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It may be time to change to a new host.
It may be time to renew with my existing host.
If I change, I can save significantly. (75%)
If I stay, I will...
-- remain with a host with which I am familiar
-- pay about twice what I paid for the signup deal
-- pay about four times what the EL-Cheap-O places are offering
I changed to this host due to various reasons, and I'm glad I did.
I learned about lower costs, and I like them
Now their costs are going up as high as the previous host, which makes the advantage approximately gone.
So far, my website(s) have been super low traffic and almost zero upkeep.
Question One: What do the experts here think ?
Question Two: There are one zillion hosting companies; where do I read the opinions of those who use them ?
(preferably, those who are currently using multiple hosts for multiple sites)
Question Three: is there a better place than the lounge to have this discussion ?
----EDIT----UPDATE----
Responses have indicated that my original post lacked needed info.
I have...
About 50 domain names; maybe 75; haven't counted.
About 100 or 200 E-mail addresses; again, haven't counted. The vast majority (90% easily) of those are just E-mail forwarding addresses; I use them for spam paranoia.
As time progresses, I want to host two or three small focused forums.
These forums will grow to millions of users and make me rich without any work (oh yeah)
modified 17-Apr-14 8:13am.
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000webhost by a mile.
I know some people are wary of free stuff, but I've been with them for years and they have excellent uptime, features, bandwidth, and hard-drive space for low traffic websites.
Only annoying things about them:
1. If your traffic is really, really, really low (like 1 hit per month), or you don't sign into their membership portal every few months or so, they may pop an advert (advertising themselves) on your pages, despite their no-ads policy. Nothin' a bit of my hackish JS couldn't fix though...  
2. They don't support ASP.NET.
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Is that 75% of "a lot of money" or 75% of "a little money"?
If it's the later, and you are happy with the service, then I wouldn't switch - "if it ain't broke" and all that.
If it's the former, then it's a good question, and here is as good a place as any.
How many hours of your time will you invest in moving, and how much is an hour of your time worth to you?
But personally, I can't be bothered with the free hosts, they are far too much trouble for the money you save.
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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I'd agree with OG, saving a significant % of an insignificant amount is not worth changing. This can only be answered by you, 75% of $60 a year is not significant to some while it is a deal breaker for others.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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You can go to Web Hosting Talk[^] for some ideas...pretty overwhelming place though. Cool thing is a lot of ISP's go in there and offer deals.
I've been using cPanel plans at a couple of places for some years...I'm in Canada and want to keep my sites here if possible because the digital rights issues are getting kinda murky and I want to host in a place where my rights are predictable.
Having said that, places like Digital Ocean[^] in New York are mighty tempting...I'm ready to graduate from cPanel plans to VPS...might take some struggle at the beginning but it'd be nice to have some guaranteed resources.
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C-P-User-3 wrote: my website(s) have been super low traffic
Bah. Save your time, money and aggravation. This internet thing is just a passing fad.... 
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I have been with the same host for some 7 years who just so happen to have some rather awful write-ups out there.
However in those 7 years there have only been a handful of down half-days.
My attitude is "better the devil you know".
So if you can afford the cost I would recommend staying with them if they are reliable for you.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I like Arvixe:
http://www.arvixe.com/[^]
I have my personal web site there. I moved a client's system to a sub-directory on my site so they could keep running while I updated their site (asp.net, SQL Server). The performance was so much better, they moved to Arvixe permanently. (Note: I do not work for Arvixe).
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I agree. I have been hosting several sites with Arvixe for several years and I have no complaints. There are less expensive sites and have been tempted to give Mochahost a try for my new clients but so far, Arvixe has won my business. In the last case, the deciding factor was that they have a data center in Amsterdam and my newest client is in Europe... Mochahost is strictly US. Arvixe support is first rate, very responsive.
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Hi C-P-User-3
I've been using ASPNIX [^] for the last 4 years and they are really good. Their support is very quick to help and they resolve any issues within minutes. I've also tried Arvixe which did not give the the support which I needed as quick as ASPNIX.
Email me if you are interested in moving.
Cheers
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Hi C-P-User-3,
You don't mention what you require, php, asp.net, mvc or something else? Do you need a database back-end MSSQL or MySQL? Also how much space you need? Yes super cheap/free hosts are available but they have to cram 1000's of sites onto a server to make the figures stack up.
We use a Windows Web Hosting provider, which has it's servers in the UK, as we are also in the UK - Nutty About Hosting. They provide dedicated UK based developer support too. Pick a hosting provider in your country if that is where your audience is.
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Good points, good observation. I have just edited the original post with an update.
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I have used Servage.net[^] for almost 5 years. They have unlimited webspace and traffic.
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I have been with two hosting providers, both were free. Most of my traffic comes from Google crawling the site.
000webhost[^] I tried to log in one day and found that my account was locked because I exceeded their limits. I don't have a problem with that, what bugged me was that they didn't notify me that I was even getting close, they just locked the account. I tried to talk to them and they would only unlock my account if I paid them. I didn't have a recent back up or anything so I lost most of my posts. I was here about a year.
byethost[^] I am currently with byethost. They have been fine so far. I did get an email from them in March that I had hit the 50% mark on my daily allotment of traffic. I have been here 6 or 8 months or so.
I am thinking about DigitalOcean[^] at the moment and thinking that paying a few bucks a year would be worth the switch.
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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Update: Saturday Night
Tried Servage. Couldn't figure out their website. I clicked on "Order" or whatever it was, and I got stuck in an eternal hysteresis loop.
Trying MochaHost, this is creepy, no human with a voice.
Okay, okay, I have limited needs, and I'm going cheap. Some of you guys who were blabbing at me about the financial and psychological aspect are starting to make sense.
There is still a place in the world for humans in business who speak with their voice.
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I just came across http://www.openstreetmap.org/ and have been playing with the data. Amazing how many parking structures there are.
It's like an open source version of Google Maps (streets, restaurants, places of interest, speed limits, and so on). You can download all of the data as an XML file, or you can download just the data for a particular city or other region (click "Export" near the top of the page). There are apparently programs to analyze the data, but I've been having fun just looking at it in a text editor. You can even contribute to it, but I haven't tried that yet.
Have any of you come across any interesting data that can be freely downloaded?
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AspDotNetDev wrote: Have any of you come across any interesting data that can be freely downloaded?
No comment. 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Hmmm... I clicked the "Where am I" without entering anything in the search box and it told me I am in Kansas  . I then clicked it again and it said I am in West Virginia. At least I am not in Kansas anymore (  ), but it is still way off. Several time zones, actually. Or did I misunderstand how that feature is supposed to work?
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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SoMad wrote: I clicked the Where am I
How did you do that?
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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Right where there is a Search field and a blue "Go" button to the right of that field. You should see the text "Where am I?"
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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It tells me I amim Chang Rai, Thailand. A long way away from where I am.
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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Never mind, I just realized it seems to look at whatever is in the center of the map when you press "Where am I?". So when the map came up, Kansas was in the center, when I pressed it again, the map must have moved or zoomed so West Virginia was in the center.
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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I didn't think I was anywhere near Chang Rai. 
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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Missed by half a planet - accuracy needs a little tuning. Thinks I'm in the UK!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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