Noob alert. Advice needed.

[realmanproject]

Hi people.

I have very little experience in hosting (actually none!) but I am hoping to set up a web site. It is quite a complex project, but I don't have the budget to hire someone to deal with it specifically. Therefore I am trying to get as much information as possible before I proceed!

The web site that I have in mind is a cross between facebook and foursquare, but for dancers. If it goes well I anticipate having a significant number of visitors, and fairly high bandwidth and storage needs. I will also have an app on facebook that links to my site, so I will need an SSL. Uptime will be very important, and preferably the subscription should be scalable, so I can upgrade as needed.

Firstly, is there anything extra that I should be looking for, or looking out for when selecting a host for my site?

Secondly, what kind of price range should I be budgeting for, in order to get a quality service that meets my requirements?

And thirdly, do any of you have recommendations for a UK based hosting service, with good customer support, that can service my needs.

Thanks

Trev

PS. If this is posted in the wrong section then I apologise. Mods please feel free to move it to the correct section.

 

[easyhostmedia]

Hosting and setting up a website (end user) are 2 different concepts.

but running a website as an end user do you want to run the site in

1) cPanel
2) Direct Admin
3) Plesk
4) Kloxo

cPanel is most common and the easiest to use. If you have no experience in this then i suggest before setting up your site is get a cheap shared account or a free host account, just to play around with the contriol panel to get used to it, but for high b/w and storage i would look at a managed VPS.

finding a host is just do research

1) check forums
2) check reviews
3) ask some questions at specific hosts and see how long they take to reply and what their answers are

but STAY AWAY from those offering unlimited space/bandwidth as these dont exsist

 

[realmanproject]

Thanks for your quick reply! It is much appreciated.

Hosting and setting up a website (end user) are 2 different concepts.

Sorry, I mis-spoke. What I was trying to get across is that I have very little experience with web hosts.

but running a website as an end user do you want to run the site in

1) cPanel
2) Direct Admin
3) Plesk
4) Kloxo

cPanel is most common and the easiest to use.

Well... I didn't know what any of these were until I just looked them up on wikipedia just now, but I guess that if cPanel is the most common and easiest then that is the one to go for!

but for high b/w and storage i would look at a managed VPS.

Any idea of costs for this?

finding a host is just do research

1) check forums
2) check reviews
3) ask some questions at specific hosts and see how long they take to reply and what their answers are

And that is why I'm here. My first web searches for reviews of hosts mostly just came up with the usual "Top 10 Lists" that are obviously pretty unreliable!

 

[easyhostmedia]

If you look in the offers section on here or in WHT you will find some managed VPS offers from $20, but then you will need a few other things to secure server etc. so in all most likely will cost $40 a month

 

[paul-ukwsd]

The cost of a managed VPS will vary greatly as it all depends on what level of service you're getting, for example does the host take a backup of your VPS for disaster recovery?

 

[easyhostmedia]

The cost of a managed VPS will vary greatly as it all depends on what level of service you're getting, for example does the host take a backup of your VPS for disaster recovery?

A lot of VPS provders if on a managed service will take daily/weekly backups as standard

All my servers are managed and all my provider take their own backups, but i also use cpremote ($3 a month per VPS) to take my own daily backups, so even if your host/provider takes backups it is still your responsibilty to take your own backups.

Taking actual backups of the whole VPS you will find it is the unmanaged providers that do not backup the VPS

 

[Bullten]

1) Firstly, is there anything extra that I should be looking for, or looking out for when selecting a host for my site?

You are going to start your website so I dont think you will be needing that much space and bandwidth in starting. So a good idea will be starting with a shared hosting that can support your requirements.

2) Secondly, what kind of price range should I be budgeting for, in order to get a quality service that meets my requirements?

20-30$ for a year is a fair budget to start with and as your website grows up you can shift your plan to a higher range.

3) And thirdly, do any of you have recommendations for a UK based hosting service, with good customer support, that can service my needs.

Seriously I don't know about best UK web hosting but you are free to search on "Google.com" and find the suitable one. But as per my knowledge I know some big players in this hosting industries like Hostgator, Godaddy, Softlayer, Hostdime, 1and1 and there are many more.

 

[easyhostmedia]

Godaddy and 1and1 do not have good reputation when it comes to hosting services. also the OP anticipates having a significant number of visitors, and fairly high bandwidth and storage needs, so should think ahead when looking for a host.

its like when you look fopr a computer, you need to look to have this working for you for a couple of years at least and not just a few weeks and then having to upgrade, i apply this principle to hosting

 

[Artashes]

Hey Trev,

Congratulations! For someone who calls himself a noob, you have actually done some reading because you are asking all the right questions. Most don't even know where to start.

Here are my thoughts.

It doesn't matter what the content of the site is, you definitely need a company that will keep your site up and running and that will also assist you in an efficient and friendly tone should you run into a problem. Most often than not, those services do not cost $1/month. I like it that you are not shopping based on price, that will open up doors to some terrific companies with a great track record. Those are not necessarily the companies that spend the most in advertising.

If you are in startup mode, I wouldn't recommend heading to a high-end machine right away. While you are in development, find a regular shared hosting account. Once your website grows, I suggest you move to a VPS (Virtual Private Server), which is essentially a type of hosting that allows you to share a whole dedicated server with few other people, versus sharing it with a few hundred people in a regular shared hosting environment. Your website will be more responsive and speedy that way.

Once your site experience dramatic growth, a dedicated server will be required. You probably won't get there fast, but what I would suggest (and again, you are correct on your approach) is to sign up with a company that offers a range of these services, so that if you like their services, you can grow along with them by upgrading your package at no cost. Most companies will be happy to do it for you without setup fees if you show loyalty and pay your bills on time.

So a price range would vary from as little as $5-10 /month for a basic shared hosting account to $50-70 /month for a well-managed VPS hosting and well over $150+ /month for a sufficient dedicated server.

You do not require anything extra, other that basic specifications. If you intend to conduct e-commerce, I'd look for a company that understands e-commerce well and provide associated services to vendors. That will be extremely valuable to you in the long-run to work with a team that can help you.

TEST THE COMPANIES OF YOUR CHOICE! Send them various questions (of both sales and technical nature) at different times of the day and night. You can find some questions to ask in this guide, written by one of our industry advisors. If you want to get more technical, here are some of the tougher questions to ask:

1. How many servers are under your management? Are they managed by your employees on-site or by contracted technicians in the data center where you occupy space?

2. Not all companies can proud themselves in running their own data center. There are few of them, and its not really a big decision-making factor. When a website goes down, for whatever reason, what should matter to you is how fast it is noticed and fixed. Regarding this, the questions you should ask:
- What kind of monitoring (server/application/hardware) system is in place?
- What is the response proceedure?
- What kind of response time and solution is expected to each type of issue (focusing on most common issues that might occur: network, application, hardware)?

3. What kind of server security and health assessment policies, if any, are in place to prevent possible attacks, as well as to maintain high level of server/network security?


Recommendation-wise, there are plenty of cool companies and special deals/discounts you can find in the marketplace here on the forum:
Shared hosting specials: http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/shared-reseller-hosting-special-offers/
VPS / Dedicated specials: http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/vps-dedicated-colocation-server-special-offers/

Personally, I enjoy a great deal being hosted with www.handsonwebhosting.com that hosts this particular forum actually. For a web hosting community it is especially important to set the right example and stay up and running - it would be kind of embarrassing to provide anything less than an excellent experience for thousands of members like you. So we interviewed over 25 companies when making our selection, all of which were motivated a great deal to host this forum. The site has been with them for around 3 years now. It has been a flawless experience so far. Their team is extremely efficient, proactive and knowledgeable. They also specialize in e-commerce web hosting and have servers in the United Kingdom as an option.

May I ask why you actually inquired about U.K. location? It would only make sense if you expect most of your visitors to be from the United Kingdom.


Just my :twocents:

 

[JerryM]

I think Art answered the best and has pointed you in the right direction.

I'd like to add though, for a UK host, check out rshosting.com

At the same time, I also recommend you to do your research on them as I have not been with them since 2006. In 2006, they had 6 services online and monitored each and everyone of them every 2 minutes, 24/7. I'm not sure if this is still the case.

Good luck in your new venture!

 

[realmanproject]

Hi Artashes. Thanks for the answer. Very detailed, lots of excellent information in there! As for this...

May I ask why you actually inquired about U.K. location? It would only make sense if you expect most of your visitors to be from the United Kingdom.

The main reason is just for ease of contacting them for customer support. I know that most of the host providers offer 24/7 customer support, but it seems to make some sense to go with a company that is at least in the same timezone as me! :agree:

 

[easyhostmedia]

If you want a host in the UK, then i suggest you find one that is hosted through the Bluesquare Datacentre as this is the most stable DC in the UK

 

[Artashes]

The main reason is just for ease of contacting them for customer support. I know that most of the host providers offer 24/7 customer support, but it seems to make some sense to go with a company that is at least in the same timezone as me! :agree:

As long as you go with a company that is well managed, it makes no difference where it is located. As for downtime or issues, they can take place at any time of the day or night, be it in your timezone or not.
You certainly can do as you please, but you should just be aware that if your main demographic is outside of the United Kingdom, then you should seek a server that is physically hosted in that country/location for faster connectivity and better experience overall.

Cheers.

 

[IH-Rameen]

A lot of VPS provders if on a managed service will take daily/weekly backups as standard

All my servers are managed and all my provider take their own backups, but i also use cpremote ($3 a month per VPS) to take my own daily backups, so even if your host/provider takes backups it is still your responsibilty to take your own backups.

Taking actual backups of the whole VPS you will find it is the unmanaged providers that do not backup the VPS

Even if your provider claims to take backups, it's always a good idea to make your own as well.

 

[easyhostmedia]

Even if your provider claims to take backups, it's always a good idea to make your own as well.

this is what i was stating.

you read a lot of hosts terms, they will states something like. " we take daily/weekly backups of all sites on our servers, but these are for our use if their is any issues with our servers, it is the clients responsibility to take backups of their own sites"

we have this message posted on all cpanels on our servers " Please note: it is your responsibility to make sure that you make regular backups of your sites. We cannot be held responsible for lost data."

 

[znetwebhost]

You can start with shared hosting plan that provides a dedicated ip address , so that you can add an ssl certificate on your website.