How do you choose a webhost?

[Gabriel]

Again the question is in the title:D

[Commerce Brian]

The answer is in the link text:
 
How to choose a webhost

[peterjhale]

Brian,
 
 
Is there anyone u can recommend in the UK who has this cpanelx thingy - so you can add a php forum in seconds, ftp accts, hosted in UK, get your mail easily, has loads of webstats - you know , the usual.
 
I have found someone very reliable in the UK but their servers are in the US and this may mess my SERPs rankings up - not sure, but need to be safe.
 
ta

[JamesSmith]

Hi Peter,
 
  Not sure if there’s an advertising policy on here, but we offer CPanel hosting in the UK.  Single site and reseller hosting:
 
  http://www.uh-hosting.co.uk/services_php.asp
 
 Our reseller hosting has Fantastico included, both single site and reseller accounts have the facility to install PHPBB2 at the touch of a button.

[Commerce Brian]

No advertising policy as yet - though no doubt we'll develop one as this place grows.
 
 As for UK hosting - my own webhosting isn't live for online visitors yet - just finishing the site - but if you'd like some recommendations, places I have or am using with servers in the UK include:
 
  www.clook.net
  www.flump.net
  www.amard.com
 
  others include UH above, and also
  www.hostroute.co.uk
 
  which I have never used, but heard well of.
 
  All offer CPanel.
 
 And so far as I know, the UK datacenters used are:  
 clook in Redbus 3,
 flump in Global Switch,
 and Amard, hostroute, and UH in Telehouse.

[peterjhale]

thanks for all that
 
James, yours looks good.
 
Are you reliable - stupid stupid question and I know the answer I will get but how do I know ?
 
Anyway, my techie knowledge is limited, but what I have seen with cpanel is:
 
> about 5 ways to access yr email
> ftp
> about 5 ways to access your stats
> Auto php forum integration
> full cgi
> support if something happens at normal rates?
 
la, la
 
does your do all of that ? £10 per q seems incredible - does that include a domain transfer as well?
 
Sorry for posting on the forum but I couldnt be bothered to open up my mail

[JamesSmith]

thanks for all that
   
  James, yours looks good.
   
  Are you reliable - stupid stupid question and I know the answer I will get but how do I know ?
   
  Anyway, my techie knowledge is limited, but what I have seen with cpanel is:
   
  > about 5 ways to access yr email
  > ftp
  > about 5 ways to access your stats
  > Auto php forum integration
  > full cgi
  > support if something happens at normal rates?
   
  la, la
   
  does your do all of that ? £10 per q seems incredible - does that include a domain transfer as well?
   
  Sorry for posting on the forum but I couldnt be bothered to open up my mail

Hi,
 
  Yup, includes all the usual CPanel features: P
 
 We haven’t currently got any official uptime records for individual boxes, as for the network as a whole .. Ranges from 99%-100% uptime each month Very shortly we will be adding uptime stats for individual web boxes, soon as our US brand is online both will appear on the site.
 
  £10/quarter package is the lowest in terms of resources offered.  For most ppl it’s totally adequate.
 
 I'd suggest changing the name servers only rather than transferring the entire domain. UK domains are free to transfer, US domains will be charged at 1 years registration to transfer to us, which is £12.50 + VAT. No charge to transfer away from us, or to have the name servers changed to someone else if the domain is under our control.

[loki]

anyone very reliable offering *real* uk based hosting reseller plan but with the ensim sp?

[peterjhale]

Brian
 
 What hoster are you using at the mo for brite and this forum ?
 
 ta
 Peter

[revsorg]

What is it that people like about Ensim?  Personally I can't bear it - I much prefer cpanel.

[Commerce Brian]

Ensim has a better record on security - but I do like CPanel myself.
 
 As for hosting for my sites: I use a few companies: Sonnethosting.co.uk, clook.net, 123reseller.co.uk, and Amard.com, which operate from 3 different datacenters. I'm not sure what problems you have at the moment, but UH-hosting has been around for a while, so I should expect James to be on top of it (your sites seem to be working now anyway).

[revsorg]

Have you got an example site that's hosted at Sonnet on a UK server?  I like the look of their offering, particularly the choice of UK or US data centres. It's just I've got some .com domains I'd like to host in the UK to get them positioned in google.co.uk.
 
I've currently got a reseller account at www.srlnet.com and a VPS100 account at Dinix.  SRL were particularly good for me because at one point I had well over 200 websites running on a $15.49 a month account - I felt I was taking unfair advantage of their unilimited addon domains offering.
 
Maybe I should just stop buying so many domain names.  No, that's never going to happen

[JamesSmith]

Ensim has a better record on security - but I do like CPanel myself.
 
 As for hosting for my sites: I use a few companies: Sonnethosting.co.uk, clook.net, 123reseller.co.uk, and Amard.com, which operate from 3 different datacenters. I'm not sure what problems you have at the moment, but UH-hosting has been around for a while, so I should expect James to be on top of it (your sites seem to be working now anyway).

 
 http://www.uh-network.co.uk/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1346
 
 Does not stop customers wanting blood out of a stone.
 
 I am sure Peter will elaborate on what he claims has happened with this web site

[peterjhale]

I don't think James' and my disagreement should be discussed here.
 
 Suffice to say my website was down for approx 8 hours and it is now fixed. Fingers crossed this is solved forever !

[Commerce Brian]

It doesn't take too much to be able to show servers running smoothly for a short while. The real challenge is keeping them running smoothly in the long-term.
 
 It doesn't matter who you host with - you can always expect some sort of problem - eventually. The real issue is how the host actually handles the problem.
 
 Communication is often a key issue - and failing - in these circumstances.
 
 I obviously know nothing about the above disagreement, and I'm obviously not going to comment on it.
 
 What I can comment on is one of my baptismal learning experiences - multi-domain hosting on a single server, that was removed without my even being told that this removal was permanent. That lead to every site I had then being down for 10 days in the end - which was pretty unacceptable.
 
 I've seen other issues with other companies I've hosted with, of a variety of degrees. I've got some "reviews" up which will generally mention any issues.
 
 The companies I'm currently hosted with, I'm currently happy with - but, of course, that could all change. It's a dynamic industry.
 
 To fair, it's only since I started offering webhosting services myself that I truly began to appreciate what a tough and demanding job it actually is - and that's even with my just offering hosting to my SEO and design clients for the moment.
 
 Anyway, as for Sonnet - they're a fairly small company, but it's attached to a graphics firm that seem to have been running a few years. The prices are a little on the cheap side, but I've been pretty happy with everything so far. My britecorp domain runs from one of their servers.