Multiple shared hosts wanted: Namecheap, more reviews?

[via Email or PM]

Hi there,

I saw your signature (they DO work LOL) of recommended hosters, but you are in EU, right?

So they aren't hosters in the US?

Do you take reviews from people like me who had a TERRIBLE experience with Host Dime & my current hoster who I won't name until I've moved?

I'm looking into Name Cheap now.

I know, I know, I normally would never touch a domain registrar company & I've already had HUGE problems with them not understanding me when I talk (not sure which Easter EUR country their support is out of), but someone who's helping me for free b/c he knows I don't have money & I've been going thru hell with my current hoster, recommended them. And they FINALLY passed me thru to someone who is understanding me, so there are some people there who understand English.

And their pricing is for the year, not the month which will be a load off my mind. I really did want to switch to SSD, but I guess I have no choice

I've decided that instead of paying for extra IPs every month which is what I've been doing for years & costs me a lot, I'm going to get different hosting plans instead & make sure the IPs are from different batches/servers. This is so people can't see every domain I own on reverse lookup.

I rejected this idea the first time my website coder recommended it, but at this point there's no other solution.

I don't really log into CPanel on a regular basis, so that coupled with Cloud Flare will have to be the solution.

I'm on VPS now which was THE most horrific experience for me, & I'm going back to shared, but not resellers as I don't reseller, I just liked the reseller setup on CPanel.

Thanks

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[kpmedia]

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Originally Posted by via Email or PM

Hi there,

Hi there back.

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but you are in EU, right?
So they aren't hosters in the US?

Nope! We're in the USA, though we have strong ties to Europe and Canada both (and Australia somewhat), in terms of you we have relationships with, as well as you our primary members are. That's why I often put my location as "USA, Europe and the WWW". Because it's a global world, and we're a citizen. We suggest hosts primary in North America (both USA and Canada, sorry Mexico!), but with many suggestions for Europe and Asia as well.

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Do you take reviews from people like me who had a TERRIBLE experience with Host Dime & my current hoster who I won't name until I've moved?

Yep!

Please put your review here on this site. Here: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/web-hosting/

I also track how hosts are doing for others, not just myself. Because if something bad happens to you, odds are it will eventually happen to me (if using that same host) as well.

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I'm looking into Name Cheap now.
I know, I know, I normally would never touch a domain registrar company & I've already had HUGE problems with them not understanding me when I talk (not sure which Easter EUR country their support is out of)

Namecheap is an excellent choice, and is the one exception to the "never host with a registrar" rule. Most registrars offer pathetic "me too!" type hosting offers (mostly as new products only offered in recent years), but Namecheap actually has quality hosting. We use Namecheap as well, for that very reason.

(FYI: Godaddy is almost an exception, too! Just not yet. They have vastly improved their hosting quality, though support has ways to go. They're working on it. The T&A ad days of former CEO Parsons are gone, and the company is moving in a more professional direction. Someday, they'll probably be the other exception to the registrar rule.)

However, there are many more good hosts. What do you actually need?

For example:
- InMotion
- Siteground
- TurnKey
- Stablehost
- etc

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And they FINALLY passed me thru to someone who is understanding me, so there are some people there who understand English.

"Kindly please be awaited." < You hate Engrish, too?

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really did want to switch to SSD, but I guess I have no choice

Why? SSD is merely one component of a server and web host. If all things were equal, SSD would be faster, maybe better. It's mostly just newer tech, nothing more. It's usually the "SSD is faster" (false) meme that I hear. I don't often hear of others NOT wanting SSD.

This site uses HDD for files, but SSD for databases. HDD space is cheaper, and it's mostly the databases that benefits. On shared hosting, SSD is better solely if the same server is used for the MySQL. Some hosts use on-server MySQL, some use dedicated MySQL server. That's something to be aware of.

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I've decided that instead of paying for extra IPs every month which is what I've been doing for years & costs me a lot, I'm going to get different hosting plans instead & make sure the IPs are from different batches/servers. This is so people can't see every domain I own on reverse lookup.
I rejected this idea the first time my website coder recommended it, but at this point there's no other solution.

You should have rejected the idea. Your "website coder" believe is long-debunked myth involving IPs and SEO. It does nothing. You're (A) throwing away money on IPs and./or more hosts, and (B) wasting IPv4 space. If you want to hide the site, do what everybody else has been doing for 5+ years now: use CloudFlare. Then all anybody can see if the CloudFlare IP. FYi: That alone is proof that the "IP=SEO" myth is nonsense. Otherwise all sites using CloudFlare would rank badly, and that's NOT the case whatsoever.

This site uses CloudFlare. Not to "hide", but for the other benefit it offers. The free plans will work for that. The paid plans ($20/month/site) offer more features (firewalling ASN, etc), which is what we're using.

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I don't really log into CPanel on a regular basis, so that coupled with Cloud Flare will have to be the solution.

You need to do two things:
(1) If you have multiple non-HTML sites (WordPress, etc), use multi-domain "reseller" hosting. It's safer. Don't cram all your domains as "addons", as one hack WILL leads to all your "addon" sites getting hacked. If a site is hacked in it's own cPanel account (using true multidomain "reseller" hosting) only that one site is hacked. Others still fine.
(2) If using CMS like WordPress, monitor updates regularly, at least twice monthly. Some updates offers just features (no updates needed) while others offer security (often needed, though not always*). [For example, if hack only affects access to wp-admin, but you have wp-admin locked via htaccess, no worries.]

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I'm on VPS now which was THE most horrific experience for me,

VPS isn't fun. Stay shared as long as you can. The "use a VPS!" meme is just as bad use the "IP=SEO" myth. It sounds great, but is actually not at all accurate.

Related editorial from about two years ago:
The Myth of VPS Hosting: Reasons to Avoid It! Part 1
The Myth of VPS Hosting: Reasons to Avoid It! Part 2

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I'm going back to shared, but not resellers as I don't reseller, I just liked the reseller setup on CPanel.

I truly hate the term "reseller" hosting, as it implies reselling. I'm sure that many use it as such, but not the majority of users. It's simply multi-domain hosting. cPanel puts all sites in a single Linux account, meaning a hacker (or even errant script) can fubar everything in it. You have not only security issues to worry about, but overuse/abuse of resources. You don't have that worry when each site/domain gets it's own account. "Addons" are a leftover from the pre-CMS days of HTML-only sites.

Plesk was more intelligent about this, but nobody offers Plesk Linux shared hosting. (Well, not entirely true, several truly awful hosts have it!)

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Thanks

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[RapidFinancialSolution]

Hi,

Ok, I had to sign up & then remember you wrote me LOL

To clear a few things up:

1. I don't need the IPs for SEO, I need them for myself b/c I have domains from many different arenas/industries & I don't want people to know what I own/operate.

I've been cyber stalked before & still am by a crazy lunatic mortgage broker. The net is a dangerous place unfortunately. It attracts a lot of crazies.

So yes I do need the domains, or to go this route with multiple different accounts, but I can ONLY do it if the pricing is like Name Cheap's (NC)

2. To educate you, Cloud Flare (CF) doesn't completely solve this problem & here's why...

Cloudflare does not cover email, it only covers the web site.

The mail records (mx record) for the domain will still point to your domain name servers, and if two of you domains are compared, someone could assume the two sites are on the same web host.

3. I was THIS close to signing up with a brand new hoster (yes I know it's a risk), but his deal was too good to pass up for all the shared accounts & he was going to give me managed.

Then after wasting a week of going back & forth with him re: questions, I find out they don't have enough servers & therefor IP4s. They only have 5, & I need 7 or 8.

I wasn't happy, let me tell you.

And that's when I learned you can't even get an IP6 even if you want to b/c they won't work worldwide. You have to get an IP4 to go with the IP6 so all the hosters & ISPs still pointing to IP4 can read your site.

So what's the point in even getting the IP6's if you have to get the IP4s LOL, JUST NUTS.

The guy helping me with setting up CF & sort of helping me to figure out why my sites were going offline so often on the VPS says that NC isn't managed, that all they will do is deal with something if their server goes down.

I get that they won't do coding for me, that's not what I was expecting, but now I'm afraid that if my site even has a white page (I had that with host dime often, amazingly not with this VPS) or I can't log in & they have to go in the backdoor, they won't help me at all. I'm used to the hosters helping me with that.

But what can I do?

I have to move by the end of the month b/c I won't pay another month with this terrible VPS company. My sites still continue to go down once or twice a week & I lost about 45% of my traffic (SERPs) b/c of them.

They keep blaming my sites & I agree maybe it is a plugin (there's no way for me to know), but b/c they lied & said it was managed & I was clueless that VPSs have so little memory, I had no idea this would become a nightmare for me.

The guy helping me who recommended NC said it's MySQL pushing the sites offline.

Thanks for the other info re: reselling. I'm going to discuss it with my website coder. He's not a server guy. He uses Host Gator who I WON'T use, & he loves them LOL He also has reseller & just sells space to his clients.

Thanks