Basic hosting advice for hobby site? Good antispam filters?

[TheJoat]

I only maintain a small hobby site (about 4 GB) and also use my host site for my family e-mails. I don't get a lot of traffic; it's mainly to show off some of my work to friends and family.

For the last 15 years I've been a customer of 1and1, but about 6 months ago I started get LOTS of spam. Not only that, but the Spam filter keeps getting turned off somehow. 1and1 support seems pretty clueless, so I think it's time to change providers.

I'm retired, so cheap is good. I'm not selling anything nor maintaining a blog.

Good anti-spam is necessary.

I use Website X5 to maintain my site, so I will require FTP at the new host, but I suspect most of them include that.

I also have my domain name registered with 1and1, but I recall seeing something that it's not a good idea to have domain name and hosting together; although I did not see why that was a problem.

I don't keep my emails on the server; they are all downloaded to my home computer so I don't think I need any migration assistance is needed; I think I can just FTP my stuff from Website X5 to the new host, but I'm not really sure.

Although I do download mail to Live Mail, I also like to access mail from the web, so some sort of Webmail interface would also be required.

I am so glad I found your list, as most of the other "top 10 lists" just seem to be propaganda; but I see that I came over when your "Shared Hosting" section was not quite complete.

I'm sure open to advice at this point.

[kpmedia]

This one is easy.

I'm actually amazed that you had a decent experience with 1&1 for any length of time. That's such a horrible host for many reasons. (And it looks like some of those reasons finally found you.)

Spam got out of control in 2014, and overran most custom filtering based on SpamAssassin. I'm far from a hosting novice, and my own anti-spam efforts were proving futile. After a month of trying to stop it, I just gave up. What I use now is SpamExperts, a commercial anti-spam service, and it works almost flawlessly. Less than 1% of mail now gets through. It adds about $5/month to a hosting plan, but is entirely worth it.

So you need a (1) a basic shared host, (2) a host using SpamExperts.

Veerotech is want you want. (Hint: Ask them is they're running any specials.)

You're looking at around $10/month for reliable spam-protected hosting. You can find cheaper, but you won't get spam protection, or reliability -- or neither. In fact, most SpamExperts hosts cost more than Veerotech, in the $20 range.

Based on this post, I'm going to add a spam column to the shared hosting chart of our suggestions list. Thanks.

[TheJoat]

Thanks so much for the quick reply and the good advice. It's a tad more than I'd like to pay, but in the long run it's just not that much per month extra. Just not having to deal with the spam will be worth it.

I had a few questions that I needed to have answered and they responded within minutes. A far cry from 1and1.

Is there any advantage to moving my domain registry as well? Or a better site to move it to?

[kpmedia]

We have a good relationship with Veerotech, and I asked the owner earlier if he had any good deals going on right now. He did one better, and gave us a coupon code! The coupon code digitalfaq gives a 20% lifetime discount. So a basic account is now about $7 monthly, or about $6 if paid yearly. Add SpamExperts for $4 monthly, and you are indeed looking at $10/month.

Their support is quite quick, yes. And unlike other hosts, it is actually 24/7 support (not just claims). I've asked something at 3 a.m. (frequently!) and gotten a response within a hour. Sometimes quicker.

I highly suggest moving all domains to Namecheap. 1&1 is not a trustworthy host, and if you leave domains with them, you run the risk of losing it.

[MisterNeutron]

I second the suggestion for moving domains to Namecheap. Having your domain registration and hosting together means that things can easily get fouled up if you want to change your host. You want to cancel the hosting, but someone shuts down your account entirely, so now you suddenly can't get to your domain registration at renewal time. Support emails, phone calls, etc., etc. - a mess. Or you want to move the registration and hosting together, but something goes wrong with the domain move, and you can't get to the registration, and you suddenly have no hosting at all (because DNS doesn't know where your site is). Lots of scenarios for chaos.

I get almost no spam, and don't do any filtering (other than the "junk" filter in Thunderbird, which grabs a message or two every day). For me, the trick is not doing a lot of filtering, but rather leaving the spammers behind. I will have one primary address for friends and family, and that's closely guarded - I don't use it for anything else. I have another address for business - banks, brokerage, utilities, etc. If the business address ever gets loose in the wild (it's usually good for a couple of years before that happens), I create a new business address, change my accounts (keep a checklist of where you use that address), and just delete the old address. The friends and family address might get loose if someone you know gets an infected PC, but that's pretty rare - I've been able to stick with the same address for years at a time. The other option is to use your own ISP or gmail for a business address, and let them do the spam filtering.

The really neat trick, however, is to use forwarders. I have a couple of "sacrificial" addresses that aren't actual POP email accounts at all - they're just forwarders. If I have to post an email address publicly, I use one of these. In cPanel, create a forwarder that forwards all email for, say, me001@example.com to myrealaddress@example.com. Don't create an actual POP email for me001. If me001 starts getting a bunch of spam, change the publicly-posted address to me002, delete the forwarder, and create a new forwarder for me002. You can't send outgoing mail with that address, of course, but you don't need to - anyone to whom you actually want to respond then becomes privy to your real address.

[TheJoat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpmedia

We have a good relationship with Veerotech, and I asked the owner earlier if he had any good deals going on right now. He did one better, and gave us a coupon code! The coupon code digitalfaq gives a 20% lifetime discount. So a basic account is now about $7 monthly, or about $6 if paid yearly. Add SpamExperts for $4 monthly, and you are indeed looking at $10/month.

Ooh. Nice discount. Thanks.

I think I'll do this, but I'd like to slowly leave.

My first step is to move my domain over to NameCheap. I had to go in and unlock my domain in 1and1, which I did yesterday. But, according to NameCheap it's still locked. Any idea how long it takes to propagate that information?

According to the response I got from support yesterday, there's 1 free SpamExperts account included (covers 1 domain). So it's an even better deal, and one I plan to switch to once I get my domain switched.

Thanks again.

[admin]

Migrating a domain name takes about 5-7 days on average. It's not a fast process.

Moving the domain first, then the site attached, is very wise. That's the best way to do things.

[TheJoat]

Thanks for confirming that I am doing things in the right order. My problem right now is that I am getting so impatient with 1and1 "support" that I just want to leave immediately. Instead, I am breathing deeply and trying not to lose it all when I contact them.
Investigation of other web hosting sites has been a very interesting process. Before I started this process, I put together a list of questions that I had about not only the transfer process, but about the hosting company as well. One site replied saying that they couldn't respond to my questions because they couldn't find my account information. Ding! They're gone from consideration.
Other sites sent a form letter type of response, which also eliminated them. I got a great response from Veerotech, not only tailored to the actual questions I asked, but sort of reading between the lines and giving a clear response to what I wanted. From a corporate perspective, we're not talking about a lot of money, but from my end it's a different view and I really appreciate someone that listens and responds to MY concerns.

[Brent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheJoat

Thanks for confirming that I am doing things in the right order. My problem right now is that I am getting so impatient with 1and1 "support" that I just want to leave immediately. Instead, I am breathing deeply and trying not to lose it all when I contact them.
Investigation of other web hosting sites has been a very interesting process. Before I started this process, I put together a list of questions that I had about not only the transfer process, but about the hosting company as well. One site replied saying that they couldn't respond to my questions because they couldn't find my account information. Ding! They're gone from consideration.
Other sites sent a form letter type of response, which also eliminated them. I got a great response from Veerotech, not only tailored to the actual questions I asked, but sort of reading between the lines and giving a clear response to what I wanted. From a corporate perspective, we're not talking about a lot of money, but from my end it's a different view and I really appreciate someone that listens and responds to MY concerns.

This is good to hear & I'm glad you got not only the answers to your questions, but additional information as well. If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to let us know.

[kpmedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterNeutron

I second the suggestion for moving domains to Namecheap. Having your domain registration and hosting together means that things can easily get fouled up

Namecheap is the ONLY exception to the "never use a registrar as host" or "never buy domains from the host" rule. They're one of only a few companies that is BOTH a legitimate registrar AND an excellent host. (Godaddy is both a host and registrar as well, but is horrible at both.) That said, I don't think Namecheap is the suggestion for hosting this time. But I just wanted to mention it.

The biggest issue with a host holding a domain is that they are NOT the actual registrar. They're a middleman, and often do not 100% abide by ICANN policies. Getting a domain from a host is a horrible idea, and tragedy often ensues. For example, even before Hostgator was bought by EIG, they had a horrible track record with losing domains. Their response when that happened? "Oops, sorry."

Buy the domain name from Namecheap, the end.

Quote:

The really neat trick, however, is to use forwarders.

In recent years, this got to be tedious. I employed that method in the 2000s, before giving up in the 2010s. If you can still get away with it, awesome. But for heavily trafficked sites, it's proven somewhat futile.

[TheJoat]

The domain transfer went through with NameCheap.com. Hooray! One step closer.
I'm now ready to select my new host, Veerotech.
I have a complete backup of all my files from 1and1.com stored on my hard drive. No databases, just plain old html and jpg.
I have no email stored at 1and1.
My plan is to select Veerotech and then FTP my files to their site.
Is there anything else I need to consider or do before I start this?

[Brent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheJoat

The domain transfer went through with NameCheap.com. Hooray! One step closer.
I'm now ready to select my new host, Veerotech.
I have a complete backup of all my files from 1and1.com stored on my hard drive. No databases, just plain old html and jpg.
I have no email stored at 1and1.
My plan is to select Veerotech and then FTP my files to their site.
Is there anything else I need to consider or do before I start this?

Hi there,

Thanks for considering us - based on this reply, I located a recent ticket that was similar and see that our level 1 techs have already spoken with you. Should you have any questions or need help with getting anything working, please feel free to let us know.

As kpmedia mentioned above, there's a "Recurring" 20% discount always available via DigitalFAQ (even when we aren't running any, the DigitalFAQ promo stays open) but we just pushed a 30% discount for a few days - be sure to grab that one to get another 10% off. You should see it listed at the top of our site.

-Brent

[admin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheJoat

I have a complete backup of all my files from 1and1.com stored on my hard drive. No databases, just plain old html and jpg.
I have no email stored at 1and1.
My plan is to select Veerotech and then FTP my files to their site.
Is there anything else I need to consider or do before I start this?

For an HTML-only site, your "migration" (FTP down, re-FTP up) sounds fine.

[TheJoat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brent

Hi there,

Thanks for considering us - based on this reply, I located a recent ticket that was similar and see that our level 1 techs have already spoken with you. Should you have any questions or need help with getting anything working, please feel free to let us know.

As kpmedia mentioned above, there's a "Recurring" 20% discount always available via DigitalFAQ (even when we aren't running any, the DigitalFAQ promo stays open) but we just pushed a 30% discount for a few days - be sure to grab that one to get another 10% off. You should see it listed at the top of our site.

-Brent

Yes, your techs seem to be exceedingly efficient and I am continually amazed by their quick replies. I was just trying to get some other opinions here, but everyone is of the same mind.
So, the 30% discount will also occur on renewal? Thanks.
After I shovel the snow, I'm going to get started on this transfer.

[Brent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheJoat

Yes, your techs seem to be exceedingly efficient and I am continually amazed by their quick replies. I was just trying to get some other opinions here, but everyone is of the same mind.
So, the 30% discount will also occur on renewal? Thanks.
After I shovel the snow, I'm going to get started on this transfer.

Hi there,

Glad to hear - yes, the discount is a recurring discount.

-Brent

[admin]

And we're now getting thread bounces from the OP:

Quote:

SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<bdc@j***.com>:
host mx01.1and1.com [74.208.5.21]: 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable

Hopefully Veerotech will get that solved for you.

[TheJoat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by admin

And we're now getting thread bounces from the OP:

Hopefully Veerotech will get that solved for you.

Well, that wasn't their fault. It was mine for not moving quickly enough once the domain got registered on NameCheap.

Anyway, I started this morning and soon realized that they couldn't get me to me with the old email. I have a Gmail backup and got everything transferred to that.
More than a few user errors later and I'm in business, with many thanks to Brent. I can't believe how quick the responses were. Not only quick, but patient and helpful.
I'm surprised that my email was back so quickly, I was prepared to wait a day, but all is done and I'm a happy camper.

Thanks to the help here as well as from Veerotech. It is very much appreciated.

[kpmedia]

That's what I like to hear.

I try to give excellent advice (not affiliate-paid advice!), and it's always good to hear it's worked exactly as I said it would.

I'm sure that Brent and others are Veerotech are pleased to hear this as well.

Now that you have your new home, please don't be a stranger here on this forum. Stay, ask questions, help others. And after you hit those magic time markers -- 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year and beyond -- leave a review for Veerotech here. If it's great, great! If there are issues, let's see if we can solve them together (and makes it great).