PDA

View Full Version : Web Hosting Recommendations?


whizzywyg
Wed., Jul. 2, 2008, 4:10 pm
Hello everyone...I'm back after a long period of time from when I posted my "Introduce Yourself". Trying to serve as webservant for my church and maintain a full time job and house has proven challenging. I wish I could just quit my job and work on the church's website. Oh well, I digress.

To the point, I'm interested in knowing what web hosting services other churches are using. I am hoping to launch our completely revised website that will use CSS, etc as we want to bring our current website (www.epiphanylc.org (http://www.epiphanylc.org)) into the 21st century :). We are going to make a switch to a new web host and I'd like to know if there are any good ones that are also Christian based/owned. I recently created a registration page on our website for VBS and learned that our current web hosting service doesn't allow us to create a form so that we can receive back information (they are very small and local and they would have to handle all the programming behind the scenes for a fee). We are going to switch web host providers because obviously that won't work for us. I made a mad dash to sign-up with EhostPros.com because the price was right and I needed a solution fast, but I've had support issues because even though they have a "western face", they must definitely be based in India because they'd always ask me to call back in 6 hours when their technical staff would be in, which would be the middle of the night for me. Below are some details about our website/direction:
1) Being developed using Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks etc (Adobe Web Premium suite). Will use CSS.
2) We're using CoffeeCup software's Form Builder for our forms. (I don't know JSP or any scripting languages yet to do it myself in Dreamweaver)
3) I want to use Linux hosting, not Windows
4) I need one that offers unlimited MySQL databases (or at least more than 10 like our current provider offers as CoffeeCup's Forms Builder requires a separate database for each form...I can't point it to different files within a database).
5) I like Cpanel's interface for managing the website
6) I'd like to have 24 hour support either by phone or chat (because of my day job, my web work for church is sometimes done at midnight)
7) We use Servant Keeper as our CMS so I'd like to know if there are web hosting services that are friendly with SK so we can network it and/or anyone on this forum that has networked SK successfully.
8) Naturally, price is a factor as I have little to no budget so I may have to pay for it myself.
9) Allows for a minimum of 5 domains.
10) Allows me to continue using GoDaddy for my domain name registration
11) No ads that would have to be on our website
12) Offers good security tools
13) FTP capabilities are a must
14) Allows port forwarding so we could possible purchase a server that could interact with our website...not DMZ though
15) A plus would be any that offer some training tools as I try to come up to speed on web programming and server setup/administration.

Thanks to all...hope this wasn't too long

JackWolfgang
Sat., Jul. 5, 2008, 11:04 pm
I've been pleased with ChurchQuest, which just changed its name to MediaServe.

http://www.mediaserve.com/aff.php?aff=078

Their standard plan allows unlimited domains, unlimited e-mail accounts, and unlimited MySQL databases (until you fill your account's diskspace).

Note to David, if the affiliate link is unacceptable, please truncate the URL to the domain only.

David Gillaspey
Sun., Jul. 6, 2008, 12:36 am
Note to David, if the affiliate link is unacceptable, please truncate the URL to the domain only.Hi Jack,

I wouldn't even have noticed it if you hadn't mentioned the affiliate link (the "aff=078" at the end of the URL that Jack provided), but it's OK with me.

dnuttall
Sun., Jul. 6, 2008, 8:00 am
I've been pleased with ChurchQuest, which just changed its name to MediaServe.
http://www.mediaserve.com/aff.php?aff=078

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Do they offer secure shell access and do they use mod_suphp in their standard configurations?

I fully realize that its possible to run a web-site without either "geek option" mentioned above. However, I've had several experiences over the past 5-7 years with hosting services who avoid those sorts of configuration options and it seems like each time a person tries to take advantage of a stable advance in some particular package, it's a very hard task because "cPanel doesn't support it and you have to learn to live with cPanel as your controller".

Uploading files to *NIX hosts that get mixed with files created by the Apache "nobody" UID/GID becomes a tangled mess when a site really gets to rockin'. And also, the ability to configure a domain/sub-domain with a discrete php.ini instead of being limited by .htaccess is another benefit that I see from hosting services who allow the mod_suphp module to load into Apache.

Apologies to all who don't give a hoot for any of the above!

Dave

tedjacobs
Tue., Jul. 8, 2008, 9:17 am
Check out Connecting Members, they help churches across the country.

www.connectingmembers.com (http://www.connectingmembers.com)

www.catholicchurchwebsites.com (http://www.catholicchurchwebsites.com)

dnuttall
Tue., Jul. 8, 2008, 9:22 am
www.catholichurchwebsites.com (http://www.catholichurchwebsites.com)

Looks like a faulty link from here!

David Gillaspey
Tue., Jul. 8, 2008, 10:29 pm
All,

I corrected the typo in the URL that Ted provided.

whizzywyg
Wed., Jul. 9, 2008, 11:04 am
I contacted MediaServe and they sound terrific. I will probably use them. I asked the questions that Dave wondered about in this thread and their response was....

Thank you for contacting us and for considering us for your hosting needs. To answer your questions:

1) Do you offer secure shell access

Yes.

2) Do you use mod_suphp in your standard configurations? I would like the ability to configure a domain/sub-domain with a discrete php.ini instead of being limited by .htaccess.

Yes, and this article discusses setting up the private php.ini:

http://www.mediaserve.com/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&catid=9&id=36 (http://www.mediaserve.com/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&catid=9&id=36)

dnuttall
Wed., Jul. 9, 2008, 4:46 pm
I contacted MediaServe and they sound terrific. I will probably use them. I asked the questions that Dave wondered about in this thread and their response was....

DEFINITELY the "right" answers. It indicates to me that they probably have a good grip and understanding of their infrastructure.

Their pricing is reasonable and probably about middle of the road for services I've monitored in the past 6 months or so!

Thanks for the followup!

Dave