Don't look any further...
Written: Jul 16 '01
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Pros: fast, never down, great technical support, own IP
Cons: php in cgi mode and lack of dns services
The Bottom Line: The best host you can get for that type of money, you can get around their few limitations very easily if you need to.
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| billzeller's Full Review: WestHost |
Don't look any further for a great host. I've been hosted with Westhost on the $8.95 plan for over a year now and they have never, ever been down. Also, the connection is extremely fast (and I'm on a dialup), and you don't get that loaded feeling that you do with some of the other hosts. The ftp is just as fast and has also never been down.
As I'm more of a developer/programmer, I'll deal with the technical details of my account. My server currently runs PHP 4.0.3pl1 in CGI mode. This is hard for me as I have grown accustomed to using url tricks (such as http://www.example.com/this/is/a/dynamic/page). Doing this when php is in cgi mode is almost impossible.
PHP is built with XML, session, posix, pcre, dba, and gd support. I should note that the gd version is 1.6.2, which only allows the making of png and jpeg files due to the legal issues involved with the gif. Freetype support is enabled and linked with the TTF library.
About six months ago, I thought it would be nice to make some sub-domains (http://subdomain.example.com) for my site. I contacted Westhost and was told that there would be a charge for each change and that I would have to set up a new account for each subdomain. I later asked how much it would cost to point another domain to my current one and was told there would be a one time fee of $20. I had also recently contacted them about changing the MX records to which I received a similar reply. Because my account comes with my own IP address, I simply moved the domain to mydomain.com, got all the services I needed for free, and pointed the domain back to my IP address. This would probably be difficult for the novice to accomplish, but then again, how many novice users need to change their MX records?
Although they advertise unlimited bandwidth, this is slightly deceiving. "Unlimited bandwidth" applies only to Jpeg, Gif and html files. Additionally, "Sites containing paid advertisements, such as banner ads are limited to 6 GIG of transfer per month." Their policy and guidelines can be found at:
http://www.westhost.com/policy.html
Recommended:
Yes
Monthly fees (US$): 8.95
Platform used: Linux
Hosted on Secure Server: No
Database used: MySQL
Main focus of Web site: Publishing/Content
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Epinions.com ID:
billzeller
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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