[Discuss] Virtual hosting provider (me too)

[jack at coats.org (Jack Coats)]

I found a super cheap provider, 3ix, DO NOT USE THEM.  It was about
$1/month.  But they could not keep the hackers out.  When you are on a
shared machine, it is shared.  Others have access to it.  If the
admins don't do a reasonable job, you get hacked and pay the price.

The folks at 3ix.com were good.  Well automated, support folks tried
but didn't have a clue.  It took to much of my personal bandwidth to
keep a simple site running with web pages un-hacked, so I am paying
10x that $ amount at Godaddy for a similar service.  I am not a
godaddy fan, but I am not a detractor either.

If it is enough for you, use sites.google.com for free sites.  Point
your domain at them, and you can even put a free google apps account
associated with the same domain.  Not a bad way to go if you can deal
with its limitations.

A friend runs a college from a google apps domain ( watkins.edu
Watkins college of film and design in Nashville ) especially for
email, documents, calendaring, etc... But they keep a  few small
servers on site for 'special' things they do.  Being on Google Apps
allowed the 'business' part of the school keep going during the
Nashville flooding of last year (there was 4' of water all over their
campus).