website building

[jeffnvegas]

need some advice on building a website. where would be the best place to go to get the basics of building a website and registering a domain name? there are a million sites out there trying to get me to pay them to register my domain name and give me free web hosting etc. what is the best route? how do you know which are credible? do i have to pay to register a name? which outfits are the best and which are the most for the money? how much space is reasonable and what should it cost. i'm sure there is a tutorial out there somewhere that would answer all these questions and more so post some links! THANX

[twistedcranium]

There is no right answer, only close answers to this question. Everyone here will give you their recommendations and some will tell you who to stay away from.

That said, here is my response....

I use a hoster located in California, USA, They're pretty darn reasonable, basic hosting costs $9.95/month for 300MB of space, 100 user accounts/email boxes, pretty much unlimited bandwidth, and plenty of other great features including admin and user control panels. The packages only get better as you go up in price.

I also registered my domain name through the same company, although you do not necessarily have to. I just thought it easier to let this company do it, and they only charge the usual $19/year for the domain name. And their tech support has been pretty damn good and quick with replies, never left me go more than 24 hours without a real live reply via email or the issue fixed.

Now I'm sure you can find some cheaper and some more expensive.

If you're really new to developing websites, you might want to give one of the freebie types a try first just to get your feet wet without incurring any costs or buying a domain name that you may not want anymore.

(I don't feel right advertising for the hoster I use here on the forums but I don't mind if you want the link via PM....just yell)

[lufbra]

Like TC said, trying a free version might be a good start, and for that, my first suggestion would be to look into what your own ISP offers. Most offer at least 5 mb's of webspace, mine offers 10 mb's, plenty for messing around with!! :)

For "paid" webspace, I have two accounts, one with these guys...

http://www.web-mania.com/

They offer a great (cheapest) package :p

Another one, and my main one since it has my Pub on it is...

http://34sp.com/

Again, a great deal when considering the costs shown at the sites are for a year, not monthly!! :)

For a domain name of your own, ya can't go wrong using these guys...

http://www.123-reg.co.uk/

All the above "companies" offer great "after sales services!!

[renegade600]

Unless you know what you are doing, it is usually best to get both the domain name and the host account the first time. It takes some of the headaches away when you fiirst start. It is confusing enough as it is.

Personally I would not have free hosting accounts. Too many of them have folded, changes rules in mid stream etc. With paid hosting, you get alot of features like cgi, frontpage, sql, php, etc. If you don't know those, then you have an account you can start experimenting with to learn the different features. Eventually you will need those features.

[Steven.Bentley]

You do need some idea of what the site is going to be before you start shopping around - you need to know whether you need mysql, php, cgi, mailing lists etc so you can make sure you get them :)

[jeffnvegas]

thanks everyone, great sites! looks like i've got some homework and shopping to do. evidently the UK is the place for the hoster with the moster. hey as an after thought any ideas for animated avatars and/or graphics. there should be some pretty good free ready made ones out there. thanx again.

[lufbra]

There's a ton of avators out there, just try a search for "avator" and see what comes up, just be sure they are free to use, or see if they need consent to use!! :)