who is a good uk host?

Andy Hamilton · Fri Jul 28, 2006 10:06 am

There is a huge amount of choice out there for webhosting and although we still have ours for another few months. I thought it best to start looking elsewhere. Our hosting company can't seem to cope with us as you may have noticed with the downtime every now and again.

So can anyone recommend another host, I would have thought a UK host would be the best to go for as most of the members (at the moment) are uk based.

Martin · Post: # 31501Post **Martin** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 10:44 am

xilo.net - good prices, nice chaps, used them for years - highly recommended!

Andy Hamilton · Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:06 pm

Cheers chap will look into it.

Martin · Post: # 31535Post **Martin** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:40 pm

I'd suggest emailing Matt (the head honcho) at this address - support@xilo.net - ,mention your present site, include a link, and ask his advice - by all means mention I recommended them!

Andy Hamilton · Sat Aug 26, 2006 6:49 pm

will do, it won't be straight away. I think we are getting to the point of needing a dedicated host so will have to do the maths and figure out if we can afford it.

shiney · Post: # 31551Post **shiney** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:35 pm

I use Fasthosts. Very good, based in Gloucester. Splendid phone help and internet help too. If I can make and upload a website with them, it's gotta be good. (not that you don't know what you're doing Andy)

http://www.fasthosts.co.uk

Martin · Post: # 31556Post **Martin** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:47 pm

oh lord - at the risk of sounding like sour grapes, Fasthosts may be ok for ordinary websites - but don't have a good name for database driven ones!
(just read any support board for database cms, forums etc,)

Martin · Post: # 31559Post **Martin** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 8:12 pm

ps. my advice would be to start the move a couple of months in advance - it's quite a job, "moving" a database, so what I'd do is build the new site on the new server over a few weeks - then, when you're ready, just get the name pointed to the new one!

I would take the opportunity to consider perhaps the other database driven things you could run alongside (all on the same server) - a content management system is amazing for a community - http://solarwind.org.uk/news.php - my own site is using E107, which is probably the best cms going!
Then I'd seriously look at migrating to the "SMF" forum - far more flexible, looks better, and a doddle to run/mod
Then you can also go for your own ecommerce (look at Cubecart).......they're all sql, all available for free, and work extremely well!

I've got about 7 versions of E107 on Xilo servers, and around 6 "cubecarts", and 4 "smf forums" too - all work very well, and the staff are used to databases!

shiney · Post: # 31563Post **shiney** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 8:43 pm

Sorry Martin, you've completely lost me. I am not a website expert but I'm happy with them. Lucky I have an ordinary website.LOL

Andy Hamilton · Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:12 am

Martin - I have moved servers before and did take the time to have two identical self sufficientish's runing side by side. It was a very quick learning curve working out how to drop tables in etc.

I am with shiney in saying that you lost me on your second bit of your message?

Martin · Post: # 31586Post **Martin** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:39 am

in simple terms - phpbb is a bugger to use, it works well, but is a pain to work on, and adding extra functionality is a nightmare, so what I'm suggesting is that when he moves to a new server, that he takes the opportunity to migrate to "SMF", a different forum, which has things like spellcheckers built-in, and is a one click job to add mods..............

Then, it may be an idea to use a "content management system" like E107 - it's a database driven job like forums, and is very easy to present things like articles, news, forums, advertising - the whole thing! - ideal for communities!

Andy Hamilton · Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:59 am

MAkes sense will do a bit of research and see if it is suitable. I take it one can populate it with all the data here on this forum.

Martin · Post: # 31616Post **Martin** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:45 pm

you can certainly do a phpbb - SMF upgrade relatively easy, there's good conversion programmes available

Tay · Post: # 35152Post **Tay** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 11:50 pm

I know that this thread is old, but I'm still going through the threads as I'm new here.

I can recommend Goscomb Technologies http://www.goscomb.co.uk/ as an excellent UK host. Their customer service is fantastic (email replies often within minutes - best yet is 1 min 24 seconds!), their prices are good and they offer UK-based dedicated servers. Databases aren't a problem for them either, and if you need to transfer a db to them, it is a piece of cake.

Just to note, I have no affiliation with Goscomb; I'm simply a happy customer.

Andy Hamilton · Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:43 pm

Tay wrote:I know that this thread is old, but I'm still going through the threads as I'm new here.

I can recommend Goscomb Technologies http://www.goscomb.co.uk/ as an excellent UK host. Their customer service is fantastic (email replies often within minutes - best yet is 1 min 24 seconds!), their prices are good and they offer UK-based dedicated servers. Databases aren't a problem for them either, and if you need to transfer a db to them, it is a piece of cake.

Just to note, I have no affiliation with Goscomb; I'm simply a happy customer.

Not too late at all, in fact we are still trying to get the cash together before we move servers. Cheers another one to add to the list before we decide.