Member Avatar for opsryushi

Hello,

I'm designing a website for a local theater company. Because this will be their first experience with an online presence, I've also been put in charge of designing, hosting, and maintaining the website.

My first instinct was Yahoo! Small Business or perhaps Geocities, but after visiting their website, I found it cluttered with all sorts of things that are supposed to help beginners design, build, and host their new website.

I'd much rather find a good no-nonsense hosting company that expects me to know what I'm doing, and will leave the designing and other aspects of the project up to me.

Any suggestions as to where I might find a good company like this? All of the pages are pure HTML, so I don't need a lot of hosting space, but the host does need to be able to support a small CGI script (for the online sale of show tickets).

Thanks,

Kyle Wilson

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Practical, no-nonsense advice for (and anyone picking a host for a small theatre site): there are two sensible paths — inexpensive shared hosting that explicitly supports CGI, or a low-cost VPS/cloud instance for full control and shell access. As asked, decide whether simple FTP space is enough or whether SSH/root access will be needed for debugging and installs. As suggested, clarify space, bandwidth and OS requirements up front.

Checklist to confirm with any prospective host:

  • Explicit CGI support (which interpreters are available, where to put executable scripts, and whether ExecCGI is enabled).
  • Ability to install or use SSL/TLS (secure ticket pages and gateway callbacks).
  • Outbound HTTPS allowed (for payment gateway API calls) and incoming webhook support.
  • SSH access if shell-level control or cron jobs are desired; otherwise confirm reliable FTP and a control panel.
  • Email deliverability for confirmations, backups, and uptime/restore policy.

Payment note: avoid hosting raw credit-card forms on the server whenever possible. Using a hosted checkout or redirect (Stripe Checkout, PayPal, ticketing platforms) removes most PCI burden; hosting card entry directly requires following PCI rules. For technical details on CGI see the Apache documentation and for payment-security requirements see the PCI Security Standards Council.

Apache CGI documentation
PCI Security Standards Council

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Member Avatar for clarinetalex

Do you just want barebones ftp space and a shell?

Member Avatar for Dani

In other words, do you just want a web hosting company to provide you with FTP access? If so, what are your requirements like ... how much space do you need? How much bandwidth? Do you want a Windows server or a Linux server?

Check out our hosting marketplace => http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/forum154.html

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