good web host?

[The Bicycling Guitarist]

The tech at the current host of my domain apparently doesn't know how to
configure the server properly. Read the past year of posts by me for
details. Two more web hosts I've checked out also either don't know what to
do or are putting me off from sheer laziness or whatever. I specifically
asked one tech if he could set the server to send the charset and pics
information, and he told me these are done with meta tags in the header of
the html document! If I understand correctly, the meta tag approach is a
clumsy hack compared to doing it properly.

Please, can somebody recommend a web host to me reasonably priced but with
reliable service and whose techs know what they're doing and are willing to
things properly?

Thanks, Chris Watson a.k.a. "The Bicycling Guitarist"
http://www.TheBicyclingGuitarist.net/

[Kim André Akerø]

"The Bicycling Guitarist" <Ch***@TheBicyclingGuitarist.net> skrev i melding
news:UQ*******************@newssvr21.news.prodigy. com...

The tech at the current host of my domain apparently doesn't know how to
configure the server properly. Read the past year of posts by me for
details. Two more web hosts I've checked out also either don't know what to do or are putting me off from sheer laziness or whatever. I specifically
asked one tech if he could set the server to send the charset and pics
information, and he told me these are done with meta tags in the header of
the html document! If I understand correctly, the meta tag approach is a
clumsy hack compared to doing it properly.

Please, can somebody recommend a web host to me reasonably priced but with
reliable service and whose techs know what they're doing and are willing to things properly?

I don't know your definition of "reasonable priced" in these days of $5
hosting everywhere, but I can absolutely recommend these from the bottom of
my heart:
http://www.prohosting.com/
http://www.prohosting.com/unix-web-hosting/
http://www.prohosting.com/nt-web-hosting/

They know 100% what they're doing and care about their customers, which is
mainly the reason I've stayed with them for the last 5 years. Although
priced from $17.95 a month (plus the setup fee), I feel you get a lot in
return.

Let me know if you pick these guys as your next host.

--
Kim André Akerø
- ki******@NOSPAMbetadome.com
(remove NOSPAM to contact me directly)

[Brian]

The Bicycling Guitarist wrote:

The tech at the current host of my domain apparently doesn't know how
to configure the server properly. Read the past year of posts by me
for details. Two more web hosts I've checked out also either don't
know what to do or are putting me off from sheer laziness or
whatever.
It's probably ignorance more than laziness.
I specifically asked one tech if he could set the server to send the
charset and pics information, and he told me these are done with
meta tags in the header of the html document! If I understand
correctly, the meta tag approach is a clumsy hack compared to doing
it properly.
That seems about right. A tech support person told the webmaster of a
domain that the way to do redirects was to use meta refresh. This was
after I told the webmaster to ask about 301 responses. Utterly clueless.
Please, can somebody recommend a web host to me reasonably priced but
with reliable service and whose techs know what they're doing and
are willing to things properly?
Such a thing likely does not exist. Tech support jobs are entry level
work done by people whose only background is that they use Internet
Exploder and Lookout! Express. Unix/server stuff is simply over their heads.

The only thing that has worked for me is to learn to do their job for
them. Every tech support request involves me explaining a problem to
support staff, who give me a bogus reply. Then I explain why the reply
is bogus. This process is often repeated several times until finally my
ticket gets bumped up to "tier 2 technical support" (a real title, I'm
not making this up). At that point, the problem is resolved, and not
always in my favor. Very frustrating, but that's just the way the ball
bounces, it seems.
Thanks, Chris Watson a.k.a. "The Bicycling Guitarist"
http://www.TheBicyclingGuitarist.net/

Would you consider a sig separator? It's "-- " (note the space) on a
separate line.

--
Brian (remove "invalid" to email me)

[Mr.Clean]

In article <UQ*******************@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com> ,
Ch***@TheBicyclingGuitarist.net says...

The tech at the current host of my domain apparently doesn't know how to
configure the server properly. Read the past year of posts by me for
details. Two more web hosts I've checked out also either don't know what to
do or are putting me off from sheer laziness or whatever. I specifically
asked one tech if he could set the server to send the charset and pics
information, and he told me these are done with meta tags in the header of
the html document! If I understand correctly, the meta tag approach is a
clumsy hack compared to doing it properly.

Please, can somebody recommend a web host to me reasonably priced but with
reliable service and whose techs know what they're doing and are willing to
things properly?

Thanks, Chris Watson a.k.a. "The Bicycling Guitarist"
http://www.TheBicyclingGuitarist.net/

contact Steve Martin at st***@thehostplace.com
Tell him Eddie from RRPC sent you.

[Jan Roland Eriksson]

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:21:24 GMT, "The Bicycling Guitarist"
<Ch***@TheBicyclingGuitarist.net> wrote:

[...]

Please, can somebody recommend a web host to me reasonably priced...

I did once before, several weeks ago over email, but here goes again.

<http://www.he.net> Hurricane Electric in the SF area of California.

Our site <http://css.nu> has been sitting there since 1998 and never
been down for a minute AFAIK.

Full Unix based development environment in all account types available,
Latest version of Apache based www server that is under full control by
your self.

Less than 24 hour return time on any support question asked.
(and the guys at HE knows their Unix and Apache environments)

Starts at approx $10 per month for the entry level.

I have two sites there now, each one running at $25 per month,
http://css.nu is one of them.

--
Rex (who does not receive any extra benefits for saying this)

[The Bicycling Guitarist]

"Jan Roland Eriksson" <jr****@newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:nl********************************@4ax.com...

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:21:24 GMT, "The Bicycling Guitarist"
<Ch***@TheBicyclingGuitarist.net> wrote:

[...]

Please, can somebody recommend a web host to me reasonably priced...

I did once before, several weeks ago over email, but here goes again.

<http://www.he.net> Hurricane Electric in the SF area of California.

The support guy at Hurricane Electric is the one who told me that these
things were accomplished by meta tags. I was very disappointed in them when
I read that. I don't know how to configure a server properly. I need to find
a web host who knows how and will do it.
I'm sure if I knew more about computers etc. that they would be an ideal
host for me.
Chris a.k.a. "The Bicycling Guitarist"

[The Bicycling Guitarist]

"Brian" <us*****@julietremblay.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:DX*******************@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

The Bicycling Guitarist wrote:

The tech at the current host of my domain apparently doesn't know how
to configure the server properly. Read the past year of posts by me

It's probably ignorance more than laziness.
Such a thing likely does not exist. Tech support jobs are entry level
work done by people whose only background is that they use Internet
Exploder and Lookout! Express. Unix/server stuff is simply over their
heads.

The only thing that has worked for me is to learn to do their job for
Bummer
Would you consider a sig separator? It's "-- " (note the space) on a
separate line.

--
Brian (remove "invalid" to email me)

I did not know about sig separator. Thanks for telling me about it.
--
Chris

[Greg Schmidt]

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 20:36:51 GMT, Brian wrote:

The only thing that has worked for me is to learn to do their job for
them. Every tech support request involves me explaining a problem to
support staff, who give me a bogus reply. Then I explain why the reply
is bogus. This process is often repeated several times until finally my
ticket gets bumped up to "tier 2 technical support" (a real title, I'm
not making this up). At that point, the problem is resolved, and not
always in my favor. Very frustrating, but that's just the way the ball
bounces, it seems.

I don't think that the tier 1 technical support of any company has ever
been able to help me. By the time I call them, I've tried everything
they might suggest, and then some.

I actually had an extended email discussion with the technical support
at one company (which will remain nameless), in which they asked me to
try about five different things. My reply to each one was cut-and-
pasted from my original message in which I described the results of
exactly the things I knew they'd ask me to do. I don't believe that
problem ever actually got solved.

I wish there was some secret password that those of us who know what
we're doing could give to the clueless support people that would get us
automatically bumped to the next level without spending an hour talking
to someone who doesn't even know what the commands they're telling me to
type in *do*.

--
Greg Schmidt gr***@trawna.com
Trawna Publications http://www.trawna.com/

[Mark Parnell]

Previously in comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html, The Bicycling
Guitarist <Ch***@TheBicyclingGuitarist.net> said:

I did not know about sig separator. Thanks for telling me about it.

It allows the newsreader of those replying to you to automatically strip
the signature from their reply. If for some reason you can't get
yourself a newsreader, you can even make Lookout Express do it:

http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/

--
Mark Parnell
http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

[Brian]

The Bicycling Guitarist wrote:

"Jan Roland Eriksson" wrote...

"The Bicycling Guitarist" wrote:

can somebody recommend a web host to me
<http://www.he.net> Hurricane Electric in the SF area

The support guy at Hurricane Electric is the one who told me that
these things were accomplished by meta tags.

<sigh>
I don't know how to configure a server properly. I need to find a web
host who knows how and will do it.

Without wanting to sound pissy, I'd say that you need to learn how to do
it yourself. What you want from a host is Unix/Linux and Apache, at
least 1.3, 2.0 would be even better. You must be able to set per
directory configurations via .htaccess. That way, you can adjust things
to your liking, including the charset.

You'll want other things, too, like mod_headers and mod_expires, and you
probably also want PHP and MySQL. This is all rather off-topic for
ciwah, so I'll stop here.

--
Brian (remove "invalid" to email me)

[erikd]

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 23:40:36 GMT, Brian
<us*****@julietremblay.com.invalid> wrote:

You'll want other things, too, like mod_headers and mod_expires, and you
probably also want PHP and MySQL. This is all rather off-topic for
ciwah, so I'll stop here.

Although it is off topic, I also have an interest in the discussion
since my current web host won't allow participants to upload pictures,
one of the reasons I set up the account. I wanted a location that the
extended family could share photo's.

Is there a location where a discussion of good web hosting is ON
topic?

--
Erik

[Tim]

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 22:54:25 GMT,
"The Bicycling Guitarist" <Ch***@TheBicyclingGuitarist.net> posted:

I don't know how to configure a server properly. I need to find
a web host who knows how and will do it.

I don't think it's as hard as it seems, at first. Considering the troubles
you've had, you're probably far better off to find a host that'll let you
configure your server exactly how you want, yourself (i.e. you can
personally configure it, you don't have to ask them to do so).

Download Apache for yourself, install it on your own PC, play around with
it. You'll get a feel for what you can do, and you can experiment as much
as you like for just the price of the electricity to run it, and your
patience.

I can't particularly recommend any hosting service, the one I'm using isn't
too helpful, gives you control over most aspects of what you're doing via a
web interface only, but not everything that I want to play with. Only
their relative cheapness, and length of time you pay in advance, keeps me
using them ($70AU anually). <http://www.hostingbay.com.au/> You can
probably regard this more of a warning than a recommendation... ;-\

--
If you insist on e-mailing me, use the reply-to address (it's real but
temporary). But please reply to the group, like you're supposed to.

This message was sent without a virus, please delete some files yourself.

[Jan Roland Eriksson]

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 22:54:25 GMT, "The Bicycling Guitarist"
<Ch***@TheBicyclingGuitarist.net> wrote:

"Jan Roland Eriksson" <jr****@newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:nl********************************@4ax.com.. .

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:21:24 GMT, "The Bicycling Guitarist"
<Ch***@TheBicyclingGuitarist.net> wrote:
[...]

Please, can somebody recommend a web host to me reasonably priced...

<http://www.he.net> Hurricane Electric in the SF area of California.

The support guy at Hurricane Electric is the one who told me that these
things were accomplished by meta tags.
Suffice to say that I'm stumped to hear that. I have always had good
quality advice from HE when I have had reason to ask for some.
I was very disappointed in them when I read that.
I would have felt the same, beleive me.
I don't know how to configure a server properly...
(for an Apache server it's done with a few lines of ASCII text stored in
a simple text file named .htaccess)

You are spending a lot of time in NG's to ask for advice, maybe its time
to divert some of that time to this site...

<http://www.apache.org>

....because if you are really thinking of changing your host, make no
mistake that ends you up with a Win server based provider.

You should concentrate your efforts to studies on how the Apache
..htaccess file is supposed to work.

When it comes down to every day basics it's as simple as pi, given that
your provider allows for your own .htaccess file to be recognized by his
server set-up.
I need to find a web host who knows how and will do it.

No, you need to learn the basics of this your self.

--
Rex