When It comes to web hosting, you do get what you pay for. I’ve had an online presence for years, and have worked with a few different companies over the course of that time.
I started my time at a company called Hosting Revolution. Their service is cheap, but does have a nice control panel. However, the over all performance was less than good. My sites would be slow in loading and often had bad down time.
The next step that I took, and the present provider that I use, is ServerBolt. Their service is of very high quality, offering a vast range of services that can be customized if you talk to the hosting provider. Their control panel allows you to set up the major aspects of your account, and provides the backend components such as phpMyAdmin for SQL, and easy domain management if needed. They also have backups that are run automatically and are very redundant. You can run your own backups, but the host also backs up the entire server to prevent any loss of data. The main part of hosting with ServerBolt is that the server and sites that I run are always responsive, and downtime is very low and minimized.
Everyone will have stupid moments, such as deleting the wrong file, or even non-so stupid moments where there is a server problem. With the right backups and preventative measures, it is a good feeling to know that your data is protected and will be there waiting for you. My host has saved my butt a few times when I accidentally deleted the wrong SQL database and lost all the content for my other sites. This is not a good feeling to see everything gone, but thanks to my web host and backups, nothing ended up being lost, besides a few beads of sweat from me.
This concludes my rant on web hosting.
Tags: serverbolt, web
I use WP-DBManager to download the database of any WordPress based site I work on. It can be set up to email you backups every x minutes/hours/days/weeks/months, and can compress the backup before it emails it to you.
Originally I hosted my blog and websites on company machines where I worked (4 or 5 years), and then I moved onto a friend’s machine for a couple of years. He has a sort of co-op set-up, and I donated toward costs each year. That worked fine as long as all I wanted to do was write my own basic HTML files and knew how to do everything I wanted. I had linux shell, but I often ran into permissions problems. I tried to install different things like bitchx and php scripts, but kept hitting permission problems. After that, there were some things that caused email and site outages while the friend wasn’t online.
It absolutely helps when you can talk to the people in charge, as you say you can with Serverbolt, Corey. But when it’s just a one-guy operation with no one else to help out, it gets really frustrating.
I use Dreamhost now. Not the same personal, friendly service you get from Serverbolt, but it’s working for me. The one-click installs are great, and I’ve been able to do what I want with very few issues. Their customer service is speedy and super friendly. I never feel like they’re talking over my head, but they don’t make it seem like they’re talking down to me either. My favorite kind of tech support.
In the end, it’s hard to know if you have the right host till something goes wrong — but I highly recommend looking at the company’s features, online help, and googling for any bad press they might have.