On websites and webhosting.

The_Scarab

Being the only tech savvy person in the family I have been called upon to put together a website for my aunt. They have amazingly already constructed the site in frontpage.

Normally this would go in H+A but I need a more tech support kind of answer and my situation is definetly related enough to technology to warrant a little crossover. Especially as Id like totally professional advice. And considering there is a 'help me build a pc' thread every day Im going to try to get this in too.

So I have the frontpage site saved right. How do I go about getting it hosted. As I see it I need two things, domain and hosting. Is it advisable to get both from the same place? As this is a personal site traffic is not going to be huge and nor is the site of the files needed to be hosted, so costs can be down there.

What is the protocol for hosting a site. Are bandwidth issues going to be there at all? Anyone reccommend any decent hosting/domain places to goto?

I was doing a cursory glance around the net and found a few places that offer 1gb/mnth data transfer.

Now, I have absolutely no idea if that is average or high or what. Assume the site gets say a few hundred hits a month, what kind of deal am I going to be looking for.

Now even I, with little to no web design talent realise a frontpage designed personal site isnt exactly going to need a ton of maintenance or support. Also, does the hosting have to be in the UK? I mean, I assume if I can pay using dollars for US hosting then it would be the same, and a hell of a lot cheaper than this premade family package aol type crap that they have been showing me, which I said no to right away. Getting a domain is also the second task. How do I tie this to the hosted site? Or is it best just to bundle them all together for simplicity? Much abliged for help if any guys. I reckon this might get moved to H+A but Ill keep bumping it in there ,its kinda important and probably unless some awesome dude comes along isnt going to be a one post answer.

Lovedumplingx

One of the big ones out there (that I've heard mixed reviews on) is GoDaddy.com. They do both hosting and take care of the domain name.

Domain name registration is the part you really need to worry about as you could host it anywhere but most of these places out there that register domains will also host.

As for tying your domain to your host that should be done somewhere with your domain registrar through the DNS settings to point the domain name to the correct IP.

Nightslyr

GoDaddy is pretty decent. You can get good hosting for cheap through them (I think somewhere in the $5 - $8 a month range, with domain). I'm not a fan of all the hoops you need to go through in order to access their control panel, but overall I've had no real complaints.

You shouldn't need to worry about most of the technical stuff if this is just a small, personal website. So, you don't need to be concerned about bandwidth or how much hard drive space you're allotted.

Regardless of who you choose, I do recommend getting the domain and hosting from the same source. I've had instances where getting the two to synch up, when they were purchased from different sources, was a real headache. Since you're pretty new to this, I think you should avoid that potential pitfall.

The_Scarab

Ok sounds good.

Follow up question however : I upload the html code right? And that should work. What about images and stuff like that? Does it basically just have one big button saying 'upload files'.

Nightslyr

The_Scarab wrote: »

Ok sounds good.

Follow up question however : I upload the html code right? And that should work. What about images and stuff like that? Does it basically just have one big button saying 'upload files'.

Most hosting companies do one of two things (or both):

1. An upload form on which you can specify multiple files to upload (most likely by hitting "Browse," which opens up your filesystem window) with a big "Submit" or "Upload Files" button.

2. Rely on FTP to transfer files. In these cases, hosting companies (the decent ones, anyway) will have a Java-based web FTP client that will run in your web browser, so all you'd need to do is find the desired file on the left side of the screen, double-click it, and watch it appear on the right side of the screen.

Technically, if you have an FTP client (like, say, Filezilla), you can upload files regardless of what the hosting company's control panel gives you for an upload option.

I know that GoDaddy features the Java-based FTP client mentioned in #2. I don't remember if it has a form-based method or not as well.

Be sure to remember the layout of your files when you upload. If the images are stored in a different directory than index.html, then you'll need to make that directory in your hosting account's storage.

bombcar

Make sure that YOU are the registered owner of the domain, and not the hosting company. Otherwise you could get burned.

imbalanced

I usually do two different companies for the domain and hosting. Say you get burned by your hosting company, you don't want them to hold your domain hostage. As far as registering a domain, I ONLY use Network Solutions. I will not use anyone else other than them.

For hosting, I use the developer package with 1&1 but I hear good things about Dreamhost.

Æthelred

Be aware that your frontpage formatting may not even make it to the web intact - it's a pretty shitty program. Honestly you'd be better off posting this in H&A, so you can get advice as you go along; it'll drop off the first page here pretty quickly.

piL

I've heard all kinds of people talk bad about Dreamhost, but I've only very rarely had troubles with them.