Web Site Hosting

[Sycamore Chins]

So, since Yahoo! Geocities is closing Oct 26th I need to get my butt in gear and get a new website.

I've started doodling in Dreamweaver CS3 and have a little bit done (not 100% sure if its in the right format - but i'll figure it out).

Now the dilemma of where to buy it and who to host it.

Who hosts your website? Price? Pros and Cons? Who wouldn't you let host your website?

There are so many options I'm getting seriously overwhelmed. I don't need anything fancy, just a decent disc space and monthly transfer - I don't even need e-mails or anything.

Thanks for your help!

 

[alli713]

Mine is on DreamHost. It's where Dori put me and I don't know anything about website design, so I can't tell you if it's good or not

But I thus far haven't had any issues. I pay just under $10 a month for hosting. I know that there are cheaper options out there.

I have heard good reviews for godaddy.com as well. I think they're around $5 per month for the cheapest hosting option.

 

[mishalaa]

I use a Yahoo! small business account. It's $12.95 a month. I've been using this account for about 8 years now and have been pretty happy with it. Haven't come close to using my disk space or data transfer, though I don't have a ton of huge files stored, mostly just jpg, php and html files.

I have two subdomains - one for my chin site and one for my rattery site - in addition to my regular domain. They function completely separate from one another which I like. I can easily make more subdomains for testing the development of other sites I work on.

Yahoo! supports PERL and MySQL, though I've never dabbled in it other than accessing my databases with PhpMyAdmin. The best thing about it though is they have instant installation of WordPress which I use to run all my sites. Once you get the template designed (helps to know a bit of CSS, though I think the newer versions of Dreamweaver support CSS as well), it's so simple to create pages and update using Wordpress.

I've been happy enough with the service that I haven't bothered looking for other sites, though I do know GoDaddy is cheaper (though I don't know what they offer in their service) and recently DreamHost had a two-for-one promotion where they offered an additional year of service for free, but I don't know if that's still running.

 

[lsknc]

the one i use is really cheap and really good. i only pay around $21 a year and that inculdes the domain name. i know of one other breeder here that uses it. the person that owns it is really nice and will answer any and all of your questions. she also builds websites too. i built my own, its pretty basic. i have the gaint plan and its more then enough for me.

here is the website to the hosting.

http://surnaturelle.net/

 

[jags]

Looks like Jeri is leaning to godaddy for the MCBA site.

 

[Spoof]

Who hosts your website? Price? Pros and Cons?

I use Lunarpages. Price is pretty cheap, $118 for two years, service is exceptional.

I've been with them since 2003, been nothing but happy with the service. The two biggest bonuses are unlimited bandwidth and dang near unlimited storage. From what google Analytics tells me there has been no downtime the last year. It's easy to use for a beginner and has scaled as my needs have become more demanding and my webskills l33t.

Their phone service is top notch, never been frustrated or unsatisfied, though only had to use it a half dozen times all these years.

Cons: They're in CA which is two hours behind me now, not that I call them often.

Dreamweaver is pretty awesome, when you get your ftp access set up you can set up DW to auto connect, makes file moving fast and easy.

Who wouldn't you let host your website?

As a professional that has to work with GoDaddy for clients I do not recommend them.

You're welcome to PM me if you need help with anything. )

 

[Dust Fly]

I have my site hosted at A Small Orange, it's been hosted there over 2 years now. They have plans starting at $25 a year. I currently have the small plan $5 a month.

I also would suggest Go Daddy for a domain name. They are only $10 a year.

 

[Stackie]

I use GoDaddy. I have a .com for $10 a year.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Thanks guys for all the info!

Do you guys recommend buying your domain and hosting it with the same company if possible?

And how do you decide how many years to do at once! The 24 mo/ 60 mo offers are so tempting! Is it just the money all at once that would stop most people from paying for a site for 60 mo or the possibility you won't like the service and will want to move?

 

[Spoof]

Do you guys recommend buying your domain and hosting it with the same company if possible?

Most of the companies include one domain for free with the packages. Every once in awhile the one I use offers an additional domain free for a year - and you can attach as many as domains as you want to a single account.

And how do you decide how many years to do at once! The 24 mo/ 60 mo offers are so tempting! Is it just the money all at once that would stop most people from paying for a site for 60 mo or the possibility you won't like the service and will want to move?

When I started it was only one year plans that were offered. These days I'd probably go with a 2 or a 5. There isn't much reason to dislike the service unless there is a lot of down time or their servers get cracked and your e-mail gets blacklisted a bunch.

The above is why I'm not a fan of GoDaddy, I need 99% uptime with my business. They've not provided that for the clients I've worked with. They also squat on your reserved domains - if you don't put up a home page they put ads up and make money which looks bad when you finally do start a site on that namespace.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Thanks!!!

More questions for ya:

How much do you find the prices go up by the time you need to renew hosting service? Most times can you get another deal from the same company or do they only give the deals to new customers?

 

[Dust Fly]

I personally think it is best to have the domain hosted by a separate company. Sometimes you might find an unethical hosting company that will prevent you from transferring your domain to another company. Thus keeping you locked into their pricing if you want to keep that domain.

Also, my prices at A Small Orange have been the same since I have been there.

 

[Riven]

I recommend Brad. He's a person, not a company. He'll help you with stuff when you need help, and he's cheaper than most big companies. I host several sites through him and get a discount, so I'm not sure what his normal rate is, but it's cheaper per month I remember that from when I asked for a friend!

There is some pricing on there, it depends on how much will use etc. There is an initial set-up cost for some things it looks like, which includes your domain and setting it up ( which is YOURS set up in your name etc. ) and he can also do programing and other technical stuff for you as well.

I highly recommend him.

http://www.bbradley.net/index.php

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Thank you everyone for your help!!! I'm now the proud new owner of my own domain!!!

I've been wanting my own website for years but have always been so intimidated by the process - now that geocities was forcing me to leave my old website I finally had to bite the bullet! Now I feel like I've made an educated decision thanks to you guys!

Now to get a hold on Dreamweaver!