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Microsoft
Office Live - BudgetHosting Web - GoDaddy
- iPowerWeb - PowWeb -
EZ-HomeBiz If you haven't done it already, you should
start with
Website Hosts
and find out the Top 20 Web Hosts to Avoid.
This page provides a first introduction to web hosting, and will keep you
occupied until I can update this one with the next level of tips and tools. My
own clients have a wide variety of hosting needs, so I steer them
toward the cheapest host that meets their specific needs. If
you want an absolutely free hosting with no ads, I would recommend
Microsoft Office Live Small
Business. Be sure to register as a business, even if you're
not - you soon will be! For dirt cheap,
no-frills hosting you can try BudgetHostingWeb.com.
You get very little except hosting space. BudgetHostingWeb
is part of an international network of search engines and
specialized sites which has been providing web services to over 3
million customers since 1996. We provide a range of low-cost web
hosting services for individuals and businesses. This
seems to be an Australian host, charging about $2.00 a month. They
do not allow anything but automatic renewal, so be sure to
keep up with your account if you want to switch to another host
later. They respond quickly to email questions or problems, but
their communications in the billing department leaves something to
be desired. Still, for the money it's a great deal! As
far as I can determine, BudgetHostingWeb is not an
accredited ICAAN registrar. (To see the list, go to ICAAN.org-Registrars.)
They may be a reseller - one level down and working under an
accredited registrar, but if so, I can't seem to find out who they
are a reseller for Since
Phoenix Technologies now offers its own web
hosting service at EZHome-Biz.org, where I can personally monitor and manage all
of those clients hosting with us, I am in the process of switching
the BudgetHostingWeb sites to our own servers. I
won't recommend them because I think it would be a conflict of
interest, but if you benefit from the tutorials you are reading
here I would hope you'd give us a shot because (1) it helps keep
this site alive and (2) we're small enough to give you individual
personalized service and yet still big enough to offer you all
the bells and whistles you could want! My advice is to avoid
resellers and deal with the Big Dog - an accredited registrar on
the list! Recently, tens of thousands of
website owners have lost their websites and their domain names
when their registrars and/or hosting companies went belly up
without even telling them. This can be a disaster. In one major
case (Firefly.com), the registrar was registered, but the
board of directors and the CEO got into a feud, locking each other
out of their offices and creating a pile of crapola for everyone
who depended on them before finally going bankrupt. Most
websites will fit on a floppy disc (less than 1.44 Mb), so you
probably don't need 5Gb of storage and all the extra bells and
whistles that come with that higher price. GoDaddy
is one web host I have no trouble recommending, primarily because
of one thing - 24/7 phone customer service! When I need to call
them, I am not put on hold for 45 minutes. Instead, someone
usually answers the help line within 60-90 seconds. iPowerWeb
is a hosting company I have dealt with in the past, but would not
want to recommend. The opposite of GoDaddy, their customer support
really sucks! They give you canned cut-and-paste answers in email
that usually have nothing whatsoever to do with your problem. In
fact, I have to believe they don't even read their emails - just
grab and paste an answer as quickly as they can, whether it's
relevant or not. I moved all my sites off this host for that
reason. PowWeb is, I
believe, a part of iPowerWeb, though I won't swear to it. I have
one site currently hosted there and have no complaints to speak
of. Their customer service, while not stellar, is at least better
than iPowerWeb. |
