How to choose a new webhost once MobileMe has been closed
Many Mac-friendly webhosts have been
welcoming your iWeb site.
By the end of MobileMe, Mac users are now finding
new homes for their sites, especially those made in iWeb. Pick out one among
thousands of hosting company seems discouraging. Don’t panic! Here are some
tips for you to select a new host provider and move your site to a new home.
What do
we need to look for?
The type of hosting service appealing to
most MobileMe’s refugees is shared hosting where a lot of website and domain
that shared resources of every physical computer connected to the Internet. It
is not pricey except for website having high storage and confidential
information. This is a good choice for most regular users as well as small
business.
First, it is a good new that finding a
Mac-supported webhost is very easy. Despite any server’s operation, they all
have the same operation. If you are a user who is well-informed about technology
and able to discover everything, you will easily choose a provider with no
worry about how much it is familiar with Mac.
However, in case you are a Mac user having
less knowledge, you will find it comfortable when picking a company which
understanding your particular demand. A search of “web hosting familiar with
Mac” may confuse you with so many results.
If you visit a provider’s site and see
symbol of Mac and iCloud in its home page or read an article about how company’s
people use Mac, you will feel more confident that it bears some relation to Mac
OS. In case you don’t see any clear welcome mat on the company’s website, let’s
visit it “support page” and do a quick search for Mac. Will there be many
results and views? It may be a good sight.
Enthusiasm for Mac, of course, doesn’t ensure
a good experience. A hosting company having poor customer service and bad work result
is not what you need, regardless of its Mac authorization. Try doing an online
search about its name along with viewpoints and comments about experience from
its various customers. Be careful with reviews that are too either negative or
positive because you can find the truth somewhere in the middle.
Hosting
companies
If you prefer some suggestions (of
considered companies) for a start, here are some names. We did have personal
experience with the first three names though all of them should be thought of.
o
MacAce is a well-known nation-wide webhost
provider with long lists of features and customer supporter well-informed of Mac
OS. Hosting’s price starts at $7.5 per month, including cloud clustered hosting
and free incremental back-ups.
o
If you are looking for a good deal, 1&1
offer 6 free months for your webhost. Although it only gives selective packs,
it is worth being tried. Its basic pack costs $4 per month and offers 5 GB web space
and unlimited bandwidth.
o
Fasthosts is another web hosting service in
England. This service provides 24/7 support and its data center will make sure
to keep all your information safe and confidential. Starting price is $5 per
month, including 15 GB web space and unlimited bandwidth.
o
However, you don’t have to restrict yourself
with England service providers. For instance, FatCow offers unlimited bandwidth
and storage plus no configuration’s fee. Its pack’s price starts at $6.5 per
month (pay for 3 years in advance) with lower starting cost.
o
Little Oak is a small business providing
“hosting service for Mac users” (though it is run on Linux servers) for cost of
least $80 per year. The price includes 5GB space and 50GB monthly bandwidth.
This host also ensures 100% of fulltime operation.
o
MacHighway, like Little Oak, announced their
slogan “web hosting for Mac users, by Mac users” (and also uses Linux servers).
Its most budget pack costs $29 ($2.45 per month, pay in advance) and offers 5GB
storage with unlimited bandwidth.
As mentioned above, a good strategy is to
follow suggestion of the company whose software you are using. For example, A2
Hosting is for Sandvox or else Little Oak is for RapidWeaver.
Transfer
an iWeb site
If you are using iWeb to publish website on
MobileMe, you can easily move it to the new provider.
1. Start iWeb and select your website in the program’s sidebar.
2. From Publish To menu, choose FTP Server (instead of MobileMe).
3. In FTP Server setting, select specific protocol (FTP with TLS/SSL or
not, or SFTP). Then input server’s address, username and password (with any
required detail) that are provided by your new webhost. Press Test Connection
to confirm your setting.
4. Input your site’s URL. (Note: if you are using a custom domain with
MobileMe, you will have to edit domain’s DNS settings to direct it to new host
instead of web.me.com. Fortunately, the company where you have registered your
domain may help to do this).
5. Click on Publish Site.
Mac-friendly
webhosts
|
Host
|
URL
|
Monthly fee
|
Set-up fee
|
Storage
|
Bandwidth
|
|
1&1
|
Order.1and1.co.uk
|
$3.7
|
Based on specific pack
|
Unlimited
|
Unlimited
|
|
A2 Hosting
|
www.a2hosting.com
|
$6
|
No
|
Unlimited
|
Unlimited
|
|
FatCow
|
www.fatcow.com
|
$6.5 (advance payment for three years)
|
No
|
Unlimited
|
Unlimited
|
|
Fasthosts
|
www.fasthosts.com
|
$5
|
No
|
15 GB
|
Unlimited
|
|
Little Oak
|
www.littleoak.net
|
$6.66
|
No
|
5 GB
|
50 GB per month
|
|
MacAce
|
www.macace.net
|
$7.5
|
No
|
1 GB
|
1 GB per month
|
|
MacHighway
|
www.machighway.com
|
$2.45
|
No
|
5 GB
|
Unlimited
|
MacHighway
is among webhosts that aims at achieving market share of MobileMe.
How to host your iWeb site to Dropbox
If you have been using MobileMe, you
should know that your files, folders and account information are disappearing.
When you are well aware of what to do with
personal stuff like files and folders, you may not know how to treat your
website hosted by MobileMe. An option is to transfer these files to one free
Dropbox account. The service’s abilities let you perform online file sharing.
You can also use it to host webs. While this is not the best solution, it appears
useful until you find out an appropriate design tool and a permanent webhost.
If you use iWeb to create website, don’t
just drag and drop file from iDisk to your desktop. Instead, use an iWeb
feature letting you export website to a local folder. Here comes the process:
1. Run iWeb. In sidebar, select which website you want to export in
Dropbox.
2. In export section, open “Publish To” menu and change it from
MobileMe to Local Folder.
3. Under Folder Location, select your desktop. Leave website’s URL blank.
4. Create a free Dropbox account. In case you don’t have one, go to www.dropbox.com then click on Sign In button in the left.
Below login sections is a link for creating new account.
a. Once you finish signing up, Dropbox app will start to be downloaded
to your Mac. When it is completed, run the app then log in.
b. Dropbox Public folder, helping to host web, is designed to let you
share one available public URL easily without any specific configuration.
5. Define Public folder in your Dropbox folder, then move iWeb folder
on desktop to Public folder. For each file transferred into Public folder,
Dropbox automatically creates a public URL to share with people. Before going
on, make sure that Dropbox is running. Confirm that you do see Dropbox folder
in menu bar.
6. Dropbox only provides public links for file not for folder. Thus, you
need to control-click the index.html file of the website whose link you want to
share. Select Dropbox in pop-up contextual menu, and then select Copy Public
Link.
7. Paste this link onto your web browser and it now finish – Dropbox is
now hosting your iWeb site.
Host
with Dropbox: Until you find a permanent host to replace MobileMe, Dropbox
offers a refuge.
