Hi

In general, I would really recommend SupaNames:

http://www.supanames.co.uk/index.php

I have an account on an old server (jag) that doesn't have gd support, but I think that the new ValueHost Pro and Premier packs do, just not sure what level (last time I checked was Nov 02 and then it was 1.6 or higher).

You might just ask soemone to do a phpinfo check for you! Might be quicker.

Why not go to their forum (used by loads of non SupaNames folk as well) at:

http://forum.supasites.co.uk/phpBB/index.php

Register and post the question. Not sure which area, but you decide. Address your question to Barnaby (who I think is the owner). He may take a day or two to answer, or some other folk might.

The prices are quite good, and the support is excellent. Personally, I have four sites with them and have not had any downtime in two years. The servers are fast too.

The other folk I know are good are HostPlus, at:

www.host-plus.co.uk

But you would have to ask what they mean by latest version of PHP 4 means. They make no reference to the GD library, but then most hosts don't, it is often just there, installed!

Trevor

thanks trevor, will check these out .
i looked at hostrocket
they look good but the servers are US based, do you think that would matter??
once again thanks for the time to answer

FOTG hosting at
FOTG

HTH Rob

edit: Sorry, I put an extra w in it.

good host cant even get in

Hi Zeber

Just to update my earlier reply.

SupaNames appear to have gone security mad and disabled allow_url_fopen, which just about killed any (most) of my php files that had urls in the includes, AND my search engine (which used fopen to read the pages)!

I suspect it was both security and to reduce bandwidth usage (which is theoretically unlimited on my account, but no downloads, which they appear to think fopen could be).

Anyway, I sent an email to Host Plus about their accounts, and this is what I got:

Our standard specification on most servers is as follows:

PHP 4.3.2
MySQL-3.23.56
ImageMagick 4.2.9
Freetype and XML-Support
cURL-SSL-7.10.3
libmcrypt-2.5.7 Support
Sablotron-0.96 Support
gd-2.0.12 (JPEG, PNG and WBMP)
freeTDS support for access to MS SQL
PDFlib support

register_globals is 'on' on all servers, this can be overidden via a .htaccess file if required.

allow_url_fopen is set to 'on' on all servers.

Also, if you access their pricing page via this link:

http://www.host-plus.net/index.php?module=Static_Docs&type=user&func=view&f=specials.php

You get six months 'free' hosting (added to the end of your deal).

Trevor

thanks Trevor, your a gentlemen, will check them out.
You seem to know about this game, what is your opinion on using a server in the US(see my prev mail) and what hostrocket has to offer, what do u think
regards,

Hi Zeber

From what I've seen and heard, they do things different over there.

Most charge by the month, and they work out quite expensive.

Don't forget, they aren't geared up to .uk type addresses (which are MUCH cheaper). after all 99% of Americans don't relaise that there IS a world outside the good ol USA.

Host-plus's cheapest account is £19.99 per year. Take off the effect of the 6 months free and this costs £15.99 per year, plus VAT (I expect), which is £18.80, or £1.57 a month ($2.60).

I doubt you'll find a deal like this in the USA (don't forget most states in the USA have some tax to add too, typically up to 8%, and your credit card company will hammer you 3% on exchange rates and up to 3% to convert the currency).

Personally, I am going to go for the ILS package. Considering what's in it, it's fantastic VFM. It allows for 6gb monthly transfer and 10 free subdomains.

My advice is to get a more expensive package than you need. If you want to upgrade from a cheap package, you normally get stung for the whole package cost again.

For example, you register your domain (www.bonkers.co.uk) with your host for 2 years on the super value misers pack.

6 months down the line, you need to upgrade to the super pro geezers pack. They ignore the fact you have 18months left unused, and stitch you up for the full whack. They re-register your domain for another 2 years, coz it's the cheapest way to extend the registration. Let's say you pay £19.99 x 2 years plus VAT, that's £46.98, for 2 years, but you only use it for six months.

The new account costs £25.99 x 2 plus VAT, another £61.08. And you won't get any special intro offers. In HostPlus's case, the free 6 months adds to the end, so if you upgrade before then, you lose the free 6 months. Take the above example (not real!) you would end up paying £108.06 for 2yrs 6mths.

HostPlus ILS account is £49.99 x 2 plus VAT, £117.48, also for 2 yrs 6 mths. Not much more than a cheap package to start with, then upgrading (usually coz you need a feature, or you've exceeded your monthly bandwidth).

My advice? Don't buy a cheap deal, you will get frustrated and have to upgrade. You still won't get a good package, but you will have paid more than the mega package you could have taken from day one.

Trevor

thanks again Trevor for the time you spent to reply, greatly apprieciated.
Yes have looked and the site sounds good, my only drawback could be the bandwith of 6GB on the ILS option. I would hopefully exceed this, my site has a lot of images and is searched constantly,
if they just allow you to exceed and maybe charge a bit extra that may be ok, but what if it is well exceeded. i tried to ask this in FAQ but it would not allow me to ask a question lol. i Have emailed with this question, but yes i will take your word this is the best around, it sounds good. have you a site with them? is the speed good?

Hi Zeber

I have spoken to quite a few people who DO use them and nothing but good replies.

My site WILL be with them v shortly.

As to cost to have more bandwidth, he ho.

I have a friend who until recently worked for a bandwidth sales company (sells to hosts), he says you should pay about 25p-50p per month extra per gb. e.g 6gb would cost approx £20-£30 per year (plus VAT)

Host Plus say that you can order the extra bandwidth per 4 week period, but advise you to do it in advance (keep an eye on the usage).

It really pays to keep files small!

If you have loads of gifs, optimize them (I'll let you know a site for a v good freebie that does this, saves me up to 30%).

If you have loads of buttons, consider DOM/CSS instead. Take a look at DOM Menu (on mojave), it is very configurable and can look v good (I use it on my site).

Trevor

thx trevor, i sent them a mail and they responded straight away you can buy in extra 500MB's. I think i will use them.
The images are gif's optimised and created with fireworks, but also photo uploads JPEG's that are actually resized in my php program using GD2 lib, i may have to mess with this and look at it to see how much bandwidth i would be using, it is obviously hard to tell, depending on how many people use the site. it is a dating site by the way , i have nearly written it and to make matters worse it has a chat room, when i started i had plenty of money but not so now, so the problem has occurred of hosting and also linking to a paypal site or somethimg, still i have spent 6 months on it so it will get there somehow!!
I am a programmer by trade and done this in my spare time.
thanks again.

Hi Zeber

b4 you look at paypal, I would think about it a bit.

Take a look at:

http://forum.supasites.co.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=4823&forum=10

Which discusses various options.

Trevor

yes i said 'paypal' but meant a paying system, i to have heard bad things about paypal, looked at the site you mentioned
oh! yet more things to think about
lol

Hi Zeber

I have still been searching for hosts for my own use. I found a US based one you might be interested in:

powerweb (http://www.powweb.com/). If you have want a new domain name included, this one is a bargain.

650MB RAID storage, 45gb monthly transfer. A 2 year plan costs $186.48, which is (@$1.66=£1) £56.17 a month, and no VAT, whereas Host Plus was £49.99 + £8.75 VAT. Granted Host Plus gave 6 months extra, but the free domain had to be the cheap .uk etc variety, whereas this is for .com, etc.

Curiously, they do not mention sub domains, which you would think was a strong marketing point, IF it were possible. Of course, if the host allows certain features in the .htaccess file, you can do it yourself, but none that I have seen do this (they block this features and make you pay for it).

BUT, the feature is enabled in the powweb servers! So, rather than the 'free' 5 or 10 or even 20 subdomains, you can have as many as you want with powweb!

As to reliability, it is at the industry standard (99.7%). Not good enough if your business relies on it. But you would be mad to use any service of this type if it did, you would have a dedicated server plus backups! They even throw in mySQL now (they used to charge $10 per year extra).

Trevor

yes there is so many option it makes the mind boggle i will think more when my sites complete.
what is your site ?
let us know when u have it operational i would be interested to see how u do, i will let you know when i go live myself
all the best
Zeber

www.unitedhosting.co.uk

they are the best ever

no offense but clevatreva is speaking a load of rubbish

Monthly billing is a GOOD thing because hosts can be great the first month then suck afterwards, and then you are stuck with them.

US hosting is much cheaper than UK hosting because there is no tax on it and US bandwidth is much cheaper.

unlimited bandwidth is something you should look for - look for it then get the hell away from that host. it is not possible for a host to give unlimited bandwidth, and if they say they do then they are lieing.

i reccomend getting a cheap package from a reputable company like unitedhosting. pay per month(never pay for a year up-front with a hosting company you have never been with before. try them for a few months first if you want the yearly discount). Then if you need more room/bandwidth for your site you can simply upgrade to a more expensive package. No reputable company will make you extend your domain, lose payments for a yearly-paid plan etc. etc. The only hosting companies that do things like this are usually the £20/year hosts.

For a general pricing structure, around $0.80 per gb / £0.50 at minimum is the price you want to pay. Eg a host offering 30gb bandwidth per month for $5 is more than likely to suck, as it costs them roughly $1 per gb if its a US hosts(around £4 per gb if the servers are in the uk).

Also NEVER get the host to register your domain. Always do it yourself. Its only $8 and it will save you a lot of hassle if you want to switch away from that host. Its not uncommon for the less reputable hosts to 'hijack' your domain and refuse to change nameservers/transfer ownage, or charge a stupid fee like $200 for it, when its around 15seconds work.

My reccomendation: www.unitedhosting.co.uk they have a brilliant track record(search for unitedhosting at www.webhostingtalk.com) and use servers in the US for the cheapest prices, while maintaining support etc in the UK.

thanks for another opinon, if you use a U.S host does it matter for speed. My site will be only used by the UK market?
hence a .co.uk name would be better?
i noticed the bandwidth is much cheaper in the US and this would be a big sway for me as i have lots of GIF's
thanks? do you use the host you recommend?

speed is no problem. only place where it can become a problem is when you are gaming online.

a typical ping from the UK to the US is around 1/10th of a second, or 100ms. Within the UK its around 25ms. Really, these are speeds you won't notice at all. Data transfer rate will be the same(you'll get the same k/s)

I don't personally use them but the owner posts a lot on a forum i frequent, plus they have tons and tons of positive reviews, and the owner's a nice guy If i had to pick a host to use it would definately be them, but since my friend runs his own US webhosting company i get hosting from him

thanks for the advise,
and you dont recommend your friend?
haha

Hi, try www.bestukhosts.co.uk, it's not a hosting company, but you can search for and compare hosting packages. Make sure you select PHP in your search!