[coolant113]

i am looking to start up a forum on stock market and business news.. i was wondering if i need a server.. if so what kind?? i am looking to use vbulletin for the forum service.. thank you

[Hockey4Life]

Originally Posted by coolant113

i am looking to start up a forum on stock market and business news.. i was wondering if i need a server.. if so what kind?? i am looking to use vbulletin for the forum service.. thank you

I don't think you would need a whole dedicated server unless your site got really popular. I think you could probably just get a domain and find a good host and expand your business needs as it grows.

[squatrani]

to start off your definitely going to want to go with shared hosting. it is the cheapest. some of the big names in this are ixwebhosting, hostmonster, lunarpages. the one i use is netfirms and they have worked well for me. your definitely going to want to find hosts with good support as well as good uptime but since your forum is new and unproven you will definitely want to go with shared as it is the cheapest and fits your hosting needs the best.

you can visit my site (signature) to save money on some of these hosts.

if you have anymore questions feel free to ask me

[n/a]

you can get something for under 10 dollars a month that is shared server until it got more visitors.

You have to buy your domain name as well. Depends on what you want but you can get one around or under 10 dollars

I used godaddy for both of these. I have heard some negitive things about godaddy from other people but so far its been working well for me

[ePhase Networks]

Would probably be best to start off small on a shared account. Once the website begins generating traffic and a lot of it, you can expand over to the dedicated side.

[ryanhami]

Yer you only need shared hosting, i can offer you this. Visit my signature

[AndrewJ]

You can start out with cheap shared hosting plan, but choose a web host who offers an upgrade to VPS and then dedicated hosting. Once your forum grows you'll need the additional server resources a VPS hosting plan can offer.



Andrew
Best web hosting coupons.

[Charles of 5DPI]

Originally Posted by lamarsh

you can get something for under 10 dollars a month that is shared server until it got more visitors.

You have to buy your domain name as well. Depends on what you want but you can get one around or under 10 dollars

I used godaddy for both of these. I have heard some negitive things about godaddy from other people but so far its been working well for me

Sorry, I have to add to this:

GoDaddy has one of the worst user interfaces that I have ever come across. Based on your account, they charge you.. $5-$10 per new email created after you have used your first free 5 emails. You also have to pay for web statistics!!

Their file manager is bad and their SQL manager is also.. bad!

I feel strongly when I say hosting providers should not charge for such necessities when it comes to hosting. I give unlimited databases and emails to my clients, guaranteed!

//EDIT//
They don't offer pre-installed scripts?! How are new users going to enjoy this service?

[Cam0925]

i use bluehost

[HostRail.com]

You can probably start out with shared hosting. Graduating to a Dedicated server or VPS later isn't an issue, especially if you go with a hosting service that already offers those upgrades.

Some industry tips:
Quantity is a lie. Most web hosting companies tell you they will give you 50,000GB of bandwidth and 500GB of Disk Space/month for a $30 web hosting package. Some even claim to provide "unlimited" bandwidth and disk space. This is a lie. If you ever used that much gigs or bandwidth in a month, they will kick you off. They are simply trying to dazzle you with large numbers because they know the average person isn't going to use that much anyway. Most small companies are lucky to even use 5GB of bandwidth per month and 1GB of disk space/month. Don't pay for what you are not using (or even getting in this case).