Host recommendations?

Hello All

Looking into some recommendations for good/cheap hosting. I was hosting a few sites at DreamHost, but they're not reliable and I have experienced some pretty bad down times. You can't beat the price.. but you get what you pay for.

I'm looking for a hosting account where I can have unlimited (or large amount) of domains at cost <= $20/month. PHP/MySQL is a must (SSH would be really nice and access to crontabs).

I also have some requirements for installed software. I'd like to install vBulletin and phpAdsNew there, so those would have to be allowed.

I also need to manage my own DNS server.. and not through the new host. For example. I already own/run a DNS server and manage all of our DNS. I just want to either point a) domain or b) subdomain to the new host by adding the IP to the zonefile. cPanel doesn't let you do this.

I'm taking a hard look at MediaTemple.. does anyone have any experience with them? Also HostGator, but I've heard there may be issues with phpAdsNew there.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
hanji

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SSH: Enabled

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For more info please email: sales{AT}fayaxhosting(DOT)com

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You can checkout our services on (URL address blocked: See forum rules)

All services have Cpanel installed and other features such as: fantastico, forums, phbb, stats, error log, subdomain, mail accounts, PHP, MySQL, among others

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Thanks for your replies. I was hoping for personal experiences and recommendations, though. I'm sure your plans are great, but I want to hear from others who they like to use.

hanji

Hello Hanji,

You might want to have a look at these VPS Hosting plans at micfo.com. I am sure they are not as cheap as you mentioned/required, but not expensive too. I can assure the reliability and stability with micfo.

All the best.

bluehost, hostgator, startlogic

Deal breaker..I can't manage my own DNS server. That is a requirement I didn't mention. I have a DNS server that is hosted elsewhere, and I need to point subdomain to the new host. I just called about that.. and no dice.

I also understood, 3% of the words spoken to me from your support person.. another deal breaker.

hanji

cPanel is a dealbreaker (due to DNS). Sorry.

hanji

hostgater I cancelled after being with them for 5 minutes. cPanel was the problem.. ID required for SSH access (re-al cool).

bluehost only allows 6 domains
startlogic only allows 10 domains

Currently I'm at dreamhost, and they give me everything I need, except their uptime is not the greatest, and mysql seems to flake out at times. I'd like to bump up with sometime more reliable, and I'm willing to pay more for hosting.

I can't believe the DNS issue keeps coming up... and I hate cPanel. There has to be a better solution out there????

hanji

What exactly about cPanel don't you like? I could quite possibly offer you a really good deal involving cPanel hosting in either a shared, reseller or VPS enviornment.

Of course, that includes WHM which should allow you to manage your DNS servers properly.

If you'd like any other kind of control panel, I can offer you some decently priced dedicated server setups as well using a control panel and operating system of your choice.

Vincent P.
inXOOM Internet Services
http://www.inxoom.com
We do hosting right.

This issue with cPanel is mainly the DNS issue. To add a domain, the DNS server at the hosting facility needs to know about the domain for cPanel to allow the creation of the domain. This involves changing the nameserver to point to the DNS servers at the hosting facility. That's fine for 99.9% of the people, but I host my DNS, so I don't want to change my nameserver to point to you so I can add a subdomain, etc. I'm not sure if this is the hosting facility's set up.. but I've run into this 2 separate times now, and I've decided to avoid cPanel because of it.

This is what I want to do:

Host a series of domains (including subdomains) at the hosting facility.
I control the DNS with our DNS server and I just want to change the 'A' record and 'www' to point to the IP of where the web site is.

I want to do this because.
1. I maintain a ton of domains. I don't want to maintain multiple DNS servers.. I like configuring my primary and secondary for all domains I have control of.

2. I basically only want to host 'web' stuff. All mail, etc would be sent to other servers.. again, keeping things somewhat centralized.

Thanks!
hanji

All you need is a reseller account with cPanel / WHM and your own IP addresses to maintain a local DNS server through WHM. Something MOST reseller/VPS providers offer in the first place.

So once again, I can offer you a reseller or VPS package with cPanel / WHM and your own nameservers to use to obtain what you would like.

I don't normally offer reseller packages to my hosting clients, but I'm sure we could work something decent out for you. Just send me a PM or an email if interested.

vincent [at] inxoom [dot] com

Vincent P.
inXOOM Internet Services
http://www.inxoom.com
We do hosting right.

Question. What is WHM?

So you're saying, I'd still need to maintain local DNS, in other words maintain 2 sets of DNS for this to work (local and my set of public DNS servers)?

hanji

WHM is the reseller's control panel and system management script that comes bundled with cPanel on all hosting except for shared hosting packages.

It allows you to configure key aspects of your server (if you have root access - VPS or dedicated servers only) and set up packages for reselling web hosting (reseller / VPS / dedicated), plus manage DNS entires.

You can have WHM use an external DNS server, so long as that DNS server is set to trust information from your IP address, which may take a little bit of configuration to achieve.

You may already have access to it. All you need to do is connect to http://yoursite.com:2086 or http://yoursite.com/whm and log in with your username and password for your hosting account.

If not, you'll need to get reseller hosting which allows WHM access. It should do exactly what you need it to.