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Maine

ITT: we discuss the web hosts you use, what you recommend and what i can expect when aquiring my first domain..

i recently taught myself HTML and CSS.. in the process of learning some javascript and im working on building a nice website to post my art and music.. i dont really know much about web hosts or what i should be paying or what im doing really in that front.. please give me suggestions i could use them

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matt's mind

apart from their native email client (squirrelmail...  it sucks, and they will not change for some reason), i'm been basically happy with dreamhost

they fuck up from time-to-time, but not nearly the amount of some i've used in the past,

and, on that note, avoid 1&1 like the plague

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Maine

yea the prices dont look bad.. do they give you an option of using a third party email service? (i know i should be asking them but i rather would get advice  from user experience)

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Maine

also i will say i like the design of your site kitsch did you code that yourself? just wondering not to like call you out or what ever

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matt's mind

yeah, you can set it up in outlook/thunderbird or whatever if you wish, i would assume re-route it to gmail/yahoo or whatnot too.  i don't use services like this due to the insane volume of email i get, i use 0% of my hard drive for emails and do everything through browser now

the dreamhost team is pretty off-the-wall too.  some really strange emails/updates/etc.  they are quirky

id recommend them i suppose.  if i put aside my squirrelmail issues from the first half of today (happens about once a month), i'd highly suggest them.  the 'issue' is really insane lag, not sure what its about.  could even be my end.

but!  when they ever do have server issues, they are extremely communicative about it.  they've never left me wondering 'wtf' in any way.  the lag i can deal with, especially ~once a month

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Maine

what kind of lag we talking? like days?

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matt's mind

the template is from the folks from aarfie.  their 'aarcade' i think is what they call their bigcartel template shop

now THEM i'd highly suggest, i totally love their templates.  very feature-filled, and easy to customize

i modified it a lot though, to suit my particular needs.  a lot of that you can't tell just by glancing, sort of unseen aesthetic 'improvements'

not sure if anyone has noticed....  but, if you visit the site during daytime, the background is white.  at night time, it turns black.  DST has screwed up the exactness of this a little bit. 

has anyone even noticed that?  it took me a little bit to figure that out tongue

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matt's mind

nononono.  like....  it might take 3 minutes to fully display the messages in my inbox (in browser).  'Cannot connect to server' if it fails, but 'reloading' the page generally fixes this anyways.

basically, rarely it times-out, due to some sort of lag.  these 'lag periods' don't last long at all.  today was exceptional, i got server connections errors randomly for a couple-few hours.

but, i was still very productive today so its really just an annoyance more than anything wink

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matt's mind

i think its probably just server maintenance.

which is a good thing for them to do, tbh

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Maine

also do u recommend hosting photos off server like on a photo site or having the photos uploaded to the server itself? is there a difference aside from data space?

yea im using a code up approach no templates but i will look and see maybe ill use a modified template if it fits the looks im going for but what i have now is pretty spiffy


lolz doin it ghetto wrote my shit in notepad

Last edited by Puke_Flytalker (Nov 23, 2013 2:54 am)

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Riverside, CA

I use my home server and a free domain.
Not the best for file transfers, but for just html/email/small game servers/seedbox/etc it's great.

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Maine

yea i am looking for file transfers because i want to offer .rar archives of free to use images and music

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matt's mind

there is usually a difference in terms of quality.  a lot of hosting sites downgrade the quality of your photos and do not inform you (redownload them from the host, compare to original, and you'll see)

some store platforms (like bigcartel) are very restrictive in this point.  i've found workarounds for the background/logo and stuff like this (simple things), but doing that for all the product pics would be a bit more than i want to worry with.  bigcartel images are not the same resolution as the original files, it sucks. 

i'd host them yourself, especially if you are leaning towards doing an art site.  if you can in your platform, at least. 

also, 'graph paper press' does some very pretty art-site templates.  with lookbooks and such.  responsive themes.  check them out.

ONE THING I SHOULD MENTION ABOUT DREAMHOST!  they very explicitly do not allow server space to be used simply for storage (like a personal dropbox).  if you have a folder full of music which isn't utilized in your website, just on the server, they can/will remove it.  i'm not sure if this is the same elsewhere, but dreamhost i know is on the lookout for this sort of thing

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Maine

so in another words if i used dreamhost id have to think up other data hosting optioins or use my on server.. okok

so what i need now is a reliable photo host who doesnt downgrade quality and i can basically jusy hyperlink to file sharing servers for the rest

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Brunswick, GA USA
kitsch wrote:

ONE THING I SHOULD MENTION ABOUT DREAMHOST!  they very explicitly do not allow server space to be used simply for storage (like a personal dropbox).  if you have a folder full of music which isn't utilized in your website, just on the server, they can/will remove it.  i'm not sure if this is the same elsewhere, but dreamhost i know is on the lookout for this sort of thing

That's what archive.org and such can be for, if you expect some permanence, or just get a dropbox account for temporary stuff if you haven't already.

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Maine

yea ive got a few logins on some filesharing sites...