beware, their answers are short and to the point, which is something I like. No need for all that extra chatter. Plenty of options that can be added and offered. Currently I'm using the basic shared plan which offers 1GB of space and 30GB a month transfer. $14.95 and two free domains. I already a domain name,which was dealt with no problem. I have all the email from my site being forwarded to my home address, making it easy to retrieve and sort. No setup fee either.
Just my opinion for whatever it's worth :-)

[Gnatinator]

I'm currently using omnis. (http://www.omnis.com)

free domain name, 1 gig storage, 100 gigs/mo bandwidth. for 6.95$/mo. They have been good so far.

Later on im gunna get myself a few of these badass motherfuckers (http://www.layeredtech.com/)

[TimS]

Thanks all for the opinions and info. Any other takers?

-Tim

[donmc]

I use ValueWeb. They are located in florida. They were quick to provision my server, and they are fast to answer any technical/customer support questions.

I think it was $99 to setup my account/server and i pay $59 a month for a dedicated server (AMD, .5gig ram, 60gig HD, linux) with 1 terabyte of data transfer a month. Control panel software and backups are extra.

Overall i'm very happy with ValueWeb.

[stanchat]

Based on a recommendation from this forum I switched to GoDaddy.com


http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=1249&highlight=godaddy


I am never looking back. Plus they had a really cool SuperBowl spot if that means anything to you.

[Weber]

I got a deal at 1and1 and am currently using my 2 free years of hosting(without having to buy a deal when its done). However, If you want dirt cheap, ive been looking into DeltaWebHosting for when i run out of my 2 years. Its like $3 a month for 30GB Bandwith.

[aiosup]

Based on a recommendation from this forum I switched to GoDaddy.com
Ditto. They look pro and I had no trouble whatsoever with updating and stuff. Accounts creation works great, and their customer service replies on time (I wanted to remove the site information protection, because RegNow required it). They may not be that cheap if you don't take an account for 2-3 years, though.

[patrox]

I'm currently using omnis. (http://www.omnis.com)
Later on im gunna get myself a few of these badass motherfuckers (http://www.layeredtech.com/)


I wouldn't recommend Layeredtech, they've got poor and expensive support. ( they charge 75$ an hour when you have a problem )

http://www.servermatrix.com is far superior and doesn't charge for L2 support.

pat.

[keethrus]

I know Ive said this before on this board, but I've not had any good experience with PowWeb at all. Ive since switched to solidhost.com (http://www.SolidHost.com) and have found them to be great. I've gotten a reseller account and now I host all my sites there. They offer quite a lot for their price, they are very solid in regards to performance and things WORKING (unlike weird issues with powweb) and their support is great.

- Jeremiah

[digriz]

Try these people. It's who i host with. They're very flexible, very reliable and the support you get is very quick.

http://www.macoman.co.uk/shared.php

There prices are very reasonable. They do a base package for £20( $39 ish) a year. There are also no setup fees.

It is a linux based setup, so ASP.NET isn't supported.

[puggy]

it all depends on the hosting needed. I havn't much experince of normal hosts, but if your looking for a dedicated server, i'd recommend servermatrix as well. My online game has had almost no lag at all, the server's been running fine since i got it and it's cheap. My current deal is $99 for a celeron with 1 gig ram and 1.2terrabytes of data.

You wouldn't get that here in the UK that for sure

[Chaster]

The guy who is serving as my webmaster (who runs his own site on the same server) prefers ServInt.

They are not a cheapie budget Internet Server company, but he has had many experiences with many different providers and has also done a lot of research on the web provider forums. He feels that ServInt is (currently) the best in terms of service/dependability/features/etc. for us.

Just another data point for you... =)

Chaster

[tentons]

I've got accounts with globat (http://www.globat.com), powweb (http://www.powweb.com), and godaddy (http://www.godaddy.com). I had some initial trouble with powweb, but no hiccups since. No trouble from the others at all. Godaddy has a crap interface, though, compared to the other two.

More importantly (and something I'm curious about), I haven't strained any of them yet, so I am not sure how gracefully they will handle going over the bandwidth max. Ideally they wouldn't shut down your site but would instead charge you for overage. Anyone have experience with that situation?