host for multiple domain names - any recommendations?

[emma]

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I am looking for a host for multiple domain names(don't necessaily need dedicated server though).

It must allow mod rewrite, generous traffic/bandwidth limits, and be extremely reliable. Preferably Uk based, but I would consider others.

Any recommendations?

Emma

[wibble99]

I've been looking for the same and have found the following board useful:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com

Having looked at that I'm thinking of trying a host called:

http://www.httpme.com


They seem to allow you to host an unlimited number of domains - you buy a package with a set disk space and bandwidth and spread it between your domains as you see fit.

Their cheapest deal is 2Gig disk and 20Gig/month bandwidth for $35/month.

That's not necessarily the best/cheapest for what you get, as US hosts seem much cheaper for bandwidth, but the fact you can have lots of domains using it makes it much better value. It should also be easy to upgrade if you need more bandwidth. E.g. up to 6Gig disk and 60Gig bandwidth for $75/month.

They seem to have a good reputation on the WebHostingTalk forum, though as I've not got an account with them yet myself I can't specifically recommend them. But after a bit of research they're the ones I seem to be settling on.

They also have a good forum on their site with lots of help. You can ask questions there too, or search it for previous questions/answers.

[watcher]

I know Hostroute.co.uk have a reseller package for £39/month that allows 100 accounts to be set up. Each account can have upto 300M and 10G bandwidth.

Added
Just had a look and the details have changed slightly, must have been a recent change. Bandwidth changed to 8G; also offering £29/month for 50 accounts

[wibble99]

That Hostroute.co.uk deal looks good! 100 domains with 8 gig transfer each would mean 800gig bandwidth/month for just £39/month. That sounds too good to be true!

Though for what I'm planning I'll probably want more than the max 8gig/month they provide per domain, but otherwise it does look good if you have 50-100 domains and 8 gig is more than enough for most sites.

I'd only expect 5-10 domains, though, so would 'only' get 40-80gig bandwidth a month. Still good value, but I expect a higher bandwidth when the sites get going.

I think for me the httpme.com offer is better as for about £39/month they'd give 50gig bandwidth that I could share between the domains as I liked. E.g. if 1 used 20gig that'd be ok.

But the HostRoute.co.uk offer could have one advantage, in that they say it's hosted in the UK. That could help when getting UK sites on UK search results, as hosting in the US may count against a site. Though I think if domains end in .co.uk they ought to be ok.

[watcher]

You could always email them and ask if they would increase the bandwidth on an account for an additional fee. (By the way I am not affiliated with them !)

[Freebie]

Ask Gordon at hostroute if you can have an old style reseller account. They come in blocks of 5 domains. Each can have up to 15Gb bandwidth, and i think it's 1Gb HDD each. The spec is very reasonable, and the cost is about £40 a month. He charges about £3 per Gb of bandwidth if upgrading is needed.

I've used Hostroute for coming up 18months. I have both reseller and standard accounts. My main observation is that the accounts i have that use the default nameservers have very good uptime stats. The accounts i have that use personalised ns have been prone to some niggling problems.

[watcher]

Freebie,

I' be grateful if you could elaborate on "niggling problems". I am considering using Hostroute. Anything serious to put punters off or stuff that can readily be sorted ?

Cheers,
Keith

[Freebie]

I don't entirely understand the problem, so i'm not sure what to say to you.

Essentially it semed to me that the sites using personalised ns records would occasionally dissapear, and be replaced with a nice DNS error (each 4-6 weeks). When contacted about this hosteroute seem to be able to fix the problem eah time in a matter of seconds.

Before we set up our affiliate scheme we made it perfectly clear that this wouldn't be good enough. They now seem to have the problem resolved, but i seem to have some very wierd settings compared to others.

Hosteroute is a good company all in all, i would certainly buy further accounts from them. If i did buy further accounts, i would use the default ns settings. The accounts that i have with default settings cannot be complained about in any way whatsoever.

The only other comment i have about them is the support. The answers i receive do answer my queries, and during the day the answers are pretty fast, but from midnight to about 8am support can sometimes be lax. Between those hours you have probably less than 50% chance of being ansered as quick as it should be (in my mind a reply should be with me within 30 minutes if the request has been set to high priority). Sometimes you may actually wait until morning.

I hope this helps you.

[Freebie]

Just thought a little more about this. The account i've had problems with started as an individual account at ecalpemos.com (their cheap brand), it was then transferred to hostroute and upgraded. It was then changed into the head account of a reseller package - which has again been upgraded.

I cannot say that we would have had these problems had i ordered a reseller account with Hosteroute to begin with. But i am still confident that the answer lays with the ns settings.

[watcher]

Thanks Carl.

[Frostie]

OK, so after all my mySQL problems with Easily, I AM MOVING! But my head hurtzzzzzzzz

Am I best buying a hosting package from Hostroute (reseller one looks good) and then simply moving all my domain names to them too? Should I keep my domain names with 123-reg and simply change the web-forwarding details?

What are the problems/implications of doing or not doing this? For example, if I choose to leave domain names with 123-reg, then what will show in the URL Address bar? Will it be framed? Will my hosting server show instead of www.nicename.com ?

Also, the reseller package mantions php and mysql, but it doesnt say how many mysql databases are provided? If more only 1, then can this be accessed by more than one domain?

Aaaaghhhh my hosting/domains are all messy and now is time to sort it out I think.

Any help would be appreciated.

One mixed up, head hurting Frostie

[draytop]

I use http://www.oneandone.co.uk


Couple of problems with payments, processing my credit card, but apart from that, they've been ok for me.

Both Windows and Linux hosting.

[eskimo]

Web fowarding as I understand it will just load you pages in a frame set, bad in terms of Google as the spiders wont see the content on your page, also some affiliate networks might not be best pleased.

You should be able to redirect your domains to you new host, while still keeping 123 reg as the registrar of the domains. That way you can renew your domains with 123 reg in 2-3 years time.

Alternatively you can trasnfer the whole she-bang over to new hosts and just deal with them when it comes to domain renewal.

[krull]

Originally posted by draytop
I use http://www.oneandone.co.uk


Couple of problems with payments, processing my credit card, but apart from that, they've been ok for me.

Both Windows and Linux hosting.

Hi

I also use http://www.oneandone.co.uk/

Have had no probs at all (touch wood).

[lukey]

from what I understand oneandone aren't UK though. they seem to host in germany, or at least somewhere in Europe - totally screws with UK SE results.