Hosting of AAROADS and related costs

[cpzilliacus]

Can anyone share light as to where AAROADS is hosted, how hard the software is to install and customize and so on?

And what the costs are?

I have been tasked with possibly moving a different group to a similar platform.  We use Yahoo! Groups now, but that is getting old.

Comments and suggestions appreciated and welcome.

[US71]

Can anyone share light as to where AAROADS is hosted, how hard the software is to install and customize and so on?

And what the costs are?

I have been tasked with possibly moving a different group to a similar platform.  We use Yahoo! Groups now, but that is getting old.

Comments and suggestions appreciated and welcome.

Have you looked into Google Groups?

[cpzilliacus]

Can anyone share light as to where AAROADS is hosted, how hard the software is to install and customize and so on?

And what the costs are?

I have been tasked with possibly moving a different group to a similar platform.  We use Yahoo! Groups now, but that is getting old.

Comments and suggestions appreciated and welcome.

Have you looked into Google Groups?

Yes.  I did not like it.  At all.

[Zeffy]

If it's a sizable group, you could always use a free forum host that are scattered throughout the interwebs. A lot of them are reliable, fast, but some of them do throw curveballs like ads and whatnot. Installation of forum software, IMO, is easy, but that's because I did it back when I was about 11 years old, so it's just second nature to me. If you want to look professional though, a domain name with a server is the way to go. I know Alex told me he uses 1and1.com for AARoads, which seems pretty reliable.

[vdeane]

Costs will vary depending on how much space and bandwidth you need, which is dictated by how many users you anticipate having.  1and1 (which is also the domain name provider for NYS Roads) also has hosting, but I don't know anything about that since I self-host.

[rschen7754]

nearlyfreespeech.net has fairly cheap hosting if it's a small site, but if the package you want isn't on there it can be hard to get it installed.

If you want to go completely DIY, digitalocean.com allows you to rent a virtual private server for a reasonable cost.

[Alps]

I also use 1and1. It's somewhere between 4 and 5 a month, I forget exactly because I have it on auto-pay. Really not much in the scheme of things. Unlimited bandwidth, one free domain name, 50 email addresses, and I'm nowhere close to the amount of storage they give (1 TB? 500 GB?)

[vdeane]

I also use 1and1. It's somewhere between 4 and 5 a month, I forget exactly because I have it on auto-pay. Really not much in the scheme of things. Unlimited bandwidth, one free domain name, 50 email addresses, and I'm nowhere close to the amount of storage they give (1 TB? 500 GB?)

I might have to think about that if I ever decide to transition away from self-hosting.  Do they have command line access?

[SSOWorld]

I also use 1and1. It's somewhere between 4 and 5 a month, I forget exactly because I have it on auto-pay. Really not much in the scheme of things. Unlimited bandwidth, one free domain name, 50 email addresses, and I'm nowhere close to the amount of storage they give (1 TB? 500 GB?)

I might have to think about that if I ever decide to transition away from self-hosting.  Do they have command line access?

They do, but you'll have to remember some random password (if I recall - I stopped using shell access for quite a while since I don't use it much outside of work)

[vdeane]

They don't allow the password to be changed?

[NJRoadfan]

1and1 = evil. They don't know how to bill and their proprietary control panel is useless (just try transferring a domain to another registrar). Go with the dozens of hosts that are out there that use standard admin interfaces (cPanel, Plesk, etc), just avoid anything run by the incompetent folks at EIG. Be aware of your bandwidth/resource use as there is NO SUCH THING AS UNLIMITED. While small sites are fine for standard "shared" hosting, once you go over a threshold buried in small print, you'll likely be pushed towards a VPS plan.

This site uses Simple Machines for the forum, just one of the many options available.

[Stratuscaster]

I've been a long time Dreamhost customer - so long that I have unlimited* domain names, storage, and bandwidth. $10/mo. Been happy with them. (I also had a few groups on Yahoo Groups and we outgrew their services and opted to "roll our own.")

Another forum I manage recently changed from Invision Power Board to Xenforo - mostly because IPB became very costly and very unwieldy to deal with.

[US71]

1and1 = evil. They don't know how to bill and their proprietary control panel is useless (just try transferring a domain to another registrar). Go with the dozens of hosts that are out there that use standard admin interfaces (cPanel, Plesk, etc), just avoid anything run by the incompetent folks at EIG. Be aware of your bandwidth/resource use as there is NO SUCH THING AS UNLIMITED. While small sites are fine for standard "shared" hosting, once you go over a threshold buried in small print, you'll likely be pushed towards a VPS plan.

This site uses Simple Machines for the forum, just one of the many options available.

My local SCA group used 1and1 for web hosting 6-8 years ago, At the time, they weren't too bad, but a lot of policy changes forced us to drop them and go elsewhere.

[Alps]

1and1 = evil. They don't know how to bill and their proprietary control panel is useless (just try transferring a domain to another registrar). Go with the dozens of hosts that are out there that use standard admin interfaces (cPanel, Plesk, etc), just avoid anything run by the incompetent folks at EIG. Be aware of your bandwidth/resource use as there is NO SUCH THING AS UNLIMITED. While small sites are fine for standard "shared" hosting, once you go over a threshold buried in small print, you'll likely be pushed towards a VPS plan.

This site uses Simple Machines for the forum, just one of the many options available.

My local SCA group used 1and1 for web hosting 6-8 years ago, At the time, they weren't too bad, but a lot of policy changes forced us to drop them and go elsewhere.

I've had no problems with 1and1 to date, over 6? 7? years.

[vdeane]

Only issue I've had in 1and1 since getting the domain name for NYS Roads last year was some marketing calls that I was able to get them to stop making.

[SSOWorld]

yeah "/unsubscribe" is your friend, so is the do-not-call list.  I tend to avoid putting my phone on registrations for sites for that very purpose.

[NJRoadfan]

Here is someone's saga dealing with 1&1's billing department: http://www.christoperj.com/2012/06/nearly-thirteen-months-later-finally.html

He was lucky they didn't transfer the balance to the collections agency earlier. In the one case I dealt with them, they transferred the "debt" immediately. I use quotes because the account in question was actually closed at that point.