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New ISP...
I should be at a new location...
By: David K. Every
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2002-11-19 05:56:45
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 orry for the infrequent updates lately. I moved iGeek's ISP (Internet Service Provider), again. It is common courtesy to announce when this happens; plus it allows people to feedback if they notice any differences (changes in quality of service, speed or reliability).
You may have noticed frequent moves of late (I just moved hosts early this year). The company I work for owns their own ISP, and I was told I could host my site's there (iGeek and MacKiDo). What the heck, I'll save a few buck, have control of my own server, and be able to do some testing for work since my personal sites have higher volume than many work sites. After moving everything there, there was some political climate (policy) change or some such, and so I was asked to move them off; which I just completed. No biggy. The irony here is that I moved to a new ISP and I am very impressed in the improvements.
A friend had been hosting his personal sites at dreamhost to avoid any corporate politics, and mentioned that they had excellent features, support and pricing. I checked them out, and not only were they competitive or cheaper than most solutions I'd seen, but they offered many more features than most. They also had good prices at all levels; low, medium and high end. This is rare; usually ISP's are only really good in one segment, and most focus on either low or high end, leaving middle-end sites (like mine) out in the cold.
iGeek uses PHP and MySQL; PHP is a powerful programming solution, and MySQL a pretty powerful database, both were part of the plans. I could host both iGeek (with 3 domains ".com", ".net" and ".org"), and MacKiDo, and I still can add another domain, all on one low cost account; and I could move up from there.
Now of course a complex languages (like PHP) means there are "issues" with configuration or getting things ported. I also moved from OS X UNIX to a LINUX style UNIX (I believe); and so I got to find all the little bugs. Things like OS X UNIX is case insensitive, and LINUX’s is not. I might be finding and fixing those bugs for a while, so let me know if images aren't loading, or page links don't work and stuff like that. There were also some security settings that can be a tad annoying, but are a good and necessary thing for a large ISP, and so on. So I’ve been spending a few hours on the weekends, normally devoted to writing, just tweaking those things and getting everything working and tested. In the porting, I had to use the support a few times. Dreamhost has the usual email support; and took them less than a day each time to respond, but more than a few hours. They also have faster response for one question a month; but I wanted to save that if anything serious happened. I often checked the FAQ's and info, and they were pretty good as well; and they took my suggestions on some things to add. So they seem busy, but the answers were good, their attitude great, and in the end I was quite satisfied. Ironically, the administration tools are so good, and dreamhost is so customer focused, that I actually now have more control than I did when I was using my own servers (with other people’s policies).
Now nobody's perfect. Dreamhost has a few quirks; like if you need static IP addresses, that's extra. But that can be painful to administrate for ISP's, so I understand the up-charge. And I have to hope I don't start bumping my bandwidth limits (which exist in all ISP's), but dreamhost’s quotas seemed reasonable, and my sites draw more traffic than most people's hobbies. I'm also a little confused about how dreamhost counts their database transactions; and I'll have to see how that works for me; and might have to code around some things.
       
Dreamhost is not paying me anything for this article. And this is the early "love affair" part of an arrangement (where I haven't had any serious problems or any surprise bills yet). But often by this point of moving a complex site, I've had some problem. So either I/they are getting really lucky, or they're just really that good. In the end, so far dreamhost has definitely been living up to their name. So if you’re looking for a host, they’re probably a good option to explore. I you notice any improvements or reductions in performance and reliability, or anything else hosting related, please let me know. Thanks, David K. Every
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