Such a relief to have my blog back, after a weekend of downtime. The university doesn’t really want to pay anyone to come reboot our department server after hours. We’re lucky to have it at all – most IT stuff is centralised and access to PHP and CGI and all that jazz is strictly guarded.

I’ve been browsing private hosting solutions, anyway. And thinking of domain names and independence. jilltxt.net seems most reasonable, don’t you think? And though Hosting Comparison lists Lunarpages as the best, Surfspeedy seems to be cheaper, give you more space and bandwidth, and has more appealing design (I’m not thrilled about the space cadets), and while reviews of web hosting services don’t seem to be a particularly objective genre (I mean, look at this review of Surfspeedy) I haven’t found anything bad about them.

I don’t suppose a private solution’s really that much more independent than using the university’s servers, but I’m sick of pleading.

8 thoughts on “independence

  1. Anders

    I think you should have a .no address. You’re Norwegian (even on your Australian days Bergen is home isn’t it), it’s that simple.
    My ISP is Mywebhost. Great service, and the price was low the last time I bothered to compare.

  2. Jill

    Oh no. I’m too nomadic for a .no address. No, really, if I’m not ready to cash in my voucher for Norwegian citizenship (valid till next March I think, but I have to show proof of having ditched my Aussie vitizenship) I’m probably not ready for a .no address.

    Anyway, what if I move out of Norway in a decade or so? No, if I get a domain name it’s got to be durable.

    Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. I’ll have to think about it for a while and see how it feels.

  3. Liz Lawley

    I’ve been pretty happy with bloghosts.com–I’m hosting my son’s new web site there. The price is low ($3/month) and the feature set is good.

  4. Eirik

    You could combine a .net domain and a Norwegian hosting service. That way, you get the best of both worlds: a permanent domain name and a provider that has to abide by Norwegian law (which in the area of consumer rights isn’t all that bad.) As a customer you don’t have to plead at all when the server is down – you merely have to point out that uptime is your right by law when you pay for it. Go for it! 🙂

  5. bicyclemark

    I have had a modest hosting plan with hostica.com, for a few years: 1 american dollar per month…

  6. Thomas

    I just switched blogg og bibliotek to a new service, LIShost.com. Just a bunch of librarians working together to make hosting an easy option. Great guys, really easy to communicate with, but maybe not as stable as an commerical operation (?).
    Pricewise they are nice too.

  7. Gabriel

    I recommend Textdrive from the makers of Textpattern, especially if you’re keen on trying out different blogging tools.

  8. Matt Whyndham

    It’s a pity your uni doesn’t properly support your practice, but at least you don’t seem to be actively hounded by the powers that be to use more Official electronic media, like this poor guy: http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?p=40

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