XStreamHosting vs VeoWEB (long)

[neocronic]

Ok, here's the deal. I am starting up a new fansite for a game that has yet to be released into beta. The main things that I want to do with the site is provide game information (more as the game comes out, of course). For the main layout I am planning on using SSI so that I can add/remove content from menus and such easily. I would also like to provide 5-10mb hosted sites to a select few sites about the same game (but not clan sites). For these hosted sites, I will need subdomains and seperate FTP accounts. Anonymous FTP is not that important as I do not plan on being a file server other than quite a few screenshots (no videos, demos, programs, etc). I would also like to have pop3/smtp for myself, hosted site administrators, forum moderators, and maybe some other people.

I am looking at around 100mb for the main site, 100mb for vBulletin (room for expansion!), and 5-10mb per hosted site (more or less as required).

On another note, it would be nice to provide web-based email for my visitors, to make the site stickier and bring up traffic. If I were to use a service such as BigMailBox or everyone.net, would that mean I wouldn't have pop3 mail anymore?

Ok, so I have found two hosts so far that appeal to me. I was considering communitech.net or one of it's resellers as well, but I dropped that idea. Information about the two is below.

VeoWEB - rated 9.7 (out of 10) by 15 hostsearch.com visitors.
Professional Plan (http://www.veoweb.com/plans/pro.html) - $15 setup, $30/month (payable quarterly)
550mb space, 20gb bandwidth, 5 domain pointers, 20 subdomains, 20 ftp accounts, unlimited pop3, smtp server, php 3.0.7, mysql 3.2.2, dedicated ip, ssi, telnet

XStreamHosting - rated 10 by 2 hostsearch.com visitors.
Supreme Plan (http://www.xstreamhosting.com/hosting.html) - $0 setup, $36/monthly (payable quarterly)
500mb space, 30gb bandwidth, 4 domain pointers, 42 subdomains, 48 ftp accounts, 300 pop3/smtp, php4, mysql 3.2.2, dedicated ip, ssi, telnet

So, any good or bad input on either of these two hosts? If anyone does use one of these two, could you provide a link to your site so I can see the speed?

I spoke to the tech support for xstreamhosting.com through an online chat window (very convenient!) and he knew the answer to every question I had, was very quick and helpful, and it is available 24x7! I am leaning towards them, but the community will often show you things that the domain host themselves won't.

One more thing, they told me that if a user is using too much bandwidth or cpu usage then they will notify the user via email, rather than just suspending/terminating the account. That was a very positive note to me, won't punish you for getting popular.

Thanks in advance :)

**this novel has been brought to you by neocronic**

[Chris Schreiber]

Originally posted by neocronic
On another note, it would be nice to provide web-based email for my visitors, to make the site stickier and bring up traffic. If I were to use a service such as BigMailBox or everyone.net, would that mean I wouldn't have pop3 mail anymore?

I use everyone.net and am very happy with them, it sure has increased my site's traffic. There are a few ways you can offer email, each with advantages/disadvantages.
user@yourdomain.com - This requires changes to your site's MX records, so all POP email will go to everyone's server instead of yours. You can, however, setup forwarding accounts in everyone.net's control panel to forward certain address to a different POP account on another server.
user@mail.yourdomain.com - This requires a MX and CNAME change. This is more difficult to type and remember, but leaves your regular POP in tact.
user@yourmail.com - This is what I did... I got a seperate domain just for email that was easy to remember, but didn't interfere with my main site's email

I can make a specific recommendation on either provider you've listed, but from what I see here I would also learn towards XStreamHosting.

-Chris

[neocronic]

originally posted by Chris Schreiber
user@yourmail.com - This is what I did... I got a seperate domain just for email that was easy to remember, but didn't interfere with my main site's email

I think I understand..

I do plan on reserving the .net and .org for neocronic. (Please don't do this before I do, anyone reading this ;)). Would that work with domain pointing through XStream do you think, or would I need a seperate domain host just for mail. I could have neocronic.net for email I suppose. But then I would want neocronic.net for hosted sites too (I like the sound of Neocronic Network). Hrmm, doesn't matter really I guess.

Which do you feel is more important for a gaming site? Visitor web-based mail services, or pop3 mail for myself, hosted site admins, and site visitors. I wonder if there is some sort of way to setup vBulletin to create mail forwarding accounts for all registered users, by the registered user's board name @neocronic.com. Possible hack, or impossibility?

Thank you so much for the input :)

Edited Note: I am currently looking at www.hostyard.com for the .net site. They offer space (which I would need 5mb or so, for pages with meta redirects), free sub-domains, and I am finding out if I can use everyone.net or bigmailbox with them. Look like it will work?

[Edited by neocronic on 08-30-2000 at 01:08 AM]

[atom911]

A tip -- never mention a domain name you plan on registering if you really want it. With some places only charging 12 bucks(and less) for domains, someone could pikc it up for the hell of it just to piss you off...

Your lucky no one has yet...

[eva2000]

i suggest http://www.aplushosting.com check out the their plans...

http://www.aplushosting.com/english/products.phtml



[Edited by eva2000 on 08-31-2000 at 01:28 AM]

[neocronic]

I have registered the domain, hehe. Thanks for the pointer though =]

I checked out aplushosting, but they seem to be a bit much. I think that my final plan is as follows..

neocronic.com on XStreamHosting. This will have 500mb, 30gb monthly xfer, 42 subdomains, 48 ftp accounts, 300 pop3, and php/mysql. - $36/month

neocronic.net on hostyard.com. This is 5mb, 1gb monthly xfer, "unlimited" subdomains, 1 ftp acct, and I will have bigmailbox or everyone.net setup on it. For subdomains such as hostedsite1.neocronic.net there will be a simple page to redirect to hostedsite1.neocronic.com.


I think it'll work. Anyone see kinks with the plan? I think with the site's current layout I can get around 28k hits/day before I hit the 30gb limit. That is of course just 28k views of the main (aka, news) page. The forums use less space than the main page does, I hope... With that much space to grow, CPM advertising should pay for the site.

Anyway, thanks for the input everyone :)

[etones]

You really want to try http://www.positiveinternet.co.uk

these guys offer a lot for such a small price, they even knocked off £40 because I had to transfer a domain.

Great or what?!

Hope it helw, T.Mistry

[carp]

try datablocks.net

they have great plans (plus a free plan)
and their servers are great for php stuff