Like the title says.  I would like to start a blog, but I was wondering what is the preferred host of fellow EH'ers?

If it makes a difference, I'm not looking to break the bank and I live in the US.

If you looking for hosting suggestions, then you can try 1and1.com. Pretty reliable and stable - and provides good features too.

Good if you want to have low level control over your blog / app.

All the best

1and1 is quite cheap and you get a lot too, compared to what you pay. Their support is "okay", meaning they may not understand your problem at all, or be helpful at all, but they're there.  (I haven't had that many good experiences, except with the billing department. They're efficient!  )

Their VPS's could be better, but they're okay. I'd recommend Linode for VPS's to be honest. Just make sure you set up some proper load balancing on incoming connections so 1 person doesn't use up ALL the bandwidth. (Typical problem if you just install the LAMP stack script, yes they provide scripts to install various things so you can easily get a webserver, database and php going.)

That's pretty much my opinion. GoDaddy, I have tried them once for around a year. Not really that well made, but they provide huuuuge databases while 1and1 is behind! They only offer max 100mb databases afaik, while GoDaddy offers 1GB. That's VERY important when you have a large site such as a forum, that continues to grow etc.

Generally I prefer 1and1 still, over GoDaddy though. Just keep in mind that the cheaper hosting plan you choose, the more people share the server with you, and if you're often on a shared IP too, if you don't go for the developer plan which is works for small and medium sized sites. Large, depends on what system powers the site.

A fun exercise is to get the IP address of your favorite security blog site and use Bing


and see all the sites hosted at that IP that Bing knows about!

All an attacker has to do is get root access through one of those sites and he has root to yours as well. Fun times!

Get a VPS, you will have more control and will endure less ridicule when you get(don't get) pwned.