[Herts] Linux web hosting

[Thorstein Thorsteinsson]

Thanks a lot to everyone, its really been a superb response. I'll be
going over the various options and make a choice among them - its always
a comfort to be going on a recommendation.

Thanks.
Thorstein

PS. Some individual replies follow.
PPS. On a lighter note: 
http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200105/df20010528.jpg

> > Some requirements:
> > Linux(!)/Apache
> > cgi (perl or ideally python)
> > mysql
> > ssh and apop access are reasonable requirments, I guess?
> > Disk space and bandwidth! (or reasonable upgrade terms, if it proves > 
>necessary)
> > > Hostway (www.hostway-uk.com) seem to provide all of these, but at 
>?8.95/mth > for their most basic package, they're not cheap.
>
>Black Cat advertises all of this except mysql, which I don't know if
>they provide - you'd have to ask them. Depending on the range of
>services you actually need, you might find safeperl a suitable
>replacement, which is on their cheaper package (but no shell access).

They provide mysql or postgresql. These may be cumbersome to use through 
their
"safeperl" package, but with shell access it shouldn't be a problem. (BTW, 
quick
response to my query!)

>That depends entirely on your own requirements. Do you need a guaranteed
>uptime? Low latency? How much traffic do you expect to attract? I
>personally would not want to run a public web site on a cable modem/ADSL
>connection for these reasons, but if you want complete access to your
>system it may work out cheaper to host your machine at home rather than
>in commercial colo (I assume this is above your budget).

Although it is for strictly non-commercial pages, like you, I don't feel 
quite
comfortable running a server something like 24/7 at home. (And if you run a 
mail
server, I guess you may lose mail if you are down for significant periods?)

The main advantages of running at home are cost and control. But then you 
also
need to be an the ball wrt. security, which I'm not at the moment. Ideally I
would want a second (low-grade) PC which I could dedicate as web/mail 
server.

>I would recommend www.pcs-net.com ( and mention me if you order!! )
>
>They have everything you ask for and are extremely cheap, the only thing 
>that
>isnt there is shell access.

I hadn't considered US-based hosting, but you're right, they do seem to be 
very
competetive on price with lots of features.

>But at the end of the day do you really need it?  Unless you're doing 
>something
>very unusual I suspect you dont, perhaps you could let us know more about 
>your
>requirements?

Actually, all I meant was that I prefer not to upload using standard FTP 
with
passwords in clear text (seems to be all some providers offer). Probably I'm
being paranoid, but I'd prefer scp or another method of secure upload.

>Alternatively if you really need it then there's ukshells.co.uk ... not 
>bad..

Yes, they look very good also.

>Check out http://www.ukfsn.org/    I have an account with them and am happy
>with both their service and philosophy.    They are an ISP which actively
>seeks to support Free Software.
>
>Their free account offers PHP, Perl and Python with mySQL.

As I need a domain name, I would be going for "Standard" or "Premium" 
packages
which at £50 and £100 per year, respectively, are still quite reasonable. 
Asked
what their bandwidth limits are (their web site doesn't state it), they 
replied
that this simply hasn't been an issue so far, but "customers whose sites are 
so
busy that they cause disruption to others will be contacted to discuss how 
best
to resolve the situation" which seems fair enough. BTW: does the .org 
address mean
that they are US-based?

>You could try UK.Linux.net http://www.uklinux.net/membership/ although I
>have no personal experience of their service.

I had bumped into this site, but as they require dial-up subscriptions for 
their
"free" accounts, I didn't investigate further.

>Before having anything to do with uklinux.net, pleae read jason Clifford's 
>comments at http://www.jasonclifford.com/uklinux-short.html

Interesting! Linux seems to be used more and more for marketing purposes, 
I'm sure
not always in the most uprightstanding ways.

>http://www.fasthost.co.uk/06_envisage.html
>I've been using them and I've found them very helpful - no complaints.
>They will host on Windows or Red Hat Linux servers depending on what
>features you need.

They look professional and quite competetive. They don't mention Python 
anywhere, so
probably I'll look elsewhere (as I also seem spoilt for choice!). (Also, 
MySQL and the like
seem to be considered extra features for which there are additional charges 
- £50/yr in
the case of MySQL).

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