Best Web Hosting Provider For Solo Domain ?

I wrote an article series:

• Part 1 <a href="https://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/how-to-create-run-manage-your-own-website-part-i.14706">How to create, run & manage your own website - Part I</a>
• Part 2 <a href="https://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/how-to-create-run-manage-your-own-website-part-ii.15136">How to create, run & manage your own website - Part II</a>
• Part 3 <a href="https://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/how-to-create-run-manage-your-own-website-part-iii.15501">How to create, run & manage your own website - Part III</a>

You don't have to learn web programming if you only want to start a website and post information on it. For domains, I'd recommend Godaddy and there are several low-cost web hosting companies out there that you can use. If your online presence is critical to your project/venture; I'd recommend going with a web hosting company that offers rock-solid support & hardware.

@#-Link-Snipped-# I am going through your article right now.

One more question : How important is webhosting ? I wanna know advantage of web hosting.As in how it is better than accessing & managing WP blogs (which hosts your blog for free) ?

When you want a complete control of your website - you should opt for web hosting. Else, you can map your custom domain to your existing WordPress, Blogger or Tumbler blog. It all depends on what you're trying to do.

For a simple blog, you should go with a free blog provider.

I don't know if this is the best way of doing things- but this is how I have done it.
1. Registered a domain name with go daddy
2. Got some space from go daddy
3. installed wordpress platform on main domain
4. since i came to know that only 1 blog page can be made by default , i ended up creating multiple subdomains , again installed WP on each of them for multiple blog pages.

I have not yet tried to understand the SEO stuff.( I am not worried about it currently).

Godaddy is known for their domain registration services; they aren't quite good at offering web-hosting. That may soon change, because they acquired mediatemple.net for a few million dollars. While they've promised that MT will remain an independent web hosting provider, I expect some integration with their services. No one knows how long it will take though.

If you install WordPress, the default setup should be all fine. One may need to spend a bit on themeing the blog; but once that's done; you're free to focus on your content. There are a few plugins that one must install, but I'd recommend installing them only after the blog has some traction and content (100+ posts).

You may check web hosting offers from Hostgator or Bluehost. For serious projects, I'd strongly recommend LiquidWeb - the company we've been trusting for ages.

@#-Link-Snipped-# How do you differentiate 'simple blog' & 'complex blog' ?

I oftenly visit brownbytes.com of @#-Link-Snipped-# & also coding scared of @#-Link-Snipped-#, I like the simplicity of their websites.
I want similar looks, though I have set of uber colors which I have noticed in numixproject & would like to add 'em.
Inshort, I want simple looking blog & that doesn't mean I want it just because it's cool to have your own website. I surely wanna make it big.
I have few ideas which will attract Engineers, especially Indian in month of March-April (^_^)

The opposite of simply may not always be 'complex'. The context of my post points to a blog that only shares content (text, audio, video, photos) with the readers and offers simple interactivity (commenting). There are mission critical websites (CrazyEngineers, for example) that cannot afford to be on a basic hosting environment. If the servers fail, the loss is huge.

If you are planning to start a web-app; then you will need your servers to support all the software required to keep your web-app running. If your blog receives lot of visitors; your server should be able to withstand all the traffic.

If I'm not mistaken, @#-Link-Snipped-#, who runs IndianNerve ran into issues with web host. Could you share your experience?

Imagine what'd be your loss if your website gets hacked and the hacker deletes all the content? Does your web hosting environment provide a way to backup everything and restore it without much efforts or technical know-how?

If you don't want to spend time, money and resources into taking care of all the troubles, my recommendation will go to opting for a free blog hosting service like wordpress.com or blogger or tumblr.

It's all about ensuring that the 'foundation' is solid.

Ohkay, gotta read more before leap.Thanks for information 😀

Once you install WP on your own hosting space. you have total control.
It will act like independent site. You can change anything you want.
I have started my blog few month ago. (Lazy me not doing much for it)
1. set up WP on your computer
2. Buy domain name
3. Buy space (Could be from same hosting site also)
4.There is option to export WP code and sql tables.
5. Upload to space hosting and configure with domain hosting
Setting up is not much hectic quite smooth process.
Once you setup WP on hosting you can change each line of code and that is freedom of hosting over wordpress.
May be you don't need plugin stuffs for everything you can just change the code and do it by yourself.

See the blog below, This is quite simple theme and I have changed logo to overlap on header and see sidebar is always in view area. there is no plugin for it. I have coded it by myself. Though I don't know php a bit it's quite easy to mess around it 😀

Que: What about amazon webservices and pricing. Liquidweb price is looks high to me☕

I knew jack squat about websites when I started out, and Biggie and Ankita helped me initially in purchasing the domain and setting up WP on the local server.
I approached Hostgator India for hosting after going through all the reviews on web, and within 2 months they had some server issue and the site was totally wiped off web, and I had lost each and every article I had posted till then (about 90-100 odd articles). We had no hard backups, and it was within 2 days that we searched for the articles manually in Google, pulled up the cache, and re-added those on the site. Hostgator too had lost the backup, so we had to rely on Google cache for this, and thankfully we retrieved close to 60 articles.

I've not since changed my web-host, as I never faced such an issue a second time, and also because now we store regular backups in our system.

It took me about an year of reading (and 2+ years earlier at CE) to properly understand how a site and a host work, and now I can pretty much say that for better indexing and site performance, you do need a good host.

If it's a cheap and 99.9% efficiency that you seek, Hostgator would be recommended. 😀

After comments from all CEans, now I feel relying on these web-hosting services even after paying this much of money at initial stage of blog when you have very less users is worthless.
So,I am eager to setup my own dedicated server using RPi & arkOS. If setup goes successful tomorrow, I will post a thread on 'How To create a private webhosting server' using Raspberry Pi.
Let's hope, everything goes as expected. 😀

There's more to setting up a dedicated server. What you'll need is a 24x7 Internet connection & bandwidth to handle all your traffic. But I personally look forward to a guide on how to create a server using Raspberry Pi. Keep us posted.

Sanyam Khurana@#-Link-Snipped-# now, this is the thing I was telling about, we need to run it 24*7 , and if this is the case, we can't do it.

I trust Raspberry Pi & I can assure you that it can stay live 24x7. I just don't have faith in my ISP (BSNL!).
I don't really care, if I fail in establishing server using arkOS; but it will be sad if I don't try at all.



After burning, if I won't be able to find boot.txt or config.txt (it happened in <a href="https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/blob/master/README.md" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">noobs/README.md at master · raspberrypi/noobs · GitHub</a>); I will be screwed from the beginning. I just hope it has, as I will need for monitor (my HDMI monitor is dead,atm).

No excuse, if arkOS won't do my job, I will go for Raspbian or Pidora; because since so many days I wanted to establish my own server (Just for sake of achievement in my personal diary) 😀

while you are it, I thought I might just throw in few more issues what you might want to consider and might find ways to circumvent.
1. Your server needs to be accessible from everywhere, which implies its IP address should not be something what keeps changing . So you would need a static IP.
2. Since your server is established within your house network, it is assigned with a 192.168.x.x ( a private IP) and any packets with source IP as a private IP are promptly dropped in the network. Hence, you would need a public IP.
3. An IP which is both public and static is expensive . You will have to check with your ISP if they rent out public IPs ( you need only 1), where you can NAT your private IP to public IP and vice versa,

ALso, its better if you can put your case forth to your ISP and check if they have any possible solutions for small businesses

Abhishek RawalI trust Raspberry Pi & I can assure you that it can stay live 24x7. I just don't have faith in my ISP (BSNL!).
I don't really care, if I fail in establishing server using arkOS; but it will be sad if I don't try at all.



After burning, if I won't be able to find boot.txt or config.txt (it happened in <a href="https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/blob/master/README.md" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">noobs/README.md at master · raspberrypi/noobs · GitHub</a>); I will be screwed from the beginning. I just hope it has, as I will need for monitor (my HDMI monitor is dead,atm).

No excuse, if arkOS won't do my job, I will go for Raspbian or Pidora; because since so many days I wanted to establish my own server (Just for sake of achievement in my personal diary) 😀

Mine too is MTNL, not reliable, 😔

Yes, try it, if it works it would be great, or we'll try plan B 😛

durga3. An IP which is both public and static is expensive . You will have to check with your ISP if they rent out public IPs ( you need only 1), where you can NAT your private IP to public IP and vice versa,

Yes, to host at your home you need public IP without which hosting is not possible.
Earlier I have hosted once and shared on internet but from last march stopped providing public IP and asking for more money if want a public IP (Reason for not giving public IP is, they can't track you, if necessary 👀)

@#-Link-Snipped-# Thank you for information, I didn't knew all these.

durga1. Your server needs to be accessible from everywhere, which implies its IP address should not be something what keeps changing . So you would need a static IP.

Came back from BSNL office, as per their norms; I can get static IP on request, but only if I have monthly plan >1000 INR. Since, I am using Night UL 600 INR plan, I am not eligible for it. And it costs INR 2100 per annum for plan within range of 1000-2100 & around 2700 for 2100+ plans.
Now, it won't be smart choice to opt for static IP as in around 2700 INR, I can get web hosting service from godaddy for 1 year.

durga2. Since your server is established within your house network, it is assigned with a 192.168.x.x ( a private IP) and any packets with source IP as a private IP are promptly dropped in the network. Hence, you would need a public IP.

Any workaround for this ? How to make it public IP ?

Abhishek RawalAny workaround for this ? How to make it public IP ?

In public ip you just need to forward the port from your router to your server. That specific port should be listen by your webserver.

oh! if you are opting an external provider, then IP is not your headache.

PS:You still can set up an server ArkOS for your internal hosts just to checkbox in your hobby notes.. Now I am curious too!

ianoopIn public ip you just need to forward the port from your router to your server. That specific port should be listen by your webserver.

I am noob in this networking thingy, can you elaborate please ?

durgaoh! if you are opting an external provider, then IP is not your headache.

PS:You still can set up an server ArkOS for your internal hosts just to checkbox in your hobby notes.. Now I am curious too!

I will be setting up arkOS no matter what; if hosting website will fail,I will setup 'owncloud', power external HD with external Power supply, & make it my own cloud storage. Let's see where it goes, but still my primary priority is webhosting.

Abhishek RawalI am noob in this networking thingy, can you elaborate please ?

If you are running a web-server you can access your webserver from local network by <server-local-ip> :<port-usually-8080>.
Now if you have a public IP, which means your computer is accessed from anywhere on web using your <Public-IP> and some specific port.
To access a specific server you need to open a port on server , say 8080 , and then you need to forward this port (Google port forwarding) to your <server-local-ip> .
Then you can able access your server from internet.

If we use any other websites static ip, then it should work, but can we use it?

(With their permission) ?

@ Sanyam , in my limited networking knowledge -
In general, IP address is uniquely mapped, you cannot use someone else's IP ( which is already assigned to a server) . That might well end up your traffic on their server due to DNS entries getting messed up in process.
Yes, there are technique's where a single Public IP can be used by multiple hosts , one of then is using NAT/PAT , but you should be within a single domain and PATTing can be then applied at the gateway, otherwise I don't see how it is possible.
Anyone familiar with VM here?

durga@ Sanyam , in my limited networking knowledge -
In general, IP address is uniquely mapped, you cannot use someone else's IP ( which is already assigned to a server) . That might well end up your traffic on their server due to DNS entries getting messed up in process.
Yes, there are technique's where a single Public IP can be used by multiple hosts , one of then is using NAT/PAT , but you should be within a single domain and PATTing can be then applied at the gateway, otherwise I don't see how it is possible.
Anyone familiar with VM here?

Oh yeah, I know it now, when RAT is used too, we have to get a public IP, and the connection is maintained through a public IP through NAT.

Thanks, it's clear now.

So, technically we can't use that. {Most Probably}

Here I want to put up a question, if we set up a blog on wordpress.com, and then just have a domain, I think it would work fine, but later we plan to use WordPress.org and have hosting, would it be feasible to migrate the blog?

Or , if sites like 1freehosting, could help, we can have a domain, and then hosting by them?

yes, you can migrate your blog to a dedicated web space. Should not be an issue.
I did migrate my blog multiple times ( from bloodspot to wordpress and then finally to my own webspace)

@#-Link-Snipped-# Ghost or WP ? your opinion ?
Ghost seems promising tho.

@#-Link-Snipped-# - Whta's BloodSpot? Tried searching but got all the blogger links.

is ghost out of beta yet??? need to check. has been a while.

Kaustubh Katdare@#-Link-Snipped-# - Whta's BloodSpot? Tried searching but got all the blogger links.

thanks to auto spell checker. my life has become hell these days
vlan changes to clan :-s
blogspot changes to bloodspot

durgais ghost out of beta yet??? need to check. has been a while.

I have tested it & I like it's editor. Simple & attractive. Wordpress is more than a blogging platform. Ghost simplifies entire blogging thing.
Looking for good ghost themes though.

oh! I might use ghost for testing and feasibility checking purposes, I don't want to try fixing things on new Softwares ( exp of upgrading to OSX ) .

EDIT:hosting services @ GHOST are not yet up as per website

There are several reasons why you would need a web hosting provider. The most obvious one is that it's the best way to get and keep your site online and visible for the whole world to see. Moreover, if the host is reliable and professional, it will also influence your search engine rankings in a positive way.
(MOD Note : hyperlink removed)

I'm planning to shut down my previous blog on C/C++ and shift all the things, to the new blog, if in future we have adds from Google Adsense, then would it be problem, {I don't know if the adds would be from this current account or a new account } .

Please experienced, Adsense user, tell me, would it voilate Google's policies, by any chance?

Please note, I would put a redirection on the previous blog's URL, so that when someone visits it , he would be directed to my new blog.

Unless you use two Adsense account on single site. it will not violate the policies.
Sometime they also say not to use another monatization system with adsense on same site.

Adsense accounts are identified by publisher ID and this always appended with the ads on internet. Like I have publisher ID now it can be used at any number of sites irrespective of site owner.

If anyone want to use I will happily provide you 😁😁

Edit: for example on CE , for Google ads, publisher id is (removed actual publisher id)

pub-xxxxxx3853108979

ianoopUnless you use two Adsense account on single site. it will not violate the policies.
Sometime they also say not to use another monatization system with adsense on same site.

Yes , I know this, but don't know if in this case, I can migrate my own stuff, even if it would be monetize by some other account, or my account.

I'm confused, because if they reject, it would do bad to all of us.

ianoopAdsense accounts are identified by publisher ID and this always appended with the ads on internet. Like I have publisher ID now it can be used at any number of sites irrespective of site owner.

If anyone want to use I will happily provide you 😁😁

Edit: for example on CE , for Google ads, publisher id is (removed actual publisher id)

My main concern is, if I transfer all the stuff to the new site, then there would be two images in cache of google of same stuff, and sites like copyscape, would identify it as copied articles, and this can hurt me, if google adsense shut down my account for a wrong reason/ misunderstanding.

I don't want this to happen, and seeking a nice solution for this.

Nope, that's not gonna happen. This mean either you are doing plagiarism or lowering your site value. Nothing more than that.

we can change the space hosting provider, when we don't feel the servers are slow or some other issue.
But can we change the domain provider. Isn't site performance also depend on domain provider?

ianoopwe can change the space hosting provider, when we don't feel the servers are slow or some other issue.
But can we change the domain provider. Isn't site performance also depend on domain provider?

But they will charge for this, domain provider can be changed, but there's a fee for transfer, generally around the price of a new domain.

Kaustubh KatdareThere's more to setting up a dedicated server. What you'll need is a 24x7 Internet connection & bandwidth to handle all your traffic. But I personally look forward to a guide on how to create a server using Raspberry Pi. Keep us posted.

@#-Link-Snipped-# now, this is the thing I was telling about, we need to run it 24*7 , and if this is the case, we can't do it.