DreamHost, the company that provides servers for this website and an increasing number of others I host, has done me wrong a number of times, but now that they upgraded my system from a Pentium III to a dual Xeon, things have been smooth. My hosting plan of choice is their “Code Monster” plan, for which I pay about $12 a month in lump payments every two years.
Last night, I processed the payment for the next two years. In turn, I host sites for friends and clients in addition to myself. It takes only one client to pay for DreamHost’s hosting fees, so I don’t complain too much. They provide more than enough server space and bandwidth for now.
This is the kind of expense I should use Quicken to spread out over the two year period (the accural method) but I usually don’t bother with so much detail and just record the lump expense when I pay for it (the cash method).
While occasionally I’ve threatened to leave, I’ve been a customer since 1999. Prior to that my web space was provided to me for free by various universities, including the University of Delaware (I attended school there, so I guess it was included in tuition), Princeton University (I worked there), and George Mason University (a friend of a friend attended school there).
Updated February 6, 2012 and originally published July 10, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
