Hostgator experience?

[swanysto]

I am looking at hostgator to host my website. It will mostly be picture albums and such. They say unlimited disk space, however in the little words, it makes reference to the amount you can use compares to everyone else, and that you can have your site removed, etc. I have roughly 8gigs worth of family photos and stuff that I am putting up for everyone, do you think that will be too much, or if I have to add photos later on, will it be a problem?

I haven't used a hosting service in a long, long time, so I don't know all the tricks and stuff they pull these days.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

They work well. They say unlimited but you have a limited # of nodes that you can use. I don't think it should be too much of a problem unless you're sharing with more than your family. I know some hosts don't like it when you're using your space for filesharing only.

An image on a breaking bad site I made hit the front page of a semi popular subreddit. I used like 26GB in one day because the image was like > 1MB. Then like a month later the actual site hit the front page of reddit and used 76GB in one day.

 

[Texashiker]

I have been using hostgator on and off for the past 5 years or so, they seem pretty good.

I like the online chat feature with hostgtor. Need support, just go to the website and get a tech on chat.

 

[swanysto]

So if I have a file on the site that is 5mb, and 100 people view it in one day, it counts as 500mb bandwidth? I was just planning on putting up pictures and giving the link to family and friends. I doubt they'll be too much traffic, the first couple days might get some, but after that, it will probably slide off.

 

[Texashiker]

So if I have a file on the site that is 5mb, and 100 people view it in one day, it counts as 500mb bandwidth?

Resize your images

Install a gallery script, and let the gallery manage the images for you.

 

[dougp]

I've used hostgator for going on 5 or 6 years now for various websites. I like that I can host multiple domains on one plan, along with the amount of configuration they allow me on pretty much any level I'd like. They're also located in Houston, TX so I enjoy supporting a local company.

 

[dougp]

Or just use a site like SmugMug - same cost as HostGator but you get a lot more picture features.

 

[swanysto]

Resize your images

Install a gallery script, and let the gallery manage the images for you.

I have found a couple scripts but most are blah, I found a nice flash template at flashmo that I am customizing right now, but I have to manually resize. Do you have a script you recommend?

 

[swanysto]

Or just use a site like SmugMug - same cost as HostGator but you get a lot more picture features.

I think eventually I will use the domain and hosting for other stuff as well. I have been working on a few things.

 

[Hoober]

I've been using them for two business sites for 4+ years now. The occasional issue, but their support has been very good. Haven't had any major issues with their hosting, and it seems reasonably priced.

 

[Texashiker]

but I have to manually resize. Do you have a script you recommend?

For resizing images, I use micosoft power toys image resizer. Someone ported the original one designed for XP to windows 7. Select the images you want to resize, right click - resize - select the size of the image you want, and go from there. I have used the script to bulk resize hundreds of images with just 2 or 3 clicks.

Here is the original for XP

http://download.cnet.com/Image-Resizer-Powertoy-for-Windows-XP/3000-18487_4-10905400.html


Here is the clone ported to vista and windows 7

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/image-resizer-powertoy-clone-for-windows-7vista/


Here is a gallery script that has been around for several years

http://gallery.menalto.com/

 

[swanysto]

For resizing images, I use micosoft power toys image resizer. Someone ported the original one designed for XP to windows 7. Select the images you want to resize, right click - resize - select the size of the image you want, and go from there. I have used the script to bulk resize hundreds of images with just 2 or 3 clicks.

Here is the original for XP

http://download.cnet.com/Image-Resizer-Powertoy-for-Windows-XP/3000-18487_4-10905400.html


Here is the clone ported to vista and windows 7

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/image-resizer-powertoy-clone-for-windows-7vista/


Here is a gallery script that has been around for several years

http://gallery.menalto.com/

Pretty cool, thank you.

 

[dougp]

Hostgator has a setup option to install multiple different styles of image hosts, blog systems, CMS's, etc - that's a feature I love because I can try stuff out without having to install it and deal w/ the CGI, PHP or SQL setup myself.

 

[Texashiker]

Pretty cool, thank you.

Your welcome.

I use a lot of images on my blog. The easiest tool I found for resizing was microsoft power toys image resizer.

Put all the images into a folder that you want to resize - ctrl+A - right click - resize - ok, and you are done.

For watermarking or putting a copyright on the images, I use Photscape, its a free image editing suite

http://www.photoscape.org/

This pic started out as 12 megapixels, was resized to 640x480 using the power toys resizer ported to windows 7, then watermarked and copyrighted with photoscape

 

[Hoober]

Hostgator has a setup option to install multiple different styles of image hosts, blog systems, CMS's, etc - that's a feature I love because I can try stuff out without having to install it and deal w/ the CGI, PHP or SQL setup myself.

Yep, great feature. I use them to host the family website, and they have a scripted install of Coppermine. It handles the whole set up. All I have to do is upload the pictures and organize them into albums. Resizing, etc., is all done on the backend. Really slick.

 

[ViviTheMage]

From what I have read, hostgator shared web hosting can be hit and miss...really depends on what server you get on, whether it's overloaded or not....but overall I hear the experience is good.

 

[swanysto]

Thanks guys. I might try coppermine, I have seen it before.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Thanks guys. I might try coppermine, I have seen it before.

I have used coppermine, pretty robust, and somewhat lightweight (resource wise).

Try out zen too, I really like the simplicity of it

http://vivithemage.com/zen/

 

[dougp]

I'm not a fan of any of the personal galleries that you put on your own domain. I feel a lot of them are not as robust as other options vs. going through something like Picasa, Flickr or going with a paid host like SmugMug.