PHP5 hosting

[solutionsphp]

I've been hosting with Edmonton, Alberta's Tera-Byte.com for about 6 years: awesome pricing, awesome service. If you have to call for support, you get a real human answering, likely someone you spoke with several years ago. I just can't say enough about them. They use the Ensim CP, which I quite like, but it has a huge downside: no PHP5 support yet!

So, I need PHP5 hosting for a project, but after being with Tera-Byte for so long, I'm not impressed with the hosting packages I've found. Dreamhost.com and Nexcess.com were my top hopes, but neither of them provide a unique IP address without having to spend quite a bundle (at least compared to what I've been spending).

Can anyone recommend rock solid, affordable PHP5 hosting?

thanks!
SAM

[Dennis Pallett]

Well, the only web host that I know that offers PHP5 is Dreamhost, but I guess you really need a unique IP address? If you do, it costs $4.95 at Dreamhost, and if you take one of the cheapest plans together with a coupon, it isn't that expensive? I think you can get a pretty good deal for about $7.95 (including the unique IP).

[solutionsphp]

Thanks Dennis!

I looked at DreamHost, but what I didn't see is that you can add the IP as an account add-on, as you revealed. That makes a big difference in price. Without the availability of the unique IP as an add-on, you have to go up to the Level 4 plan at $79/month. So, thanks for pointing that out, and for the promo codes too! I've heard nothing but good stuff about DreamHost in terms of service, and in the end, that's more important to me than price.

A unique IP is essential to me for any hosting. It comes down to search marketing and making sure that my sites aren't going to be negatively affected by the actions of anyone else (something you have to be aware of when sharing an IP with countless others). If I need to evaluate a drop in ranks or traffic, I can at least rule out someone else's actions if I have my own IP address.

Thanks again for your response!
SAM

[Dennis Pallett]

Yeah, I saw the Level 4 plan first as well, which is just a tad bit too expensive to get an unique IP address, but after that I did a quick search through their knowledgebase.

Does the unique IP thing really play a role in SEO? I've heard about it before, but I have my doubts, especially because shared hosting is so common.

[solutionsphp]

IP addresses don't play a role in optimization in the strictest sense, meaning I don't believe a unique IP is given any positive weight in ranking algos. Where it does play a role is if someone on an IP you are sharing starts doing some bad optimization or spamming to get their site ranked. In those circumstances, an engine can ban a domain and it's IP. So, if you are a good, well meaning website owner but happen to share an IP with someone not so honest and good, your site could be penalized. If I'm contracted to optimize a site, I won't take the job if the site is on a shared IP address. It makes tracking your efforts impossible, because you never know if a site on your IP is affecting you in a negative way or not.

I have virtual servers, where some sites share an IP and some have unique, but all the sites are mine and under my control, so no worries. If I need a shared hosting account, say for a client, I also get them one with a unique IP. $99/year at tera-byte.com gets you all the bells and whistles, including an IP. Just no PHP5... yet!

cheers
SAM

[Dennis Pallett]

Yeah, if the IP you're on actually gets banned, then you have a problem, but I doubt SE's will ban IP's quickly. After all, some IP's host several hundreds of websites, and they'd all be affected by a single ban.

[solutionsphp]

Yes, you're correct Dennis: the risk is minimal. I've been involved in some large search marketing projects, and that risk of a shared IP could have jeopardized alot of effort, hence it's a risk I never take on principal. If I had a client approach me about search marketing but was resistant to spending the extra money for a unique IP, I would likely turn down the job. In the least, I would include in the contract information about why the shared IP could hamper the project and remove myself from any liability.

This thread has strayed a little from the original topic, but hopefully this IP info is useful to someone else out there.

cheers
SAM

[asent]

If you have a virtual server @ tera-byte, you could always install php5 to work with ensim.

Search forum.ev1servers.net for "Easy PHP". Download the RPM files and install. They were built for Ensim Webppliance, with a choice of Fedora Core 1 and Redhat Enterprise Linux ES 3.

[amit]

If you take a reseller account from ResellerZOOM, then you can request an SSH account through which you can download & install PHP5 for any of the domains that you've hosted in your reseller account. But you'll have to do this on a per domain basis and they won't provide support for this as they support only applications which they officially offer. Other than that, Site5 offers a private IP with their shared hosting plans but I'm note sure if they support PHP5, so you might wanna ask them. I thought there were 1-2 more hosts that I remembered which offered PHP5, but can't recall them, will post when I remember!!

[solutionsphp]

Thanks for your replies.

I'll look further into your suggestion, asent, though I seem to recall the folks at Tera-Byte saying that PHP5 was very buggy on Ensim. That was at least 6 months ago now though.

I also like the suggestion amit put forth. I don't need PHP5 for anything except possibly one site. (I've been thinking of porting the code I want to use back to PHP4 to avoid having to get PHP5 hosting for this one project, though the idea of porting backwards seems fundamentally wrong to me.)

cheers
SAM