Hi,

I'm a bit confused on what to do. My old free host, RedRival, isn't going to be free any more... they were originally free, then changed to putting ads up which you can have taken down for a price (which I paid but will probably get screwed out of that money), and now they charge for web hosting. I've switched my site over 3 times, and I don't want to do it again. My site is just for my hobby, but I want it to look good (no ads) and work without problems... plus, a there are plenty of people around the world that look at it. RedRival is located in Canada... I am in the US, and I want an established and reliable host that is listed with the Better Business Bureau. I was looking into NamesAreCheap since it looks like it would only cost $75 per year... they didn't look like they were a BBB member when I looked them up but they did have a satisfactory rating with the BBB... I was a bit unsure since their overall site design looked kinda cheesy and unprofessional. I need 20 MB of space, at least 99% uptime, FTP, and CGI. I also need a domain... squatters took the name I wanted of course, so I'll have to figure out something about that. Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions on hosts I should look into... I do not want to spend more than $120 per year for the few things I need. Thank you for your help.

Wayne

Hi Wayne,

Welcome to the forums!

If your looking for a budget host under the $10 per month we have 20 listed:

www.webhostdir.com/spotlight/budget.asp

If you'd like a larger listing, I performed a search at:

www.webhostdir.com

and found 535 Records, that met your basic criteria.

This should help you get a list of prospective hosts, you can then ask for recomendation on the forums.

Hope this helps!

wayne,

$120 a year is quite reasonable for the requirements you mention. I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding a good host. As James stated, with over 500 listed at this site alone, you can see there is a lot of choices available to you.

Greg Moore

While BBB membership is nice, use it as just a tool for identifying a host. Doesn't mean a guarantee or anything.

Especially not in this area, the Northeastern region site was down recently, and I'd hope that they'd use a host that was a BBB member.

What you can do is search their online database of businesses and see if there are any complaints, I looked us up, and although we aren't members, we are listed, have a satisfactory record, and no complaints have been made against us in the past three years (as far back as the BBB goes to generate their reports).

Actually, BBB membership does guarantee that the host is a legitimate business and not just some kid in his bedroom. BBB membership requires a site inspection by a BBB representative. It also indicates that the host is concerned enough about customer satisfaction to lay out the membership fees and go through the application process. I agree that it probably should not be a critical requirement, but I do think it's more than just nice .

WebAssured (http://www.webassured.com) is another consumer confidence organization that actually does provide a financial guarantee. They independently guarantee purchases made from WebAssured members up to $200.

It's very difficult to know what you're getting into when you sign up for web hosting, or make any online purchase -- just read some of the horror stories about disappearing web hosts in this forum and other forums throughout the web. Independent organizations like the BBBOnline program and WebAssured provide a much-needed extra level of trust. Customers seeking a reliable and ethical web host could do worse than require such third-party validation.

James
http://www.webassured.com/c/Busines...t.cfm?ID=102673
http://www.bbbonline.org/cks.asp?id=100111714581913171

I totally agree with James (that sounds wierd)

Membership of any organisation doesnt guarantee quality, especially if that body requires payment before you can join.

If you read my earlier post about CI host, joining The Association of Internet professionals, you'll know what I mean.

At the end of the day, nothing beats doing the research yourself. If your web sites important to you, why trust it to someone elses judgement.

Granted that BBB membership does require a business to prove certain things about them, so yes it does protect you somewhat from a kid running out of his basement.

OTOH, it doesn't prove the business, in this case a host, has good service, reliable servers, no billing problems etc etc.

Keep in mind too that even the best companies sometimes have a problem here and there. That's the nature of life.