http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=221053

The ISP I'm with currently has been hosting my site for two years now, and I've had no complaints, except one. There are few modules available outside of the basic 5.6.0 installation.

I've had no problems with the service. It's always been reliable and secure. Whenever I manage to screw something up, they fix it as soon as possible. However, they are a small ISP, and oriented towards small businesses. "Therefore, we tend to turn away high-bandwidth sites, overly complex sites running a large amount of scripts or large databases and so on." (from here) I have nothing too complex or anything that would strain resources.

Should I ask them about adding more modules? How would I go about doing that? What if they say 'no', should I move on?

John J Reiser
newrisedesigns.com

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Looking for a Perl-oriented ISP
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Dec 19, 2002 at 08:49 UTC
    I don't think it can hurt to ask. They probably won't prematurely shoo away a customer (other than by saying "no"). And a lot of ISPs are only too eager to offer things for their customers that increase their services' value with little effort. All that can happen is that you find yourself either pleasantly surprised or find out you have to move elsewhere, which won't come as a surprise.

    Makeshifts last the longest.

Re: Looking for a Perl-oriented ISP
by Callum (Chaplain) on Dec 19, 2002 at 11:22 UTC
    One important thing to consider here is how technical the person you'll be dealing with (marketing guy or sysadmin), and whether or not they are actually able to make the decission (1st line support almost certainly can't).

    So long as the request reaches a 2nd or 3rd line techie who can accurately appraise that what you're doing won't require too much work on their part, or place undue load on their servers, I'd be very suprised if they weren't responsive -- especially as they're a fairly small business.

Re: Looking for a Perl-oriented ISP
by hiseldl (Priest) on Dec 19, 2002 at 15:28 UTC

    Bottom line, you're paying for it, so ask.

    I've been with Superb.net for over 2 years, and they have been very responsive to installing perl modules. pair Networks is also a perl friendly web host. merlyn suggested Sprocket Data in this node.

    Update: Go to this node for a discussion of mod_perl and shared hosting; it also has some useful links for finding and evaluating Perl friendly web hosts.

    HTH.

    --
    hiseldl
    What time is it? It's Camel Time!

Re: Looking for a Perl-oriented ISP
by Ryszard (Priest) on Dec 19, 2002 at 06:12 UTC
    Surely this is as simple as "If it fits the bill I will use it, if it doesnt, I will go to the next place."
Re: Looking for a Perl-oriented ISP
by silent11 (Vicar) on Dec 20, 2002 at 04:54 UTC
    I use pair for my web hosting, I've never had any problems with them, also, their collection of modules is quite beefy!

    update: The above "modules" link is now broken. Please use this link. If only they left behind redirects when moving pages!

    -Silent11
Re: Looking for a Perl-oriented ISP
by deadkarma (Monk) on Dec 19, 2002 at 20:53 UTC
    Even if they don't, how difficult is it to build modules into your homedir?
      that all depends on whether or not he has telnet access.

      i recommend lunarpages http://www.lunarpages.com. they don't offer telnet access (yet - it's supposed to be coming soon), but they have a host of other neat features (including a pretty low price) and their support team will install any modules that require compilation.

      this is starting to sound like an advertisement, so i'll stop now...