Recommendations for Website host provider | GTAMotorcycle.com

Recommendations for Website host provider

sburns

Well-known member
Hey GTAM's

Since this community is more then motorcycling, I am sure I can find an answer here.

I have my website hosted with HostPapa. Been with them for the past 5 years. Generally everything is fine, but the last year they have slowly put myself on edge, and lately almost over it. Anyway it's been put in my mind to possibly switch providers.
I have a business style shared host service. It ranges from $3 - $5 a month.

Anyone know of a another host provider I should look at?
 
I use Dreamhost based on recommendations from friends that have used them for at least a decade. I've never had any problems with hosting. The worst that happened was email server once got put on a grey list and a quick report fixed that. I use DreamPress which costs more but works well for my situation. I don't need to stay on top of patching the server, there is free SEO (black magic, who knows if it really works, but my ranking in google isn't bad) and as far as I know, it has only been down for a few hours in a few years during a planned server upgrade (fine for my situation).

Affiliate link below that doesn't cost you anything but saves me a bit ($30 to 200 depending on what you sign up for). My advice above applies even if you don't want to use the link.
https://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?2183015
 
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I have my own server at home now, but I previously used 1&1.

Received stelllar service and support for my entire 6-8 year tenure there.
 
@ GreyGhost - thanks will check them out.

@ PP - how are you running a server at home. Use using a business class ISP which allow this, or flying under the radar using a dynamic DDNS?

Some more background. I am not sure if I am overacting. HostPapa has been pretty ok. Recently I filled up my usage space so everything on my site got effected included my emails. I didn't realize the email problem until a few clients started calling and letting me know.

I had to turn up the heat on HostPapa for tech support. They escalated the issue, but all I got was random email replies from tech support stating the same thing over again, I requested a call back, got another email reply, that part happened twice more and still no call.
This is very disappointing..

I fixed the issue myself by deleting older items etc. now things are working again.

The other item which bothers me is the email itself. I am concerned since it is coming from a small provider it is seen as junk mail by the client side of things. Which does happen. I may not be able to fix it, but have thought of moving just email to google servers. Hoping it is a more recognize provider which won't be dismissed so easily but junk filters on the client end.

My renewal is also up in May so all of this has prompted me to rethink this situation.
 
The other item which bothers me is the email itself. I am concerned since it is coming from a small provider it is seen as junk mail by the client side of things. Which does happen. I may not be able to fix it, but have thought of moving just email to google servers. Hoping it is a more recognize provider which won't be dismissed so easily but junk filters on the client end.

In my experience, it is the shared email server that gets flagged (likely due to a compromised account that then gets the IP flagged). The credibility of your provider doesn't play a big role. At my prior job, I was on the phone with Bell at least a few times a year to get their email servers off of black lists. At each company I work at, I set up at least 1 email account that goes through an alternate server (normally gmail) so if something happens to the main server I have an entirely separate avenue to reach clients.

Dreamhost gives me 30 GB of storage, as I don't need much space for hosting, the rest can keep my email safe.
 
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In my experience, it is the shared email server that gets flagged (likely due to a compromised account that then gets the IP flagged). The credibility of your provider doesn't play a big role. At my prior job, I was on the phone with Bell at least a few times a year to get their email servers off of black lists. At each company I work at, I set up at least 1 email account that goes through an alternate server (normally gmail) so if something happens to the main server I have an entirely separate avenue to reach clients.

Dreamhost gives me 30 GB of storage, as I don't need much space for hosting, the rest can keep my email safe.

Very interesting.

With HostPapa they say they have unlimited storage disk space. What they don't tell you is there is a file number limitation or inode unix quota, which happened in my situation. The quota was reach everything shut down. I had no idea there was a limitation, or was I purposely going around try to abuse disk space. The other sore spot is there is no way to monitor your inode usage. Just hope for the best and have tech support to tell you what your usage is.
 
With HostPapa they say they have unlimited storage disk space. What they don't tell you is there is a file number limitation or inode unix quota, which happened in my situation. The quota was reach everything shut down. I had no idea there was a limitation, or was I purposely going around try to abuse disk space. .

Lots of hosts tell you "unlimited disk space!", but try to use it all via anything that isn't directly linked to a hosted page and see what happens.

Long ago I was using an automated tool that basically used this "unlimited" space as an offsite backup destination for several of my computers here. Apparently I triggered a quota alarm somewhere and I got politely told that unless all those files were actually part of one of my websites that I needed to delete them. I thought maybe it was just a passing thing and they'd forget about it, but a few days later they dumped a .htaccess in my root (that I couldn't delete LOL) that sent every single one of my sites to the bitbucket. Only once I whacked all the files did they remove it and restore things. ;)
 

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