Can't say it enough

Hosting - you need get it right. In my introductory mails with customers, I try to emphasize how important it is to check out hosting needs. I make it a point to highlight this necessity and explain a bit of what needs to be considered. In many cases it still seems to be an afterthought when license purchasing is done.

Frankly - hosting is probably the single most important aspect of putting up a successful site. You can get a "Cadillac" license package and spoil everything with a substandard economy hosting decision. Dolphin has a lot of cool features that work well when properly hosted, and many headaches can easily be avoided by just not scrimping on hosting.

On first point of contact, I even copy the specifications - no need to even look them up, and often remark in red that ALL of these need to be adhered to or exceeded - they are minimum. You can find this easily on the trac, here: http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/wiki/DolTech   I explain also that hosting companies typically do NOT publish everything that needs to be considered, and, if not using recommended hosting, it is necessary to copy those specs to any prospective hosting solution that you choose to see if the servers have what is needed.

Guess what happens next. Mm-hmm.

It is even possible to make mistakes from among our recommended companies. Some charge extra or specify the need to get a higher cost plan for the accesses to place the RMS for those cool features. Some don't offer RMS hosting at all. Some offer it with every plan. Many of those RMSs are shared, too! It is necessary to check the "more info" link for each company that is being considered. About the only thing that you can be sure of with any of those plans is that you can operate basic Dolphin there (shared hosting) while giving up those flashy A/V things.

Check things out carefully. You may not have a costly license involved here - but surely your time and effort (and sanity) are worth investing some investigative time in. Accept and check other recommendations we make, too. Realize the limits of some of these plans and thank yourself for doing a good job on this. Trouble-free and clicking away is SO nice! We'll thank you too!