Topic: Getting Started With Hosting ...

[Simon]

Pals is registered with http://www.123-reg.co.uk/.  I think their prices are as competetive as any, however, I would not recommend using Pipex Web Fusion, their sister company, for hosting, as we have had serious problems with them in the past, although admittedly things seem to be fairly steady at the moment.

[Clive]

I need to purchase a domain name.  Any recommendations on which company I should use?

[Clive]

I've signed up with a company called UK2net.  It cost me £10 for 2 years.  Gulp.....

[Simon]

Well, you could have used the ones we are with, which is 123-reg.co.uk, but I guess it's too late now.

[Clive]

Oh I forgot about them!   

[DJ]

I never saw this thread first time around - sorry!

I use www.oneandone.co.uk for domains or if you need hosting as well I also use www.one.com for domain and hosting.

DJ

[Phronesis]

Hi Everyone,

New to the board so firstly nice to "meet" you all!

I am not new to website creation, I've probably made about 50 websites of varying styles over the last 7-8 years.  None that good but I do like to dabble.  I always use a service provider like Yahoo Geocities or someone similar to do the actual hosting. 

Recently a lot of my friends have joined a small social networking site and we are now considering creating our own little social networking site, more as a test to see if we actually CAN do it.  None of us are that web literate and I'm sure it will all fall apart but we are willing to give it a shot, well mainly *I'm* willing to give it a shot!

On another note I am thinking of starting my own website that I wish to host myself.  The only problem is I have no idea how to go about it, I mean no idea AT ALL.  I seem to recall once installing Apache on my computer and going "ooo" when it looked like my PC was a server with MySQL on it but that is as far as I got and I never got any further with it.

Does anyone have any helpful hints?  Advice?  Books I can read (will have to be Dummies Guide style because that's my limit!) or interesting links?  I'd be most grateful if anyone can help with my little project!

Thanks in advance,

Mandy

[Simon]

Hi Mandy, and 

I'm sure someone will be along later with some more practical advice, but they will probably ask what sort of website you want to create?  Would it be just basic photos, blogs, etc?  In that case, if your ISP includes webspace with your package, you may well be able to host something basic on there.  If you are looking at anything more advanced, including PHP, MySQL etc, you would need to be looking for a professional hosting package.  As a company, I wouldn't recommend them (they are part of Pipex), but PC Pals is hosted with WebFusion, and I have to begrudgingly acknowledge that we have had very little in the way of problems from them, apart from a few minutes downtime a couple of weeks ago, and we have just signed up for our third year with them.

Hope that helps in some small way. 

[Camstop]

Hi Mandy 


This company seems to be well recommended for hosting and they sell domain names too www.123-reg.co.uk/web-hosting

I use this free FTP for uploading to the net (third one down) FTP Commander


This link may help with creating a social network http://www.43things.com/create-a-social-networking-website


HTH 

[Phronesis]

Hi everyone and thanks for the suggestions, I'll certainly check them out!

[DJ]

Hi!!

I use www.one.com to host my site. I know you want to host your own - not sure how to do that 


DJ

[sam]

if you want to host on your own machine then you will need to just have a linux machine (can do it with windows but not sure how) running apache and the appropriate firewall setup on a router to allow communications to the world wide web, but it could be quite tricky to get the nameservers correct with a domain name (unless you have a static ip).

[Phronesis]

Hmm, thanks Sam.

Maybe it's a good idea to have someone host for me!  I just wanted a rough idea how I'd go about it but now I look into it it seems it would probably be easier to have someone else host.

Anyone have any ideas on social networking?  I've looked at, and dislike, Ning.com and their means to create your own social network because it's always too closely tied to Ning.  I've also looked at a couple of bits of software but they appear to have terrible reviews.  Does anyone know of any software or sites that may help? 

[sam]

I didn't mean to put you off - it can be done and there are some very useful guides around on google - depends what you want to do though. I think for a start it is best to pay for your hosting - that is how I did it and now I still use paid servers so I have 24 hour connectivity.

As for social networking, not sure - I use facebook but I have never played around with any software.

[Phronesis]

Oh you didn't put me off, it was bit of a stab in the dark idea but now I think about it - it will be hard enough doing all what I want to do without making it harder so if I pay for hosting to start with I can focus more on the sites I want to build and then take over hosting at a later date if I feel I want to.