Basic hosting recommendation?

I looked around for a hosting newsgroup and could only find
alt.internet.providers.uk, which seems to be quite dead. So I wonder if
someone here could recommend a hosting provider (or point to a more suitable
newsgroup)?

I have a bunch of domains (10 or 11, pointing to three real sites) that
want web and mail hosting. Space and bandwidth requirements are quite
minimal (currently about 40MB disc and 10MB (yes, megabyte) per month
bandwidth, though these might increase a bit).

Currently I'm on a Bronze account from Orchard Hosting for 25 quid a year.
That gives me 100MB disc and 1GB/month bandwidth. They use cpanel to
control it - this is quite handy as I've been using Wordpress (so PHP) for
one site and it allows me to keep up with the security updates. Generally
the interface is quite nice (lots of options - eg three webmail interfaces,
and Fantastico that installs and updates all sort of PHP packages like
content management, photo galleries etc).

I don't really have any problems with Orchard's service at the minimal level
I interact with it and am happy with the price... but (and it's a big one)
their systems are insecure. Unless you buy an SSL cert they don't support
any kind of encrypted login to the control panel. It's all
passwords-in-the-clear, with vanilla FTP to upload. SSH 'is not provided
under any circumstances' (even for file transfer). Some services use HTTP
authentication - I'm not sure if it's Digest or Basic - but if you get your
password wrong it dumps you at a cleartext HTML login form.

So I'm decidedly nervous at throwing my passwords about like we learned
not to do in 1998, and am wondering about moving.

Anyone recommend a lower-end webhost who might do this kind of stuff
reliably, but with a little more clue? Happy to pay a bit more, but looking
for something in the same kind of price range. It might also be nice to
have an ultrathin virtual server (for editing stuff and generally fiddling
around though, frankly, 99% of the time it'll be inactive), though it's not
that important. Am happy to consider hosts in the UK, US or elsewhere.

Thanks
Theo

Theo Markettos <theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> I looked around for a hosting newsgroup and could only find
> alt.internet.providers.uk, which seems to be quite dead. So I wonder if
> someone here could recommend a hosting provider (or point to a more suitable
> newsgroup)?
>
> I have a bunch of domains (10 or 11, pointing to three real sites) that
> want web and mail hosting. Space and bandwidth requirements are quite
> minimal (currently about 40MB disc and 10MB (yes, megabyte) per month
> bandwidth, though these might increase a bit).
>
> Currently I'm on a Bronze account from Orchard Hosting for 25 quid a year.
> That gives me 100MB disc and 1GB/month bandwidth. They use cpanel to
> control it - this is quite handy as I've been using Wordpress (so PHP) for
> one site and it allows me to keep up with the security updates. Generally
> the interface is quite nice (lots of options - eg three webmail interfaces,
> and Fantastico that installs and updates all sort of PHP packages like
> content management, photo galleries etc).
>
> I don't really have any problems with Orchard's service at the minimal level
> I interact with it and am happy with the price... but (and it's a big one)
> their systems are insecure. Unless you buy an SSL cert they don't support
> any kind of encrypted login to the control panel. It's all
> passwords-in-the-clear, with vanilla FTP to upload. SSH 'is not provided
> under any circumstances' (even for file transfer). Some services use HTTP
> authentication - I'm not sure if it's Digest or Basic - but if you get your
> password wrong it dumps you at a cleartext HTML login form.
>
> So I'm decidedly nervous at throwing my passwords about like we learned
> not to do in 1998, and am wondering about moving.
>
> Anyone recommend a lower-end webhost who might do this kind of stuff
> reliably, but with a little more clue? Happy to pay a bit more, but looking
> for something in the same kind of price range. It might also be nice to
> have an ultrathin virtual server (for editing stuff and generally fiddling
> around though, frankly, 99% of the time it'll be inactive), though it's not
> that important. Am happy to consider hosts in the UK, US or elsewhere.
>
Gradwell possibly? Somewhat more expensive (i.e. I think you'd need
something like what *used* to be their developer account at £120/year,
I'm not sure what it is now but there's something at that price).
That gives you more than you need (but maybe only one domain), like
unlimited E-Mail boxes, lots of disk space (5Gb at present I think)
ssh access to a full blown Linux command line, etc.

--
Chris Green

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Gradwell possibly? Somewhat more expensive (i.e. I think you'd need
> something like what *used* to be their developer account at ?120/year,
> I'm not sure what it is now but there's something at that price).
> That gives you more than you need (but maybe only one domain), like
> unlimited E-Mail boxes, lots of disk space (5Gb at present I think)
> ssh access to a full blown Linux command line, etc.

Thanks. That looks nice, but I think it might be a bit overkill (eg
5GB/month bandwidth - some months I only use 5MB!). I was hoping something
with pricing within a factor of two of Orchard.

I'm quite happy to go international (the site's readers, such as there are,
are mostly non-UK anyway). I hear hosting is generally cheaper in the US -
is this the case?

Theo

On 08 Aug 2009 23:17:10 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos
<theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>I looked around for a hosting newsgroup and could only find
>alt.internet.providers.uk, which seems to be quite dead. So I wonder if
>someone here could recommend a hosting provider (or point to a more suitable
>newsgroup)?
>
>I have a bunch of domains (10 or 11, pointing to three real sites) that
>want web and mail hosting. Space and bandwidth requirements are quite
>minimal (currently about 40MB disc and 10MB (yes, megabyte) per month
>bandwidth, though these might increase a bit).
>
[snip]
Seeing that there is relatively little traffic, and you want lots of
configuarability and control, why not dig out that old PC that's in
the shed/attic and put Linux, Apache2, PHP, MySQL on it and Webmin and
Ssh only accessible from local network?
--
Free personal divertable Phone number: <http://www.bizorg.co.uk/personalnos.htm>

David Quinton wrote:
> On 08 Aug 2009 23:17:10 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos
> <theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I looked around for a hosting newsgroup and could only find
>> alt.internet.providers.uk, which seems to be quite dead. So I wonder if
>> someone here could recommend a hosting provider (or point to a more suitable
>> newsgroup)?
>>
>> I have a bunch of domains (10 or 11, pointing to three real sites) that
>> want web and mail hosting. Space and bandwidth requirements are quite
>> minimal (currently about 40MB disc and 10MB (yes, megabyte) per month
>> bandwidth, though these might increase a bit).
>>
> [snip]
> Seeing that there is relatively little traffic, and you want lots of
> configuarability and control, why not dig out that old PC that's in
> the shed/attic and put Linux, Apache2, PHP, MySQL on it and Webmin and
> Ssh only accessible from local network?

I have to say, i was thinking the same.

The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> David Quinton wrote:
> > On 08 Aug 2009 23:17:10 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos
> > <theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >
> > Seeing that there is relatively little traffic, and you want lots of
> > configuarability and control, why not dig out that old PC that's in
> > the shed/attic and put Linux, Apache2, PHP, MySQL on it and Webmin and
> > Ssh only accessible from local network?
>
> I have to say, i was thinking the same.

I had wondered about that (not that seriously, but since you brought it up
it's caused me to think some more).

Some issues:
Power. At 25 quid a year will it cost me more in power to host myself than
a hosted solution?

Space. I'm very restricted in where I can keep an extra machine (where the
heat and noise of a PC wouldn't be a disturbance). There's always the
old-laptop option, but reliability could be more tricky.

Hardware reliability. I do have a server that's on 24x7 at the moment, and
I could run a virtual machine on it. But if I take it down to fiddle with
it, my mail and websites go down too. It's currently down due to the need
for fan replacements. Due to its location (the only place I can put it),
its predecessor went pop due to overheating. I can't afford for my mail and
sites to go down for potentially lengthy times while I sort out hardware
replacements, but I don't have the space to keep a cold spare.

Software reliability. I don't like hosting mail myself, because of the
opportunities to mess it up and lose mail. Plus as it's so low traffic I
probably wouldn't notice if it broke, for months on end.

Connectivity. I'm on the end of a cable modem connection with dynamic IP. I
already have a dynamic DNS arrangement, so I could add a pile of CNAMEs for
the other domains. But if the IP changes, the sites will be offline until
the dynamic DNS propagates - not a problem for me logging into my home
machine, but a problem if people are trying to reach the site. Plus it
depends on Virgin being clueful, and my cable modem and router playing ball.
I'm also on limited upstream bandwidth (500Kbit or 1Mbit/s, can't
remember?). I may only get a few visitors a month but I don't want them to
have a slow experience.


Effectively that'll cost me far more in hassle-budget alone than a hosted
system. Really I want a bog-standard web/mail hosting package, where the
opportunities to tinker (eg SSH logins, as opposed just to sftp/scp file
transfer) is the icing on the cake and not too important.


I should add that this is slightly business-critical, in that I get a very
small amount of enquiries through the system. While the volume is minimal,
I can't afford to miss them. But given the tiny volume, the budget isn't
huge.

Theo

Theo Markettos <theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I don't really have any problems with Orchard's service at the minimal
> level I interact with it and am happy with the price... but (and it's a
> big one) their systems are insecure. Unless you buy an SSL cert they
> don't support any kind of encrypted login to the control panel.

You might investigate Andrews & Arnold (AAISP). I have no idea if their
logons are as secure as you need, but they are pretty good at communicating
with their users, eg via: uk.net.providers.aaisp

I use them for domain & email hosting, but not connectivity. I went there
when, like many other (ex-)Demon users, I wanted to change to an ISP that
would not hide behind marketing-speak etc.

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to (E-Mail Removed) replacing "nnn" by "284".

Jeremy Nicoll - news posts <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> You might investigate Andrews & Arnold (AAISP). I have no idea if their
> logons are as secure as you need, but they are pretty good at communicating
> with their users, eg via: uk.net.providers.aaisp
>
> I use them for domain & email hosting, but not connectivity.

I'm probably being thick, but can you point out where they describe those
services? It's not connectivity and it's not telecoms, and their hosting
pages are all about colo - a bit out of my budget (though some ISP was
offering colo Mac Mini or Apple TV boxes which, while still out of my
budget, weren't stupidly priced).

Theo

Theo Markettos <theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> (though some ISP was offering colo Mac Mini or Apple TV boxes which, while
> still out of my budget, weren't stupidly priced).

Found it:
http://www.mythic-beasts.com/appletvdedicated.html
http://www.mythic-beasts.com/macminicolo.html

200-250 quid a year is good for a colo machine. Rather overkill and
unnecessary for my purposes though.

Theo

Theo Markettos <theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Jeremy Nicoll - news posts <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > You might investigate Andrews & Arnold (AAISP). I have no idea if their
> > logons are as secure as you need, but they are pretty good at
communicating
> > with their users, eg via: uk.net.providers.aaisp
> >
> > I use them for domain & email hosting, but not connectivity.
>
> I'm probably being thick, but can you point out where they describe those
> services?

They've written their website on the basis that a large percentage of their
customers use them for connectivity. So:

http://www.aaisp.net.uk/broadband-services.html

and on the bottom of that page there's a section describing services they
offer even if you don't use them for connectivity.

However - sorry! - I see from that that they don't offer php or sql (I'd not
noticed this before ), so no use to you. You could always ask if they'd
consider adding it.

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to (E-Mail Removed) replacing "nnn" by "284".