Hi Guys,

Jane here for a change, right, I'm wanting to start a website for my Mum. The only problem is I don't know how to do any of it so I shall tell you what I do and don't want to do.

She has a site at the moment on freewebs, which is at it says and is free. However, I want to register her business name and her own site, how on earth do i do it?

I refuse to use Front Page or similar, I want to use something like freewebs which has templates etc that you can build the site as you go.

How much will it be for her to have her name e'g www.janesdesigns.co.uk instead of www.freewebs.com/janesdesigns etc (which incidentally isn't her website name!).

How do I go about getting the whole package, you know someone to host - god that's another thing, what can I expect with that - hosting?!

I have no idea and to be honest yes I am a PC thickster!

So guys, which are the best companies to do it and how do I go about it?

I'd really appreciate some help :-)

By the way before I get any email saying that you know someone who can build a website for her, she's on a budget so that's why Im doing it for her. ;-)

Regards,

Jane.

http://1and1.co.uk sell .co.uk domains for £1.99+VAT per YEAR. Once registered, you can redirect your domain to wherever the site is actually located, i.e. the host. There are many free, reliable(ish) hosts out there without forced adverts, many of which are listed at: http://www.free-webhosts.com/free-domain-hosting.php
I'm not sure about which ones offer templates too, but there are a lot of free hosting sites listed so some might.

I use 1and1 for all my domains and mail and find it all straight forward and simple.

Have a look around their site, they'll answer a few queries in the FAQ. You won't really find a free domain provider that gives you templates to work to. You generally get a domain and you provide the site. For what you want I'd just link to the existing freewebs site in a frame within the domain you're about to register.

Hi,

Thanks for that I shall take a look on their site. It's not a free domain I want, paying for that isn't a problem.

Hosting - what's all that about? What is a reasonable price to be paying? Will I still be able to use the freewebs site?

How do I go about getting it recognised in a search engine?

Bimbo or what?!

Jane x

For a full hosting and domain package I would recommend http://www.supanames.co.uk , very reasonable (about £14 a year) and I have never had any reason to complain. They set up everything and then you just upload your pages, much like you would with a free site.

Originally posted by Chord
Hi,

Thanks for that I shall take a look on their site. It's not a free domain I want, paying for that isn't a problem.

Hosting - what's all that about? What is a reasonable price to be paying? Will I still be able to use the freewebs site?

How do I go about getting it recognised in a search engine?

Bimbo or what?!

Jane x

You can have a domain, e.g. www.janesdesigns.co.uk, "point to" your existing freewebs hosting space, or to any other hosting space you choose. See the URL I gave above for several free hosts.

Domains.....

123reg.co.uk - The best for co.uk domains (about £7.00 for 2 years registration)
joker.com - For the rest.



Many (many) hosts will give you a "free" FULLY QUALIFIED (yourdomain.co.uk) domain name with most of the packages they have available.



Hosting (simplistic):

The remote storing & serving via http, ftp etc of your html/php/pl/cgi documents.


Shared Hosting (detailed):

Shared Hosting:

Shared hosting is a common term referred to the infrastructure offered to individuals and small-to-medium-sized enterprises to host there web site on a resource-shared platform.

This alternative enables anyone to participate in web hosting with a relatively low cost.

Being a resource-shared platform does not mean you will be unfairly treated with the level of service and reliablity, rather it enables the web host provider to monitor resources much more closely and easily.



Virtual Hosting:

Virtual hosting allows an organisation or any individual to host their on-line content with their own Internet domain.

In most cases, this would be a top-level domain eg http://www.companyxyz.com. The advantage of registering an Internet domain is the credibility and professionalism displayed.

In addition, opting for virtual hosting allows you to move to another host, if the service deems unfit or for any other reason, without major disruptions to your web site since the Internet domain will not change.



What are the benefits:

The benefit of shared hosting is that you can host from a simple presentation to a full-blown web site with all the bells and whistles, while maintaining a cost-effective solution.

This introductory category lets any business create an on-line brand or for an individual to maintain a stable on-line link.

The low cost is maintained and offered by hosting more than one web site on a single server, hence allowing significant savings.

Opting for a shared hosting solution allows your business to reduce the venture risk and overheads, or simply make it affordable for any individual.


HTH

Could you cope with a stray .f9. in there?

www.janesdesigns.f9.co.uk

Have a scout round www.force9.co.uk, they give you a free site with your service, your e-mail address takes the same format, as many mail boxes as you like, and I believe they have website building software (free I think) to make the whole thing easier for the inexperienced.

Don't ask me any more questions though, coz I've never got around to doing anything with my free site entitlement :D

Dirk Diggler/Da Bouncer may be able to tell you more as he's with the same provider (now known as plusnet)

PS their support is available 24/7, and can be supplied in words of one syllable (which I find handy!), and it's not a premium number, which is rare.

Originally posted by sccsux
Domains.....

123reg.co.uk - The best for co.uk domains (about £7.00 for 2 years registration)
joker.com - For the rest.


Just wondering how you can justify that comment when 1and1.co.uk offer .co.uk domains for £1.99+vat per year?! A domain is a domain is a domain, surely, so with that in mind the cheapest must be the best?

Originally posted by t020
A domain is a domain is a domain, surely, so with that in mind the cheapest must be the best?


Because it is not about price. But quality of service, features, ease of use, ease of transfer )1&1 have been known to make it extremly difficult to transfer your domain out from them, resulting in the intervention of Nominet and costing £25........ Not exactly "cheap" now, is it??
:D :D

I use 123-reg too. Cant beat them imho.

As sccsux says "free" transfers but also "free" dns hosting, catch all mail address, web forwarding, search engine submission tools, webmail, etc, etc.

I previously had a domain with a company who offered free domains. When I tried to move it to a decent host (ie: one that offered resonable uptime and reliable e-mail) they pointed out a clause in the sign up that said you had to pay £85 to move the domain. I just waited for it to expire and registered it again :)

I think in some cases its worth paying a little bit more when a company has a good reputation and offers a reliable service

Hi,

I just want to say thanks to all who have helped me on my quest. I have the day off work so I shall check out the sites that you have given me, and let you know on which we decide, it's still giving me a headache but ever the mountain goat (astrology) (!) I know I'll get there in the end!

Thanks once again,

Jane.


P.S Nice car t020.............but not as nice as my beemer :-)

ttfn x

Have a look at www.glasstop.net

We provide Domains and Hosting.

A .co.uk domain is £5 to Nominet whoever you go with 123 reg the domain is 7p i think so you pay £5 + 7p + VAT

We provide forwarding or you could just get a hosting package and use a domain bought somewhere else.

But a domain for £1.99+Vat if that is the final cost why would any business sell items at a loss and provide a good service if you buy just the domain from them at £1.99 they are losing £3.01 straight away. It just doesn’t seem right.

If that is the case you could go with them I doubt they have free transfers or allow you to change the DNS records for free.

Steven Battams
Glasstop Networks

Hi,

Right ok, it's led me into more baffledom - I've decided to mull everything over but would like to know one thing - before I sign up with a 'host' can I buy my domain name NOW so that nobody else nicks it? :-)

And do I just choose one of the people listed below?

Thanks Guys!

Yes, you can register the domain name now. Just make sure you register it with a company that doesnt charge you for transfering the domain name so you wont have to pay again when you find hosting.

Yes you can.

If you use someone like 123-reg then you can buy the domain name with a credit card and leave it there until you get hosting.

Any decent hostng company will have no problems about joining the domain name to the webspace!

Only reason I mention 123-reg is that they're the folks I use for my clients who need hosting / domains and although they cost a little more than others there are no hidden extras further down the line.

Joe

Thats right 123-reg allow that

we also alow transfers. So do a lot of the others.

Hosting is the fun bit tring to get it all together but if you are after a special online building package so you can create your websites online you may get into a few problems finding one.

Hi Chord,

If you need anyone to guide you through it, just get touch.

For starters go to 123-reg.co.uk and buy your domain.

As for hosting, you might want to consider a host that offers an online site builder, so you can put a website up in a matter of minutes based on a template design.

I am sponsoring this forum now and will glad to help you get started.

Regards,

/Johnny

Bananaman why are all your prices in $?

There are quite a few webhosting companies out there and posts like this end up turning into a "we supply the best" type war.

Steven Battams

Wow this thread just turned into spamathon.

If you want somewhere to temporarily put up a site I can provide you with some free webspace while you work something out for the long term. PM me.

In the meantime leave these 2 numpties to fight over who has the best package

Lol its no fight. It is up to the customer what they choose from who.

Shopping for web hosting is worse than a car or a TV as there is so much choice. But as long as you get what you are after someone will be happy.

A lot of our customers are the smaller e-mail only type accounts or large businesses. Not sure what we are doing wrong but seem to miss a large portion of the market.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice again, I have just got myself (well my Mother) a domain name (clever eh?)! I used 1&1.

Bananaman - Yes, why are your prices in $?

Punk - Thank you for suggesting that, you're very kind!

Glasstop - I will check out your ste tomorrow.

Trying to get my head around all these hosting packages and which one would be best for me, I don't understand this linux thingymajig that keeps cropping up so when I have decided on what I think may be the best option I shall then again have to ask loads of questions! I'm getting there anyway with your help!

Thanks Again,


Janey.

Originally posted by sccsux
Because it is not about price. But quality of service, features, ease of use, ease of transfer )1&1 have been known to make it extremly difficult to transfer your domain out from them, resulting in the intervention of Nominet and costing £25........ Not exactly "cheap" now, is it??
:D :D

That's fair enough then, I didn't realise there was anymore to it than actually paying for the domain, in which case the cheapest would be the best.

Hi Chord,

Prices are in Dollars because the majority of our customers are from the US, and because it was the only currency supported by the control panel software when we started.

We have setup a .co.uk site, and will be launching Pound and EURO currency sites too, and when we have time, euro language sites, like Italian and Spanish.

Accepting dollars is not abnormal, it's the currency of the internet, we even buy advertising in dollars at Google and other sites, so it makes things simple at our end.

We do have quite a few UK customers. They love the exchange rate :-)


Regards,

/Johnny

Thanks Bananaman!

Originally posted by Chord
I don't understand this linux thingymajig that keeps cropping up...


It's just an Operating System.

As is Windows (hosting is also available on Win platforms)!

The difference is that Linux was derived from Unix (which was widely used for networking computers together way before windows) which made it ideal for networking on a VWAN (internet). Windows servers tend to run IIS (which is a constant target for hackers), so (should you choose a Windows host) make sure you do a bit of research into the history of the host.


Relistically, if all you are doing is serving up HTML (with little or no scripting) then all you need do is upload (FTP) your html and it should be visible immediately in a browser - regardless of the hosting platform.

However, when it comes to scripts, then you'll need to use a Unix base variant host for true perl scripting, whereas if you are wanting to include ASP/.NET scripting ,then you'll need a Windows host.

PHP is not such an issue thesedays...

Oh well, let's join the plugging party - www.springaction.co.uk - we offer high quality servers and guaranteed support response times. You won't appreciate this until you have tried getting any help from many hosting companies who once they have your money, aren't interested in you any more.

then you'll need to use a Unix base variant host for true perl scripting

http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/

if you are wanting to include ASP/.NET scripting ,then you'll need a Windows host

Chillisoft ?

back to the original question


I'm wanting to start a website for my Mum.

Perl / ASP / .NET probably isn't going to be an issue...

Originally posted by punk
http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/



Chillisoft ?


Activestate Perl differs from true *nix flavours in control, functionality in many areas (and is always a version of half-ver behind *nix releases). Same goes with PHP!


Chillisoft ASP is not 100% accurate and requires modifications (in many cases) to the original ASP code. It is also pretty resource hungry on a *nix box!


We offer Chillisoft ASP support on our higher packages, though we do advise customers of the potential problems involved with ASP on *nix boxes.


HTH!