Thinking of signing up...

..but before I do, just want to check some details. I've been looking for a good value host with the right features for ages, so if this does have 'the right' features, I will probably sign up!

Questions:
1. When you create a subdomain, where does it create the folder for that subdomain? cPanel creates them inside public_html, which is incredibly annoying. I'm hoping it creates them somewhere outside your main document root folder.

2. I had a look around the control panel with my web ID, but cannot see where you create cron jobs. Where is this done?

3. Can you administrate mysql users and databases through phpmyadmin, or does it have to be done through the control panel? Also, when you create a new user or database, does it keep the name as you enter it, or does it stick something onto the beginning (like cPanel very annoyingly does)

4. Can you create folders outside of the document root? I have some php class files, some other files that are included by pages within httpdocs, but don't want them to be accessible from the web.

eg:

/httpdocs/index.php

...which includes...

/lib/some.class.php

Where the lib and httpdocs folder are at the same level. Can the lib folder be created?
More questions when I think of them!

Edited by ChrisEmerson on 01/09/07 01:32 PM (server time).

Q1. When you create a subdomain, where does it create the folder for that subdomain?

/home/user/
/home/user/domain/
/home/user/subdomain/

Q2. I had a look around the control panel with my web ID, but cannot see where you create cron jobs. Where is this done?

Via the "crontab" command from the shell.
See http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/KB_/_Unix_/_Cron_Jobs_and_Persistent_Processes
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/Crontab

Q3a. Can you administrate mysql users and databases through phpmyadmin

Yes.

Q3b: when you create a new user or database, does it keep the name as you enter it

Yes.

Q4. Can you create folders outside of the document root?

Yes.

All the best,
marsbar

With regards to where your domains go, you can really put them wherever you want. The default is /home/[username]/[domain name]/ but you can put them wherever.

For instance, I have mine as the following:
/home/username/sites/[domain name]

It keeps things a little cleaner.

I guess that sort of answers #4 as well--like I said, you can set up your directory structure however you want

What's so great about Dreamhost is how flexible everything really is. They really let you do just about anything.

Of course... I forgot about shell access for crontab!

Many thanks for your answers... another question though

In your honest opinion... what is the speed like, and what is the reliability like? How much downtime is there? And is there anything at all that annoys any of you about dreamhost - something you can't do that you wish you could or anything?

I've really had a good experience with Dreamhost so far.

As far as speed goes, at first I had some trouble with FTP upload/download speeds as well as HTTP. But, I contacted support and they were extremely helpful. They moved me to a different server with fewer domains on it and things have improved.

Downtime-wise, I can't really say--I don't really use my site that much at the moment, but whenever I need it, it is up. I don't know that I would put anything mission-critical on Dreamhost, because of past events, but for anything else, Dreamhost is perfect. They seem to be making an honest effort to improve all the time, and they are very open about what is going on.

Dreamhost is perfect for my needs--I tend to play around with different things all the time, and the fact that they offer shell access and so many more other "goodies" is great, especially for such a low price!

That is good, I find that encouraging.

One final question... What is it like in terms of the future? How do they make their money, and get away with giving away so much for such a good price? Am I likely to sign up and find them go bust soon, or are they pretty stable & have a good future?

I'd really recommend that you read over at the Dreamhost Blog. There are some great entries on their philosophies as a company.

Here's the entry on overselling. Basically, they know very, very few of their customers will actually use the full bandwidth/disk space, so they can give away lots of it.

Dreamhost has been around since 1997, so I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon, especially since they host around 400,000 domains.

In reply to:
In your honest opinion... what is the speed like, and what is the reliability like? How much downtime is there? And is there anything at all that annoys any of you about dreamhost - something you can't do that you wish you could or anything?

I can't give an honest opinion; I only answer this to post DreamHost's anniversary promo code in my sig'. :-) Doesn't pay me a thing; saves you a couple extra $$.

Speed and reliability varies, of course, with network conditions between "you" and DreamHost making as big a difference as anything.

The thing that annoys me most about DreamHost, other than blog.dreamhost.com, is they offer more and more features all the time, and I just can't use them all, so I'm not getting my full money's worth. I've been thinking of mirroring some linux distributions and sourceforge projects to fill my disk space quota. I started backing up my old backups just to use more space. I upload and download tar.gz files randomly with cron jobs, just to burn bandwidth, and I'm encouraging people to inline link my photos to burn more bandwidth (not really).

What really bothers me most is the shenanigans they play with promo codes and setup fees (which didn't exist back in the day).

we all worry about the speed but forget it is shared.

I've been reading a bit elsewhere on the site about the CPU minutes limits etc, but have no idea and no context for this at all. What sort of application / load / usage is likely to push it over this limit? I really don't have a clue how much different types of application use!

Also, I am planning to sign up tonight, but the only email address I have is one that is on the domain I want to host, but the signup form will not let me use a contact email on the same domain. What can I do? I don't particularly want to use my work address, but if there is no other way then I will have to, and I don't want to sign up for a Hotmail / Gmail / any other free email account.

In reply to:
I've been reading a bit elsewhere on the site about the CPU minutes limits etc, but have no idea and no context for this at all. What sort of application / load / usage is likely to push it over this limit?

That is a very difficult question to answer, as there are so many variable involved. Generally speaking, heavily dynamic sites that are database driven, are poorly optimized, do not utilize caching, and are heavily trafficked are the prime candidates for trouble. I know that is not much help, but there are so many interactions that contribute to load, that is the only "general" statement I feel comfortable making.

In reply to:
I am planning to sign up tonight, but the only email address I have is one that is on the domain I want to host, but the signup form will not let me use a contact email on the same domain. What can I do?

If you don't want to use work email, and have no other email account, I suggest you complete the sign up using a "free" dreamhosters.com subdomain, and use the email address of the domain you *eventually* want to host on Dreamhost.

This will allow you to complete the signup with yhour current hosting/email intact, cost you nothing, and gives you a "free" place to develop/move/setup your site - when you are ready to "flip the switch" you cand then "add a domain" for the domain you want to host (your current domain) at no extra cost (if you don't use the "free" registration at sign up, you don't lose it - yhou will still get credit for the first domain you register).

That way, you avoid the email problem, a preserve your right to transfer the domain for free.

--rlparker

I have now signed up, and I love it :D

Just one question now, Someone mentioned above (in the first reply) that I could administrate users and databases through phpmyadmin - how is this done please? I don't seem to have permission to create a new database, and cant find the phpmyadmin priviliges page, so i assume that is disabled.

I am quite happy using the dreamhost control panel, but it doesn't seem to have any facility for user priviliges at all.

https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=goodies.mysql&

Under Goodies, Manage MySQL (Goodies?). Create a database there, and then there will be a link to phpmyadmin, which will also be the database subdomain URL you create.

Yeh, I have found that, and using it fine, it's jsut the specific problems above that I am having trouble with - creating databases and administration of users through phpmyadmin - eg if i want a certain user to only have certain privilieges.

That is under Billing (?), Account Privileges, which is based on webids.

I think you'll find that creating databases must be done through the panel, unless something's changed.

I'm not sure you quite understand.

In a database, you can have several users accessing different databases (This is all fine), but you can also give certain users different privileges - like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE etc. eg. One user might only be able to select, while another might be able to insert and update on some tables but not delete, while have full access to other tables.

Normally this is administered in phpmyadmin under the 'Privileges' section, but it seems you can only create users with full access in the control panel, and the privileges page in phpmyadmin isn't there - presumably because you can't change them.

Any ideas on this? Or should I be contacting support?

Welcome to DreamHost, Chris!
My humble apologies for being wrong about what one can do via phpmyadmin. *red faced* Anonymous2 is right: database creation is done via the control panel, and so is user administration.
Cheers,
marsbar

In reply to:
but it seems you can only create users with full access in the control panel, and the privileges page in phpmyadmin isn't there

You can change a database user privileges in the panel. Go to Goodies -> Manage MySQL, under the Users with access column for each database you will see the valid database users, click on any user to change their privileges.

Mark

PS: Welcome to DreamHost :)

Ah, thank you - I don't know why I didn't notice this before! I'm sure I had clicked on a user!

Cheers for that, thanks for everyone's help :)