Rainbow Portal Community

It would be helpful to have a good list of web hosts that are known to be "Rainbow ready". (Some basic pricing information for each would also be good.)

My current web host claimed all the ASP.NET, SQL Server, etc. support and could run IBuySpy, and dotNetNuke. In trying to set up Rainbow I found that they would not allow ASPNET SQL access because it might be a "potential security problem". Bottom line, no ASPNET SQL access, no Rainbow - a big waste of time and $$.

It would really help people getting started to have a list of hosts that have been tried and that are known to be Rainbow compatible.

Thanks,
Jack

Codewarrior,
This is a good suggestion. This would be helpful. Personally I use webhost4life which offers everything you need for running Rainbow and a bunch of other fun stuff for $9.95 a month.
You can do your own setup for free or you can ask them to setup rainbow on your hosting for which I think they charge either $50 or $39.95 but I'm not sure.

The best part? You get 20% for referrals(shameless plug below).
http://www.WebHost4Life.com/default.asp?refid=chrisfarrell

The others that have hosting for Rainbow?

Rainbowportal.net has hosting. Currency is in something other than dollars and a bit more money than webhost4life. I think their hosting is in the $25-50 a month range but I never converted the currency to know.

Brinkster. I've used their free hosting which wasn't great, they *claim* the paid hosting is much better in terms of reliability and service. I think what you need with Brinkster is the X4 package($15.95 a month, $15.95 setup) with the optional add-on SQL Server hosting($14.95 setup, $14.95 month). Total cost would be around $30 a month.

And if you want to go all out. You can buy your own 1U rackmount system, add your own software and have dedicated hosting. Pricing depends on your area, I found a place that would host my server for $40 a month. Catch is that you will spend a fortune on software if you don't own it already and you have to buy a 1U server($300-500).

Cheers

Chris Farrell

I will add this to the FAQ also. Forgot to mention that. Thanks for the input!!!

Cheers

Chris Farrell

Thanks for your feedback Chris. I currently have Rainbow on a Windows Server 2003 system that I use for development and testing here in my office. webhost4life sounds good when I'm ready to online (if I do, I'll use your referral link). Since I have experience with setting up Windows Server 2003 with SQL Server on a system here in my office, moving this to an outside dedicated server sounds possibly interesting. Three questions:

1. Who might you recommendation for hosting a 1U rackspace dedicated server?

2. Could you point me to information and sources for 1U rackspace dedicated servers?

3. In addition to Micorsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL Server, what other software might be needed? (web hosting control panel (Helm)?, email software?)

Thanks,
Jack

Codewarrior,
The answer depends.

If you are leasing the server computer itself then distance wouldn't matter that much. If you OWN the server and they are just providing rackspace/bandwidth then I would go with someone semi-local.

Dedicated hosting(basically you lease their 1U system and they provide bandwidth, etc) is very costly. About $150 a month or more. Some will provide the server with some software, others won't.

In my location(Ohio), I found that hosting was cheaper about 2 hours away because they are close to the major backbone and bandwidth is cheaper. If I provided a server it was around $40 a month.

What software would you need? No idea really, never ran a remote windows server. I would not know where to start even. I'd imagine a email server, ftp server, sql server, the advanced server version of windows would be a good start.

I cannot recommend any specific company for dedicated hosting. Try asking ISP's in your area, or perhaps medium sized businesses. Most web hosts also offer dedicated hosting.

This really isn't my area of expertise.

Chris Farrell

Thanks for the info Chris. It sounds like WebHost4Life is a good way to get started until larger needs arise. Thanks again for your help.

Jack

For what it's worth...

I'm using discountasp.net. I have never contacted them directly about Rainbow. I installed it from Visual Studio and had no problem. They seem to have good prices...

Hey Guys,

I was also tired of these big companies that don't have any idea about Rainbow, so I decided to become a web host. I should have a plan out by the end of the week. I will be charging about $8-9 a month but you will get extra domain's 200mg, bandwith plus a lot more then what the other's are giving. I am currently with WebHost4Life and I am happy but I thought I can get a little more for a little less if I host. If you are interested please drop me a line and I will let you know when the plan will go live.

Well I started a hosting company. I am still working on the kinks but I do have plans an alot of cool free stuff. I can host rainbow!!!! Packages start at around $8.95 a month and discounts for multiple months. If you have any questions go to www.biginthosting.com and let me know what you think.

Please drop me a line if you would like to know more or even what I can do to get you to come over to BigIntHosting.

Sean

P.S. If you sign up early you get a lot of personal service.

www.biginthosting.com

Hi Chris
maybe you can help me, I see you use rainbow on webhost and I try it but I have some problems.
In my server all is fonctionnal, but on webhost in the first login it said that aspnet has no right to files system access but I give it admin access in all the folders.
then actually it's impossible for me to add new tab or new image.
I see in the documentation that we must give aspnet grant grant access to the database.
maybe it's the problem ?
what are you doing for running rainbow correctly on webhost ?
thanks for your response
Rgds
Christophe from belgium

I just wanted to put this out there. If you are looking for an ISP then take a look at me http://www.biginthosting.com. I am starting a promotion to get users:

If you sign up for either a 6 month or 12 month contract I will setup Rainbow for free on your account. All you have to do is email me @ admin@biginthosting.com. I am not going to do this for long.

Thanks All

Chris,
wow, sorry about taking so long. I didn't see this post come in.

I have seen the error message you mention. I do not know exactly what causes it. My guess is that Rainbow does not have adequate permissions for the root directory. You cannot change this via the control panel but you could probably make a support request and have them give the aspnet account full permissions to the root directory. The other idea would be to put Rainbow into a subdirectory and that way you can give it full permissions on your own.

Logically speaking, the file system permissions error would mean that Rainbow doesn't have file permissions(ok, too literal). You can change the permissions for aspnet for every file and subdirectory in or lower than the root directory but you cannot change the permissions for hte directory itself.

Give it a shot, let me know how it goes.

Chris Farrell

I know this post is old, but if anyone is looking for an asp.net host, then I would recommend <a href="http://www.WebHost4Life.com/default.asp?refid=loganx">WebHost4Life</a>. They offer very reasonable rates with MS SQL. I have had great luck with them and they have good, timely support.

They actually have a program in the control panel that will automatically install Rainbow (and many other .net programs) for free.