I'm a joomla web dev and i use a local hosting/data centre. I have around 30 websites built to date and I would prefer to find someone who has experience with Joomla. My current provider used to load the joomla site up with normal content and I would access this via FTP to edit the source files (ie css, images etc.). I still want to do that but also have the use of a specialist Joomla Hosting provider to help me out if I need it.

Who do you use and why? What prices do you pay? Is the service good? Are they the kind of hosting providers a newbie would love?

I await your reply.


Flip.

Hello, what are you after from a specialist joomla hosting service that a normal provider doesn't give you? What specialist Joomla info/support are you interested in?

I just ask because I am a real newbie when it comes to Joomla and web hosting and I found it fairly straight forward to get joomla up and running on the hosting company's server so I am not sure what help I would have gotten had they been a specialist joomla hosting company apart from install it for me.

Are you looking for advice on how to set-up the site or just for them to do all the installation for you?

Hi Flip

I, on the other hand have had some very good experiences and some very difficult, with Joomla hosting.

Glossing over the bad ones, I am currently using Rochenhost.com. They host the joomla.org family of sites so how far wrong can you go? They have plans starting from about 10USD per month.

I've also used Bluehost a lot in the past for a cheap U.S. alternative. It's pretty easy to get Joomla going there, but they are rather more restrictive on account settings than they used to be, so I am moving my clients away from them.

My personal preference is a something with CPanel on Linux hosting with default PHP 5 and MySQL 5. I tend to avoid any proprietary hosting control panel.

My difficulties with hosts not set up to run Joomla sweetly include:
lack of a file manager; file ownership and permissions problems, no PHPMyAdmin, no access to set up MySQL database, no Fantastico. Associated difficulties can occur in regard to .htacess (SEF URLs), caching, session handlers, mod_rewrite, IONCUBE loader, temp directory, database encoding, setting up of (sub)domains, backups, Safe mode, register globals.

Is that useful?
D

Dex

That helped me understand a little more about how a hosting company can make using joomla a bit easier and also what to look at when choosing a company (if I decide to change).

I use Dotexel in Sydney for hosting my sites (about $8 a month for a starter package) and the biggest thing for me is that setting up the MySQL database within their control panel is really simple - the joomla install doesn't seem to be able to create the database so I need to do that before running the installation.

Michael

On the same topic, has anyone tried jumba.com.au hosting with Joomla?

sorry have not

I've just signed up for an account with them (Jumbla), and have a few 1.5.3 installs running, nothing in prod yet, and so far .. so good..

As soon as the site goes into prod I'll post a link.

don't know about 'best' but i'm happy with mochahost.com. there's fantastico and a raft of other useful things. the usual cpanel. joomla 1.5.2. it just works.
signed up for 2 years with free lifetime domain deal US$3.71 p month. no complaints and any helpdesk Qs have always been dealt with inside of 12 hours.

I use and would recommend Servers Australia - great support, good server connectivity and speed, and reasonably uptime and acceptable PHP/MySQL build - runs J15 very well.

http://www.serversaustralia.com.au

I like the fact that the support guys are very approachable, are pretty much the same people for the last 2 years, and prices are pretty good too...

Cheers,
TonyT

Id have to recommend Bluehost.

The mdeia temple GS service second to that.

Bluehost has a great auto installer now for Joomla 1.5

That in itself make my life easy because it reduces the time doing uploads.

One thing to look for, the ability to unzip files on e the server via the control panel.

saves so much time.

Yeah, I agree about their feature set.
I've had a big bunch of client sites with them for the last few years.

But now I've moved them all OFF Bluehost, because they kept tightening and tightening their restrictions on resources, until it became a nightmare trying to support sites there. Usually sites would just go down without warning and stay down, and you'd have to ask support what it was that they'd changed. There was a bleak period back there when it was taking support days or even weeks to reply to support requests.

So many things started to break, that in the end I moved all my clients off their hosting.

It's probably still fine for simple sites, but I can't trust them any more personally.

I'd second Dex's recommendation of rochen host Brad is a great guy very involved with Aust joomla community and very helpful. I use them for any US based hosting we do and I know at least one other member of the Melb JUG that raves about them too.

Only one small issue is unfortunately they don't (yet) do any Australian based hosting. (small disclaimer here > I'm a a little biased admittedly as we offer Joomla hosting as well on Australian based servers.)

I think for Australian sites that have most customers from Australia and seek to rank well for Aust Google searches then Australian based servers are a better idea.

If your customers are mostly surfing from Australia then an Aust based server is quicker especially for sites like Joomla that make a lot of connections to a database. This is becase the increased amount of hops to a US based server will typically increase the latency (ping times)

The counter argument for people who prefer US based hosting is that the difference is negligible. (and there are plenty of clever people who support both arguments)

Also Google apparently will give you a boost for Australian based searches if the host is actually in Aust.

The cons are that Australian based hosting is generally dearer as the bandwidth costs are much dearer here than in the US.

Generally I think the most important factor either way is to get a webhost that will give you help when you need it. If they know a bit about Joomla even better. The biggest cost in hosting is support time so if you pay a bit more you will usually get a much better experience IMO.

Regards Nick

Hi All,

So the consensus seems to be Rochen, however their servers are hosted in either the US or UK.

Does anyone have any thoughts on local Search Engine Optimisation/friendliness of foreign hosted websites (for example a Sydney based delivery service with a .au domain).

I'm keen to alleviate my hosting headaches - I just don't want to replace them with others.

Hey,
I've got a couple of Joomla sites with 'Siteground' - never had an issue with them: loads of space 750GB, loads of bandwidth, cPanel, Fantastico etc etc and very quick replies to any issues raised . . all for about $USD6/month including domain name hosting (cripes, this sounds like an add ! . . it's not) but give them a look . . - cheers

Just going to add my own little bit of info here. Not sure if anyone has had any dramas with website hacks.
Joomla recommends that if you are using a shared host server that it has the register_globals set to off as a standard across the site.

I just had one of my sites hacked. But a lot of this was probably due to my own stupidity and lack of security preparation. (Im very new to joomla). Going on a learning curve now.
I am using Jumba, they seem to be a nice bunch. but it was on their server that I got hacked (again this is still probably my own fault). but also did a bit of research and they seem to be a bit under fire from a month ago (along with their parent company Aussie HQ) in regards to having a high infection rate with the gumblar virus.

But anyways I am keen to discuss some hosting & security issues / choices with the melbourne contingent at the next meeting.


cheers,

anthony.