Site Hosting

[Eric the Grey]

As the time draws near for me to turn in my final project for Web II, I need to find myself a web host for it. The requirements are:

• Not a free site. We cannot have ads on the site unless they are part of the design (ie: ads for My site, not something else).
  
• I need to register a domain name for it. This I'm not too worried about (getting the name, that is). Since the name is the name of my D&D world, I don't think it'll be taken... *crosses fingers, because you never know* I've never searched for it, so the chances are even less.
  
• Something not too expensive on a yearly basis. Even though I only really need to keep this up for a month, I would really like to keep it up and running and build on it as time goes by.

I don't really need a lot of special capabilities as far as server-side goes. Eventually, the ability to allow logins, and to control access based on that login would be handy, but not necessary right now. I don't know how to implement that yet, and won't until I can.

So who has had experience with hosting and building their own sites? Who should I look into and who should I avoid?

I've looked at go-daddy and their prices seem pretty good, but I've heard some stories about people trying to move to someone else and having a hard time being able to do that.

I've also used 50-webs hosting for a freebie host service for past classes but unfortunately, I can't do the freebie site.

Searching brings up a ton of options, and I'm dumb-founded about the number. I don't want to get stuck with someone who's going to screw me in the long run.

Edit:

Oh yea, what about backups? Do most hosting services back up data? Should it be something I should check for when I search? I mean, I have copies of everything on the site, ideally....

Edit 2:

What difference (other than reliability?) does the host type matter (ie: Win vs Linux)?


Eric the Grey

[TOLady]

I've been using Go.Daddy for about 3 years and the only problem I ever had was when I didn't check the gmail account the designer set up for my website and didn't get the notification to pay up again .

Go.daddy - with the Protected Registration Renewal comes to $35/year.

My web host is Dreamhost and they are awesome! $180 for 2 years. http://www.dreamhost.com/

They back up everything, but I've never encountered a problem where I had to rely on that.

Hope that helps!

[Eric the Grey]

Thanks for the info TOLady. I plan on making a decision by next Friday, (payday) and going with it. Until then, it's all typing of information into Dreamweaver. Until then, I'll read all the advice I see.

Looking at Dreamhost now.


Eric the Grey

[Jack]

See http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/webhosting.shtml for info on Futurequest. I host my site there and find it excellent.

[Midorikawa]

I work for BlueHost, and although I despise a few people in the company, the hosting is good for what you pay for. Backups aren't regular, so you'd need to keep your own, it's all linux based, but as long as your site isn't all ASP or C#, it'll work fine. It's cheap shared hosting that should do exactly as you need. I think we're talking $80 or so a year last I remember, with free domain registration. Support is entirely US based, so you don't end up in India or similar.

Insiders note: If you sign up with FastDomain, it's a dollar a month cheaper, and the servers are less populated, so you have better availability. The company is actually 3 companies in one: Bluehost, Hostmonster, and FastDomain.

[Eric the Grey]

Quoth Midorikawa

I work for BlueHost, and although I despise a few people in the company, the hosting is good for what you pay for. Backups aren't regular, so you'd need to keep your own, it's all linux based, but as long as your site isn't all ASP or C#, it'll work fine.

Heh, nothing like that. The entire site is nothing but strict HTML, and one interactive Flash map. Nothing that needs any fancy programming, although eventually I'd like to have an email form.

I'll check them out, along with Futurequest.


Eric the Grey

[Eric the Grey]

Whelp, I made up my mind and this morning, I purchased a domain and set up my site.

It still needs some updates (some pages are all but blank currently) but you can see it for yourselves at: http://www.tanzegier.com/index.html

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.



Eric the Grey

[Der Cute]

Hey, Cool! My BF is working on a site of his own, and tbh I like yours better lol

The blue is soothing.

Cutenoob

[Eric the Grey]

Quoth Cutenoob

Hey, Cool! My BF is working on a site of his own, and tbh I like yours better lol

The blue is soothing.

Cutenoob

LOL. The first comment I received was about the blue. "You like blue, don't you?"

I looked down at my blue jeans, and blue shirt and said "I don't know what you mean."


Eric the Grey

[wolfie]

Bit too late (saw that you already purchased hosting), but most ISPs include a certain amount of space free for a personal site. If you get your domain name through easydns.com, one of the options they have is redirection (someone enters www.yourdomain.com in the browser, and it goes to whatever you have it set to, such as www.yourisp.com/users/youraccount). I've got a domain through them, and use the e-mail redirection - if I change ISPs, I won't have to give all my contacts my new address (they have the one at my domain), merely change where the redirection goes.