Explain Like I'm 5!
How do I determine whats a good web hosting deal? I see godaddy at 3.49/month and that seems pretty ok...
If I'm making shitty webcomic sites, what kind of plan would I need?
What the bollocks does "Free Email Addresses" mean in a bundle arent those always free
Where do the bling bling google ads come in?
YOORAH SENPAI HALP
Buying webhosting
- somecoolguy
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Buying webhosting
Did you just break wind? Because you blow me away.
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Re: Buying webhosting
Unfortunately, I'm currently packing for my trip back to Toronto, so I can't post write up anything too detailed, but some basic things about web hosting:
First of all, there are 3 primary forms of web hosting services: Shared, VPS and Dedicated.
Shared - Your site runs on one shared OS, on the same physical server as hundreds of other sites. It's cheap and usually works well enough for smaller sites, but you can run into issues if one of your neighbours screws up a script that uses up all the CPU, or something.
VPS - Virtual Private Server. One physical server runs multiple OSs (in virtual machines, if you are familiar with VMware and the like). Gives you more control over the configuration of your server, but it also means you have to configure it youself (via linux command line), so it's not great for beginners. There are some cheap VPS plans that aren't much more expensive than shared hosting plans, but they can get more expensive depending on how much physical server resources are allocated to your plan (CPUs, RAM, etc.)
Dedicated - You get your own physical server. Pretty expensive but required for big sites.
I think you should look at Shared plans for a webcomic site. They are in the $3-5/mo range (there are pricier options, but I don't see the point.) Estimate how much disk space you'll need. Most plans offer 10GB+, so I don't think it'll be an issue. Estimating your bandwidth requirements is much harder, since you'll be hosting big images and usage will depend on how popular you get. Try to guess how many views you could get per month and how big your image files would be. Generally I don't think it'll be much of an issue, as plans typically give 200GB+/mo of bandwidth.
When looking at plans, beware of the "UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH" and "UNLIMITED DISKSPACE" bullshit... there is no such thing; it's merely a marketing gimmick and the web hosting provider would ask you to upgrade to a more expensive plan if your site starts using too much BW or disk space. Sometimes they list what's reasonable in the Acceptable Use Policy fine print on their sites.
Try to get a plan that allows you to host at least two Domains and a a few Subdomains. This would let you host multiple sites for experimentation purposes on one package. A domain could be coolguy.com, while a subdomains could be test.coolguy.com, mail.coolguy.com, for example.
Yes, the email thing is crap. All plans offer email accounts--it doesn't cost them anything.
Google Ads are something you set up on your own by signing up with Google. They generate a script for you, which you have to insert into the webpages manually. In my case, I inserted them into the forum template code, so it shows up on all the right places automatically.
I suggest you take a look at the Web Hosting Talk forum: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
You'll find some tips, discussions and reviews of various providers. They also have an offers section where many offer lifetime discount coupons for their services.
First of all, there are 3 primary forms of web hosting services: Shared, VPS and Dedicated.
Shared - Your site runs on one shared OS, on the same physical server as hundreds of other sites. It's cheap and usually works well enough for smaller sites, but you can run into issues if one of your neighbours screws up a script that uses up all the CPU, or something.
VPS - Virtual Private Server. One physical server runs multiple OSs (in virtual machines, if you are familiar with VMware and the like). Gives you more control over the configuration of your server, but it also means you have to configure it youself (via linux command line), so it's not great for beginners. There are some cheap VPS plans that aren't much more expensive than shared hosting plans, but they can get more expensive depending on how much physical server resources are allocated to your plan (CPUs, RAM, etc.)
Dedicated - You get your own physical server. Pretty expensive but required for big sites.
I think you should look at Shared plans for a webcomic site. They are in the $3-5/mo range (there are pricier options, but I don't see the point.) Estimate how much disk space you'll need. Most plans offer 10GB+, so I don't think it'll be an issue. Estimating your bandwidth requirements is much harder, since you'll be hosting big images and usage will depend on how popular you get. Try to guess how many views you could get per month and how big your image files would be. Generally I don't think it'll be much of an issue, as plans typically give 200GB+/mo of bandwidth.
When looking at plans, beware of the "UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH" and "UNLIMITED DISKSPACE" bullshit... there is no such thing; it's merely a marketing gimmick and the web hosting provider would ask you to upgrade to a more expensive plan if your site starts using too much BW or disk space. Sometimes they list what's reasonable in the Acceptable Use Policy fine print on their sites.
Try to get a plan that allows you to host at least two Domains and a a few Subdomains. This would let you host multiple sites for experimentation purposes on one package. A domain could be coolguy.com, while a subdomains could be test.coolguy.com, mail.coolguy.com, for example.
Yes, the email thing is crap. All plans offer email accounts--it doesn't cost them anything.
Google Ads are something you set up on your own by signing up with Google. They generate a script for you, which you have to insert into the webpages manually. In my case, I inserted them into the forum template code, so it shows up on all the right places automatically.
I suggest you take a look at the Web Hosting Talk forum: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
You'll find some tips, discussions and reviews of various providers. They also have an offers section where many offer lifetime discount coupons for their services.

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- o senpai >w<
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Re: Buying webhosting
thx bby!!!!!!! i wuz curious as well!!!
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Re: Buying webhosting
Just in case anyone is interested in a free vps / webhost:
http://haphost.com/
Pros:
- it's a free vps and you can decide which OS image you wanna install (has a few, centos / debian / dunt remember)
- good connection for a free vps (downloaded from my vps with 3mb/s)
- don't think it has any ads
- 10 gigs space
- 500 gb bandwidth
Cons:
- takes usually a few weeks until you recieve your free vps after registering for it
- monthly (?) renewal (meaning you get a email every month with a code to renew the free services, if you don't -> server dead) <------ really annoying Q_Q
A year ago or so this host was called host1free something and I actually managed to run a small ragnarok online p-server on it.
The vservers only have 128mb ram + swap but it was enough.
So what are these servers good for?
- hosting a website
- messing around / getting to know vservers
- making a website / php with remote and live view
- webspace for files
- dunno much more?
....
.....
- yes you could also test / learn / train reverse engineering / sql injections and other mean stuff without anyone getting hurt.
- or do the opposite and learn how to defend your code from these attacks
http://haphost.com/
Pros:
- it's a free vps and you can decide which OS image you wanna install (has a few, centos / debian / dunt remember)
- good connection for a free vps (downloaded from my vps with 3mb/s)
- don't think it has any ads
- 10 gigs space
- 500 gb bandwidth
Cons:
- takes usually a few weeks until you recieve your free vps after registering for it
- monthly (?) renewal (meaning you get a email every month with a code to renew the free services, if you don't -> server dead) <------ really annoying Q_Q
A year ago or so this host was called host1free something and I actually managed to run a small ragnarok online p-server on it.
The vservers only have 128mb ram + swap but it was enough.
So what are these servers good for?
- hosting a website
- messing around / getting to know vservers
- making a website / php with remote and live view
- webspace for files
- dunno much more?
....
.....
- yes you could also test / learn / train reverse engineering / sql injections and other mean stuff without anyone getting hurt.
- or do the opposite and learn how to defend your code from these attacks