PCA Forums

Here's my situation.

At work I have a website on our dialup ISP. It's a small website maybe 2-5 megs. With the cost of the business phone line, being charged additional minutes for time I am on the internet, (this can total around $60 per month) and the additional $20 for the ISP, I am seriously thinking about switching to cable. This would eliminate one phone line (we have 9 total), the cost of the time using that phone line, and the ISP.

Questions I have are this.

Our area is Comcast cable. I don't know if I can get a single computer hooked up for the normal residential rate or if I would be charged more money being it's a business. I actually have two computers in this office and I would use a router to get the other one up.

The other question concerns the website. It's in the package deal with the ISP and since I would no longer be needing the ISP, I would have to move the website.

I was paying $19.95 for the ISP and that included the space for the website. I am using Mydomain.com (thanks to FPs advice awhile back) to redirect the site at no additional cost. I would have to do this same thing with moving it to Comcast.

Does Comcast give space for a website like the ISP did?

Comcast gives you a few megs of personal web server space - don't remember how much. I have a Comcast account but I don't use their web server space since I have a 100Mb commercial account on XO.

You're probably going to get screwed on a commercial account with Comcast though. Around here (central Florida) it's $42 a month residential and $80 a month for business accounts.

The better deal around here for businesses is Sprint DSL at $45 a month (or $40 a month with a 2 year commitment). I'd contact your phone company to see if they offer DSL at your location. I'd still check with Comcast to see what their rates are though. Prices vary state to state.

Most ISPs give you a few megs of server space. Be warned that most of them have a traffic limit so if your site is used heavily, they may shut you down.

There are plenty of cheap web hosts though. I've been using Hostica.com for some clients on a budget. Reliable service for $4 a month for 80 Mb. Heck they have a $1 a month plan for 10 Mb.

As far as using a router - they don't need to know that, although they generally assume that if you're a business acount that you're using a router.

Does the phone DSL service also allow space for a website?

Check this link to see my monthly website hits. How does it look as far as Comcast saying it's too much?

http://www.sierratel.com/cornerstone-aod/usage/


Here's the site. As you can see, it's pretty small.

http://www.cornerstone-aod.org/

You'll have to check with the DSL provider in your area about web hosting, but most of them do.

You seem to be under 10Mb a month (except for Feb & March last year) so I don't expect that to be a problem.

Well I got the cable hooked up at work now. I will be getting a router and hooking up the 2nd computer pretty quick. I already got the website moved also.

I ended up taking FP's recommendation about trying Hostica. I really didn't like Comcast's personal webpages options. I didn't like the idea of having to type in comcast and my user name to get to the site.

Hostica made it really easy, just changed my DNS info to point to them, uploaded the site files and now typing in my website domain name does the trick. Being I'm not a real wizz at webpage stuff (I may go in and make small changes to the site once a year so I don't do it enough to get really good at it), I got pretty confused along the way but Hostica's tech support fixed me up and got me going. I'm already really impressed with them, great tech support and very quick to get back to me with an answer.

One thing I didn't do though. I originally had the site on my dial up ISP. I will be cancelling that dialup at the time my last payment is paid to (probably a week or so). Before I changed the DNS to point to Hostica and uploaded the web site files to them, I did not delete the website from the old dialup ISP.

I assume they would do that when I cancel from them?

When you cancel from the old ISP the site will no longer be available, and your files should be purged. If there's anything you don't want on there you can always delete it yourself. I occasionally seen some old websites re-appear when someone had problems with their web server.