Since the switch to Amazon EC2 I cancelled hosting with my previous provider Site5. Now due to unfortunate timing I cancelled a day after being invoiced for (and paying) a months hosting. But in an unexpected move, in the email confirming my cancellation I also got a full refund for my last payment.
So if anyone needs web hosting, consider Site5.
Ooh, my host now has a referral scheme. It doesn’t seem that good for businesses but great for users since they aren’t giving money but USB pen drives. Anyway if you take up the offer on any Miniserver or dedicated server you also get 10% off.
Miniserver or Fully dedicated server.
The Miniserver is what I’m hosted on. It’s half way between virtual hosting and a dedicated server. The server is essentially partitioned across all it’s resources with each user getting a guaranteed usage depending on the number of users. Of course you usually get more than this since most users don’t use a server to it’s limits. The advantage over a dedicated server is simply the price - they start at £19.95 a month. The advantage over virtual hosting is you can do almost anything to it that you could do to a dedicated server except change the hardware or alter the kernel (they’re running Linux). You can even install a different distro on them (they come preinstalled with your choice from a small selection).
The bandwidth is unmetered, but you’re only guaranteed 1/40 of a 5Mbps line on the cheapest option (and this doesn’t allow adult sites - you need the metered option for those).
For anyone like me who needs the freedom to install software but can’t afford or justify a dedicated server, they’re perfect.