A few basic hosting questions...

Zascar

I've had a website for a few years, a few very simple pages for personal use, mainly for files storage so I can access them anywhere. I'm now managing my dads website, he had an issue with his last host so I want to swap. He wants to get multiple domains - a .ie and a .com & .co.uk etc and have slightly differnt sites for each, and I would like to be able to manage them all from one domain. So, if I buy something like this which seems like fantastic value, does this mean that I can manage all my domains from the one package? No need for anything else?

So, If I have say 2 existing domains that I want to set up on my new hosting, how is this done? Do I need to transfer the billing of these domains (and is there generally a charge for this?) to the new host, or do I just change the (dns) settings? If I want to buy new domains is it easy to set these up?

Also, what if I need more than the allocated amount of storage. Do I need to upgrade or can I just pay a little more for an extra few hundred megs?
Or will they bother charging me at all, are they generally strict on this?
Cheers

Asok

Most hosts offer plans like that these days. For your exisiting sites you will just have to change the domains nameservers to those of the hosting company you choose. You dont have to transfer the domains to anyone but if you want to you can, as long as the nameservers are set correctly you wont have any problems. As for upgrading you should be able to upgrade your plan with zero downtime from the control panel of your provider.

mneylon

Zascar wrote:

So, if I buy something like this which seems like fantastic value, does this mean that I can manage all my domains from the one package? No need for anything else?

In a nutshell.

Zascar wrote:

So, If I have say 2 existing domains that I want to set up on my new hosting, how is this done? Do I need to transfer the billing of these domains

As Asok said, you shouldn't need to move the billing of the domains and should be able to simply update the nameservers for the domains. However you should check with the current provider as some of them have very odd rules regarding using external DNS.

Zascar wrote:

(and is there generally a charge for this?

If you move the billing to another provider you will be charged.

Zascar wrote:

) to the new host, or do I just change the (dns) settings?

See above

Zascar wrote:

If I want to buy new domains is it easy to set these up?

Usually - yes

Zascar wrote:

Also, what if I need more than the allocated amount of storage. Do I need to upgrade or can I just pay a little more for an extra few hundred megs?

That will depend on the provider, but you can usually choose

Zascar wrote:

Or will they bother charging me at all, are they generally strict on this?
Cheers

Most hosting companies are businesses, so yes you will get charged

Zascar

Thanks guys, what are the blacknight charges for extra space?

mneylon

Zascar wrote:

Thanks guys, what are the blacknight charges for extra space?

Please contact our sales team if you have any specific queries

axer

Zascar wrote:

He wants to get multiple domains - a .ie and a .com & .co.uk etc and have slightly differnt sites for each, and I would like to be able to manage them all from one domain. So, if I buy something like this which seems like fantastic value, does this mean that I can manage all my domains from the one package? No need for anything else?

When you get hosting you will get a control panel whereby you have full control of the domains you want on the hosting plan - you can add and remove them at your leisure, add new email addresses in seconds etc. So if you went for this or even this (shop around) you would have full control.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Zascar wrote:

I buy something like this which seems like fantastic value

Fantastic indeed!
I was both delighted and shocked to savor the bargainy delights of their ultra-great-value soho plan.

blacknight wrote:

Most hosting companies are businesses, so yes you will get charged

Shocking!
Why, with these insanely low low prices I always assumed blacknight hosting was a charity organisation! :eek:

Seth Brundle

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Shocking!
Why, with these insanely low low prices I always assumed blacknight hosting was a charity organisation! :eek:

On commission Donkey?

steve-hosting36

Sounds like it ROFL.

Zascar

Keep all offers/advertisements strictly to PM - or else I will ban the offenders - your loving mod, ph3n0m


Thanks guys I will be looking around for the best deal over the next few weeks. Feel free to PM me with any offers. My requirements are as follows:

Currently have 2 domains, a .com and a .ie (my personal site and my dads business website)
My dad needs to get a few more domains: 1x .ie, 1x .com and also 1x .co.uk. All hosting very slightly different versions of the same site (for search engine optimisation).

Bandwidth/transfer would be very light. I only need about 500mb space at the moment, however in time, on my personal site I may want to host some large files (~100mb) so I may need 1-2GB of webspace. If anyone wants to give me prices on a suitable hosting package, and pricecs on domain names please feel free to fight amoungst yourselves for the business ;-) lol... Ah no but seriously, my needs are very basic so things like support is very important and features availible counts too. E.G. For my personal site I want a few options for Blogs etc, I may want a PHPBB, and I like the option of installable scripts for photo galeries and the like.

The two main contenders at the moment are:

Blacknight : Linux Basic Hosting. 1GB webspace, 10GB Transfer. Up to 8 Domains. It has some nice features like This and this.

Hosting 365: Linux Basic Hosting: This has 2.5GB space and 25GB transfer. Nice to have but probably overkill for my needs. Also an excellent package but I'm not sure if the features are quite as good as blacknights.

Both are fantastic value packages - i don't really thing one is better than the other, each has its advantages depending on individual customer needs. I have heard excellent things about the service and support of both companies. I would be interested in hearing the opinions of the boards.ie users. (but lads lets keep this civil ok...)

Another question for you all: Management Consoles like Direct Admin etc- which is best or do they all pretty much do the same thing? Which one is easiest to use?
Thanks for all your help!

steve-hosting36

Most control panels pretty much do the same thing. We use Hsphere, which is very simple to get the hang of. Our offer also includes one click installers for Wordpress (blogs), phpBB and more scripts.

democrates

Blacknight and hosting365 are the two I have preferred using, and both are excellent.
I also keep an eye on novara but haven't used them or taken on development for any of their customers yet.

As you've probably realised it's possible to negotiate a discount if you get onto the sales folks. It's a healthy market here, you only have to compare with 1&1 or even network solutions. Also local support is cheap and timely to access as well as top notch quality I've found.

The low basic package prices are growing the market, a small business website can be up and running for under a grand including development and then it's less than a tv licence per year after that, I find that easy to sell and good to have in the mix with some not so small projects.

I'll be doing more sites down the line and it would be my intention to spread the business around, it's in our own interests to keep the market healthy so we can stay local with hosting and boost Irelands rankings as an IT (desti)nation.

Edit: A nice-to-have would be a Dell-style package designer with drop-downs for ram, transfer, etc. Would take some darn fancy cost accounting to keep the rack-space economics stable in fairness.

seodave

I've been hosting with myhost.ie recently and they seem excellent, particularly on support, and no I don't work for them.

DonkeyStyle \o/

kbannon wrote:

On commission Donkey?

No way man, shills are scum... I was just having a bit of fun
Though I have been keeping an eye on the basic personal plans of both blacknight and H365 and the recent addition of mysql to both deals is fan-dabby-dozey.
Oh Hosting365, with these mysql databases you are really spoiling us.

steve-hosting36

ROFL - you ain't seen nuthin yet

Zascar

Guys what are the main differences between the support? They both seem to have the innteractive flash tutorials. Knowledge base, and email support, but Hosting 365 has free teephone support. Not sure if Blacknight have that...

mneylon

We have a locall number and a support desk.

Sposs

Hosting365 has freephone support from 6am to 10pm for all shared hosting customers.
And 24/7 phone support for dedicated customers.

Ph3n0m

Oh come on :rolleyes: this kind of information about support, etc is easily found on each hosting companies website - in pretty damn obvious places

steve-hosting36

ph3n0m - boardsers are lazy (isn' tthat in the charter somewhere ??? )

Zascar

Ph3n0m wrote:

Oh come on :rolleyes: this kind of information about support, etc is easily found on each hosting companies website - in pretty damn obvious places

Cheers. Actually I looked but failed to see it on the blacknight page. The main Support page doesn't mention telephone support.

But Steve is correct we are lazy...

Ph3n0m

Maybe but their contact page lists the number.


So if you got to the blacknight site, on their homepage, middle left - you cant see an image that says "call us?"

Zascar

Yes but I'd say that is more towards sales and not necessarily support. Hosting 365 directly say they have 'Free Telephone Tech Support', I was looking for clarification, is that ok with you?

Ph3n0m

No problem with clarification but

a) Could you not have contacted them directly?
b) pm'd them from boards.ie?
c) or combined your questions into a single post?

Dont mind me, just being sarky for the sake of being sarky

Gordon

I don't think Ph3n0m wants this forum to go down the webhosting forum's route, and posts like #4 there are just begging for webhosts to jump in and go off topic.

Asok

I think we should re-open the web hosting forum for the sheer comedy gold it generated :P.

Zascar

Ok fair ennough. I suppose if posted here its informative for other users too.

I haev been in contact with both hosts and both have offered me fantastic deals. Both excellent to deal with. Thanks guys I will be in contact soon.

steve-hosting36

Asok wrote:

I think we should re-open the web hosting forum for the sheer comedy gold it generated :P.

Here ! Here !

mneylon

steve-hosting36 wrote:

Here ! Here !

Are you ever going to learn to spell?

Sposs

Asok wrote:

I think we should re-open the web hosting forum for the sheer comedy gold it generated :P.

True

However i think people should realise that when hosting companies go to war the only winner is the customer as each company strives for cheaper plans with better support and better Infrastructures.
Instead of always giving out about the behaviour of hosting companies (especially on boards) people should realise and appreciate how passionate these companies are about the industry and just be glad there not all like ***********. (:eek: please don't sue me)

/sposs ends his Gerry Springer style thought of the day

DOLEMAN

Zascar wrote:

Guys what are the main differences between the support? They both seem to have the innteractive flash tutorials. Knowledge base, and email support, but Hosting 365 has free teephone support. Not sure if Blacknight have that...

Tbh I would be more concerned with -

Do they answer your support/billing/sales e-mails?
How long does it take for them to do what you ask them?
Do they make fake promises?
Are they polite or condescending?
Etc.

Having a free phone number etc. doesn't mean much really...

Zascar

True

However i think people should realise that when hosting companies go to war the only winner is the customer as each company strives for cheaper plans with better support and better Infrastructures.

Exactly. Ah, the beauty of competition - several companies batteling for your business, fantastic for the consumer. From this thread I have secured myself an even better deal than the ones on the website, which I already thought was great value...

Thanks to the persistence of companies like Blacknight and H365 Ireland has some of the best deals on websiting, with fantastic customer service. It has come a long way since I first even looked for good value hosting in the late 90's

Sposs, You might want to remove that comment about Company X, your comment in brackets just might possibly happen...

jmcc

Asok wrote:

I think we should re-open the web hosting forum for the sheer comedy gold it generated :P.

And for added fun, make each hoster a mod.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc

Sposs wrote:

However i think people should realise that when hosting companies go to war the only winner is the customer as each company strives for cheaper plans with better support and better Infrastructures.

Yep. The biggest shift over the past six years or so has been to the benefit of the customer. It has moved from being a sellers' market dominated by the ISPs to a buyers' market where the best deal generally gets the customer. The ISPs have fallen through the floor (they now only account for approximately 25% of the market) because they could not compete with dedicated hosting companies such as H365,Novara,Irishdomains,Blacknight etc.

Regards...jmcc

mneylon

jmcc wrote:

And for added fun, make each hoster a mod.

Regards...jmcc

Can you imagine the fun?

Ph3n0m

blacknight wrote:

Can you imagine the fun?

get stuffed, the lot of ye

Zascar

OK lads a few more basic questions. Today I will purchase my hosting package. I want to first it all set up with my primary domain (personal site) - I'll worry about the others later. I'm not sure if I should transfer the domain name over to the new host, or just update the name servers. Does it matter, and does it make any difference? I'm not even sure who the domain is with! I originally registered with www.doteasy.com but then swapped to a different hosting, I think i only changed the DNS Settins though, I'll have to check. Is it easier to just update nameservers and swap over later when the renewal date comes up?

The other thing; All the files that I currently have on my website, i need to transfer these to the new host. Can this be done from server to server, or is is best to just downlaod them all to my PC first and then do an upload to the new server? I assume once I change the domain name to the new host, access to my files on the old server will have to be through the direct admin login as ftp will be changed to the new host. Is this correct?

axer

Zascar wrote:

OK lads a few more basic questions. Today I will purchase my hosting package. I want to first it all set up with my primary domain (personal site) - I'll worry about the others later. I'm not sure if I should transfer the domain name over to the new host, or just update the name servers. Does it matter, and does it make any difference? I'm not even sure who the domain is with! I originally registered with www.doteasy.com but then swapped to a different hosting, I think i only changed the DNS Settins though, I'll have to check. Is it easier to just update nameservers and swap over later when the renewal date comes up?

You only need to update the nameservers. You *could* transfer the domain name if you want but there is no particular need. Check here to see who the domain registrar is.

Zascar wrote:

The other thing; All the files that I currently have on my website, i need to transfer these to the new host. Can this be done from server to server, or is is best to just downlaod them all to my PC first and then do an upload to the new server? I assume once I change the domain name to the new host, access to my files on the old server will have to be through the direct admin login as ftp will be changed to the new host. Is this correct?

If your site is not very big then it would be just handier to download them to your PC and upload them to the new site (at least you would have a backup of the site aswell on your pc).

Well you won't be able to use the domain name to ftp in to the old hosting when the name servers are changed but you will be still able to use the IP address. Just ping the website now and that will give you the ip address of your current hosting. With regards the new hosting and FTP'ing to it - you could get the IP address from the new hosters (support) and upload your site to that address and use a temporary alias for the domain name so that you can test that the site is functional before changing the name servers.

Zascar

Cool thanks. I changed the nameservers just a few hours ago and they have updated already! I think I will change them over to my new host just for ease of management, if I have 4 domain names I'd perfer to have them all with the one company.

So when switching over (when half way through your year of registration) does it cost anything or is it just a case of changing registration information etc?

mneylon

Zascar wrote:

So when switching over (when half way through your year of registration) does it cost anything or is it just a case of changing registration information etc?

You'll get charged by the new provider for the transfer, as they get charged for it immediately as well (except in the case of .co.uk if the new provider is a Nominet tag holder)

Cloud

Note to hosting providers: please do not flaunt your services here, or else we will have to either close this forum or ban users. Ph3n0m has made the rules quite clear, thanks.