Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with webhost

Help me manage changes to a website

Reverend John — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:33:07 -0800

Whats the best way to set up version control for a website? I work for a small building supply company, and we have a custom online store which was developed by an outside consultant. He used to provide a 'development' site where we could make changes, which we would submit through subversion, and which would be reflected when we browsed to the development site.

He is no longer providing this service. I've set up a separate hosting account with dreamhost, since they provide subversion repositories as part of their package. I can upload our code to this hosting account and it works, and I can set up a subversion repository, but I can't get subversion on a 'live' site.

Can anyone provide pointers on how to get what I'm trying to do working, or suggest an alternative approach?

Which host offers the most interpreters?

grumblebee — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:20:19 -0800

Is there a reliable, not-too-expensive hosting company out there that lets you post server scripts in most open-source languages? This is for personal use. I know PHP and I'm learning Python. Eventually, I want to learn Java and one of the popular functional languages. And maybe some C++.

I know I could just download the various interpreters and compilers and play around locally, but it's so much more fun writing web apps for public consumption.

Currently, I'm with Dreamhost, and they let me code in PHP and Python. Is there another host out there with more options?

I know I could get my own dedicated server or use Amazon's cloud service, but those would be expensive solutions -- wouldn't they? If that's the only way to go, help me find the most reasonable option. I'm talking personal website stuff here. I currently pay $30 a month to Dreamhost. I'd pay a bit more than that if necessary, but I'd rather not pay hundreds a month.

Need Googlepages replacement: free, no ads, javascript. Amazon S3?

nolnar — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:40:26 -0800

Googlepages webhosting shuts down in June. Help me find a replacement. Requirements: free/almost free, no ads, javascript, css, custom html upload, at least 50Mb storage. Would Amazon S3 work? Not needed features: mysql, php or similar server side scripting.

There are of course many commercial webhosts. But are there any reliable free (or almost free) services around similar to Googlepages (Google Page Creator)?

I've glanced at Amazon's S3. If I understand their prices then hosting a small site with very modest monthly data transfer would be very inexpensive. But I've also read claims on blogs that S3 can't autoload index.html and various other skeptical posts. However I find no clear info on the official S3 site regarding the index.html issue. So maybe it does work now. Or there might be some smart way around it. So I ask:

question 1: can S3 satisfy the requirements above?

I here hope for feedback from people with experience of S3, maybe even as a html web hosting solution.

question 2: if S3 doesn't satisfy the requirements above then suggest some other interesting free/almost free alternative that does.

Wordpress and domain

madeinitaly — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 03:58:35 -0800

When you type www.mydomain.com you get to see the homepage of my blog. However, whatever link you click, from articles to adminstration pages etc still go to www.mydomain.webhost.com/article/blah_blah. How do you make this go away? I got a domain name at namecheap.com, a free webhost at 000webhost.com, installed and configured wordpress.org and imported my contents from wordpress.com

When you put my domain in the address bar www.runningshoesguru.com , you get correctly to the homepage. However, whatever link you click - be it a blog post or an admin page, the address shown becomes http://runningshoesguru.netii.net/somethingelse.

I put the DNS nameserver as the 000webhost ones, i parked my domain on 000webhost (as opposed to url forwarding).

My questions now would be

1) How do I fix this? Do I need to play with Wordpress/MySql or is it a domain/webhost problem ?
2) how do I automatically change all my links within wordpress?
3) will this affect my ranking in search engines at all? I want to index my blog in Google etc, but I want it to be domain.com, and not subdomain.domainhost.com ?
4) further, my old blog at wordpress.com is still there and still appears in google search results. what is the best practice to have people who eventually still get to the old one to go to the new one ?

Thank you all for help!

.forward foribidden?

kamelhoecker — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:39:49 -0800

Web hosting company tells me that they don't allow me to setup email forwarders to external addresses (So I can make bob@mydomain.com get sent to bob@gmail.com). Their reason? If any spam comes through the forwarder, they will get blamed and labeled as spammers. True or BS? I'm moving an organization to a new web host. There are about 25 people who have addresses on the domain, and we previously would simply forward this mail to their primary email account on gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc.

I've been super-pleased with this web host so far, but on the email forwarder cpanel page, the following note appears:

Warning: Setting your forwarder to external email addresses that aren't hosted by [webhost name removed] can result in your email account being blacklisted. Forward only to email addresses hosted by us.

I emailed them, saying that I was just forwarding and I hope this isn't a problem. They replied, that it was in fact a problem, and that I shouldn't do this as any spam that went through the forwards, would appear to be coming from them and they would get blacklisted.

I'm quite sure that ISPs only look at the origin of the spam, not every server that handes it along they way. If that is correct? Any good references I can send these guys?

(normally i would just say, 'oh well' another crap webhost and go elsewhere. But, other than this problem, i'm really happy with their service.)

Merry Christmas, here's your website.

emjay — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:24:51 -0800

Looking for a webhost/reseller deal for registering MANY domains w/ temporary hosting - and need advice. Okay. I am currently using 1and1.com as my webhost for 3 sites and don't really have any complaints or concerns with them specifically.

What I need now is a host/registrar combination or singly to be able to register 20-ish domains and host them cheaply for about a year.

My plan is to to register the domain names of all my coworkers, (ie. janesmith.com, johndoe.com, etc) and create a generic but slightly personalized "personal/business web page" for all of them in the next few weeks.

For Christmas, I want to "gift" them the domain and login information et al. WHat they do with it from that point is out of my hands and they can worry about renewing their domains and hosting issues and all the other stuff on their won (though they will probably call me for advice)

All i really want is cheap/free registration and cheap/free hosting without the ads. I've done the basic research but I can't seem to find any good one-stop shop, and I'm not sure what the best way to go about combining two services for this end result. Any ideas?

Looking for a bulletproof web host with built-in colocation and failover.

benzenedream — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:33:55 -0800

Looking at setting up a simple web site (no CGI) but needs to be up 24/7 and reasonably disaster proof (earthquake, hurricane, regional fires, etc.). Hosting company needs to be multisite with automagic failover assuming one site goes down. Updates from primary to failover site can be as slow as hourly, they do not need to be in realtime. Minimal traffic (less than 2Gb/month). Don't care if it's straight hosting or a whole VPS, proc and memory usage should be minimal. Dedicated colo hardware would be overkill.

I realize there are various hand-rolled ways to achieve the same thing (rsync, cron, various DNS tricks spring to mind) but would prefer that the vendor worry about it. Most of the vendors I've found have a single bulletproof site but have no site failover.

Just need a stable webhost

hungrysquirrels — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:18:55 -0800

Looking for a new webhost, with PHP and MySQL I'm with Network Solutions right now, but their upgrade script from MySQL 4 to MySQL 5 broke something. The site runs fine locally on my Apache server, same PHP version, and connecting directly to their DB.

Their tech support is useless. I've been in contact about 6 times and
their not telling me anything I don't already know, and don't answer my questions. Apparently, it's not in the support flowchart.

So, I'm ditching them. The site isn't high traffic, but does need PHP and MySQL. Preferably Canadian, but not essential. I'm using webserve for another site, but don't like it.

Other suggestions, preferably cheap...?

And yes, I've already looked at previous threads.

Can I has cheap hosting plz?

Phalene — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:06:24 -0800

What's a good web host for a novice, who wants her own online space on someone's server to play around with? The idea is a blog and maybe a sample of my cartooning, hosted somewhere that won't break the bank. After messing around with blogging through the various free hosting services online (blogger, wordpress.com, livejournal, journalspace), I want my own domain name and a teensy bit of hosting space to mess around with a cheese toast blog. However, given the breadth of the internet and the competing advertising for 'cheap hosting!!' VS the dunning reviews cursing out all the big name companies in this business, I find myself adrift.

So Mefi, what's a good host for a novice? I want something cheap, n00b friendly and good with blogs, who'll help me secure a domain name (the one I want is available at the moment, no worries there) and won't crash every other day/eat my data monthly. Oh yeah, I'm Canadian, if that matters.

NetSol, .Mac or other host for .ca domains?

Marquis — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:30:59 -0800

My friends have a webhosting account with Network Solutions. NetSol seems to be saying that you cannot point a .ca domain-name to that account. Is that really true? Are .Mac accounts compatible with .ca domains? If the answer to both is no, can you recommend a webhost for .ca domains? (They have already bought the domain.) [NB: I don't want to just use a page forwarder - that is, I want www.mysite.ca/blogs/newblog etc urls to work.] Thanks!

Help me move to a new host

tradeer33 — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:59:08 -0800

My boss assigned me the task of moving his churches web site to our own server. LINK our server currently has 2 other pages hosted on it with Server 2003 and IIS. I created a new website in IIS and have copied the the original website files to our server. I found that its registered with enom.com. I have access to the domain settings PICTURE HERE and changed the IP address to ours, but what do I do from here, and I have an EPP Code, but what do I do iwth it.

What is a simple "download ticket" manager program for a webserver?

beelerspace — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:32:16 -0800

Is there a download manager (php preferably) that can generate "download tickets" for a file? Ideally, I'd like this to happen: the php create a list of "tickets" - a generated set of characters - to distribute, and then be set a number of times a file can be downloaded with each "ticket."

Does such a piece of code exist? I have scoured the ends of the php script wastelands and found none.

Cool Stuff to Run In Your Webspace?

WCityMike — Mon, 07 May 2007 10:41:57 -0800

What free, open-source projects can I run in a privately accessible portion of my webspace that would be useful to me in terms of making things more practical in my own life (think Lifehacker-43 Folders kind of stuff)? I'd prefer Mefites' personal experiences with their own installs over linkage that you've seen but never tried — although I'll take either one. I'm on a Mac at home, so it preferably does not require a Windows end-user. Also, I would be the only person using this, although that of course doesn't have to rule out multiuser apps.

I do not have shell access, but do have access to a rather robust set of tools called "cPanel" (includes cron, permissions, etc.), and I believe the host's admins would be willing to run a few commands for me if called upon to do so.

I had set up a MediaWiki wiki (since I was used to monobook and Mediawiki's particular wikiformatting style), which proved to be a positive experience, and I'd like to check out other things — but would like some guidance as to what people found useful in their own lives.

My Head A Splode

Lokheed — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 19:33:15 -0800

Looking for domain migration advice. Of course there is... I currently run two domains, one of which was a hobby that just took on a life of its own and the other is a community that I kind of inherited (but love dearly). Both evolved separately, and both have active communities with message boards. One domain is driven by PHP-Nuke with phpBB as the forum, and the other domain is driven by UBB.threads as the forum. So basically two different php frameworks, two different code bases, and both have long since passed the entropy point where I have difficulty maintaining them.

Given that in my day job I work as a developer using C# and the .NET 2.0 framework, I have come to the conclusion that it would be substantially easier for me to manage these domains if I was running them in a DotNetNuke installation with two parent portals. This means I need to find a reliable Windows based web host, since my current host is purely a LAMP setup.

My general game plan is as follows:
1) On my local machine, get the first domain converted to DNN; skin it, nail down the db conversion to migrate all of the current user and forum data, etc. This is no small task.

2)Once I have domain 1 ready to go, switch web hosts for both domains. Domain 1 would move to the new DNN design, while domain 2 would just copy over to the new host with the existing php design.

3)On my local machine, get the second domain converted to DNN. This will likely take several months, as the data migration will be more tricky.

4)Once domain 2 is ready to go, activate a second parent portal on the live DNN installation, do the migration, and have the host point to DNN for domain 2 and turn off the lights on the php version.

So with that migration in mind, can anyone recommend a solid Windows based host that can handle migrating both domains like this? Bonus points if anyone knows of a UBB.threads to DNN conversion script, since I haven't been able to find one...

Who is sharing a web server?

i love cheese — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:54:16 -0800

Is there an easy way to find out which domain names are using the same shared hosting server? Ideally, there is a web site or free download (OS X preferred) that can tell me which domain names resolve to a particular ip address. I've fooled around with most of the functions on samspade.org and haven't seen one that does this.

webhost for a well-intentioned but illegal-in-the-US website

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:24:00 -0800

Help me find a reliable webhost in a country where copyright law is not as stringent and scary as the US or the UK. Background

I run a website where I regularly post mp3 files by various artists from around the world. Much of this music is sent to us by artists who wish to be showcased on the site, but there is a lot that we post without permission, too, including advance leaks. Files are only kept online for a limited time, we never post more than a couple songs from a given album, and we strongly encourage people to purchase the music they enjoy. (The purpose of the site is to promote sales, not discourage them.)

Our intentions, of course, are irrelevant. What we are doing is illegal - at least in many countries.

The impetus for this question

Within the next few months, our present webhosting contract will expire. Our current ISP has been okay, but if we receive a cease & desist letter, they will shut down our account instead of just removing the file. I'm trying to find an ISP who is less lawyer-shy. I look at the boom of copyright-grey-area BitTorrent trackers and so on and wonder who is hosting them. I'm not looking for a criminal host, but rather one that is less terrified of copyright violations, and/or is in a country where copyright law is less severe (Scandinavia?).

As always, we will promptly and happily obey any letters from copyright-holders, asking us to remove material. But we would like to be more confident that our ISP won't just cut us off, keeping several months' hosting payments as part of some "terminate without warning" clause, etc.

Technical requirements

100mb-1gb of webspace
generous bandwidth
< $10us/month reliable Ethics

Obviously some people will not want to help me with this question. I understand that. But it's not as dodgy as it sounds, I promise -- we have no intention of ignoring cease-and-desist letters, but want to be able to act according to the wishes of any artists who contact us without also losing several months of hosting payment, etc. And I'm certain that there are upstanding hosts outside of the US/UK/Canada who would be a good fit for us.

phpBB and MT using the same DB?

mikel — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 07:28:31 -0800

I want to install phpBB on my website, but I have a basic question to which I haven't been able to find the answer yet. If I am using a MySQL database behind MT for my weblog, can I install phpBB on the same database and assume it will just build additional tables in MySQL? Or does it require a completely separate database that would be addressed differently? Also if you could distinguish between "could do" and "should do" (or should not do) I would appreciate it.

It's not REALLY illegal, honest...

Hot Like Your 12V Wire — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:50:56 -0800

I need a webhost who can turn the other way to things to media that is sort of the grey zone of legality. I currently run a video games website, and we're looking for a place to store ripped soundtracks, TV commercials, vocal data, etc. without getting constantly harassed for it. The age of the stuff ranges from 1991 to about 1997, so it's not like it's the GTA:San Andreas soundtrack or anything. BitTorrent support is a huge plus as well. Is there any good, cheap webhost who can fulfill these needs?

Moving to VPS

romakimmy — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 08:05:45 -0800

Fed-Up-With-My-WebHostFilter: Is it time to move to VPS? What are your experiences with VPS or dedicated servers? When did you make the switch from shared hosting? How much time per month would you say you spend on administration duties? [mi] The current web space I'm using for the sites I work on is space bought off of a reseller I found through a collegue 2 years back. At the time it was the ideal solution as I needed some extra bells that most shared hosting plans weren't providing at the time (now said bells are pretty much included in a standard install).

However I grow increasingly frustrated with this guy as there have been various problems with email. Each time I had a problem (emails bouncing, not downloading, etc) his response was to move my account to a new server. This would have been only mildly irritating if the transfer script he used actually copied everything, but it continually buggered my database, forcing me to dump and recreate by hand. A mild pain in the ass, to be sure, but it irritates me to no end that I would read the docs concerning say Enim, email him with "I have this problem FOO strating from 0000-00-00; According to the docs it could be being caused by BAR or CAR. Can you look into this for me?" and his only response is to move servers.

This does not inspire confidence in one's hosting provider. He also has the irritating habit of not notifiying me when hardward maintainence will be performed.

I now have a side project who's current space is inadequate and outdated; they have agreed to move servers on my recommendation. So I have a grocery list and have been researching plans and such, none of which seem to be 100% right. A few have come close but failed the "FooBar sucks" googling test. I'm beginng to wonder if getting my own reseller plan or VPS might not be a better option, but I am not fluent in *nix-ese as of yet. I know enough to set up my Win box as a semi-clone of the hosting space I currently use (Apache/OpenSSL/PHP/Perl/MySql etc.) so I would hazard a guess that I know just enough to be dangerous. As the respective budgets are tight enough to exclude a/an un/managed dedicated server, VPS packages are looking rather attractive. But I wonder if that would be getting in over my head for now?