I’d like to get a domain (like www.insertnamehere.com) to host my family tree and photos and a family message board. I see several sights to register domains, and some that host as well. I was considering OneDollarHost where I pay $15 to register a domain and $12 to host my sight for a year with unlimited hard drive space. Is this a good deal?
I have no idea what is the best method for registering/hosting a domain name, and don’t want to get ripped off. Does anyone know the best way to go about this?
Another q to add on, what is (in your opinion) is the best software to use in webpage development. I currently have a (rather half-assed) webpage set up with the template provided by the server, so I’ve never needed any other type of software. I’m thinking of putting up a new webpage under my own domain name and I’m looking into software (no, notepad isn’t a great option… I’m not that great at HTML)
Personally, I use dixiesys(.com) and have had very little trouble. What trouble I have had was resolved pretty quickly (their tech support has responded w/in 24 hours IME).
As far as software goes, anybody who seriously recommends notepad to a beginner is trying (unsuccessfully, IMHO) to be funny. The industry standard is Dreamweaver. Unfortunately, it costs a bundle ($99 as the “educational” price, don’t know what retail is) and doesn’t have the most user-friendly interface in the world. (The interface is geared more towards efficiency than hand-holding, again, IMHO.)
But deep pockets, fearless exploration, and a good book on Dreamweaver can overcome these pretty easily (I recommend using the library from the book - software gets new versions relatively often).
Oh, and one more word to the OP - if you want a message board, choose message board software now. (InvisionBoard and phpBB are both good free alternatives. If you have the bucks, vBulletin - incidentally what the SDMB uses - is pretty much the industry standard.) Then see what its technical requirements are. If a host does not offer meet these requirements, do not go with that host!
$12 paid once a year, and it has zero ads, zero banners, and unlimited megabyte storage. They also say unlimited data transfer…here’s a list of others: http://www.onedollarhost.net/index.asp
anyone have success with other hosting sights they’d like to recommend?
I agree with you in the sense that a beginner will not be able to make complicated pages using notepad, which is a good thing in and of itself. But if you want to learn something, you should start at the bottom of the food chain not at the top.
It’s possible to start at the bottom of the food chain, as you put it, aahala, without using a barebones word processor like Notepad or SimpleText. I think the true introductory, bottom-level choice is a WYSIWYG program like FrontPage or PageMill. Beginners need the WYSIWYG tools those apps have. With a program like PageMill, you can click around and type, and in a few minutes come up with a page that has simple structure and content. With the HTML those programs generate automatically, a newbie could see code without having to know or type code.
With Notepad, on the other hand, there’s nothing to click that adds HTML elements, and if you don’t know HTML, you’re stuck. There are no tools to assist you, there’s nothing for reference, and there’s nothing to save you time.
Notepad and SimpleText are best for those who possess some knowledge of HTML. Even then, you’re better off using an intermediate program such as BBEdit or Freeway (on the Mac side). Those programs have features that make webpage creating much easier.
IMO, the only reason to use Notepad or SimpleText is if you need a program that’s free.
If your webpage is simple, and you don’t like HTML, one option is to get Netscape or Mozilla, as one feature of these browsers is a simple web page editor. And of course they are free.
Exactly. This is why it is essential that newbies in general learn from tools that don’t do any work for them. Otherwise, they’re just copying, not learning, without any understanding ofwhat they’re doing. With a WYSIWYG tool it’s easy for someone with no experience to make a bad webpage very quickly, but not for them to understand what they’ve done. Furthermore, sinc they’re dependent on some other guy’s stylistic choices, there’s no way to fix the broken stuff that FrontPage automatically adds to pages it creates. You should never use technical shortcuts unless you don’t actually have to use technical shortcuts; anything else breeds ignorance.
[/pseudo-GD mode]
Buy a good book on HTML markup, or even an adequate book on HTML markup. Or just get the W3C standard and read that. Once you understand the basics, and can use the basics, you can make a pretty solid webpage - as with any sort of display markup. about 90% of the really arcane details are only applicable to 10% or so of real-world situations. It’s more important to understand what you’re doing than to be able to do it easily.
However, this is definitely not GQ territory, nor even related to the OP, so …
::shrug::
For registering a domain, one of the best and least expensive is http://www.godaddy.com/
Starting out to learn HTML, buy yourself a few books. The Dummies series is not bad. Also, look for Sams publications (learn HTML in 24 Hours), similar to the Dummies series.
Whatever anyone may tell you, start with the basics. Attempt to learn the code. Just as grounding yourself in learning arithmetic with a pencil, eraser and paper is better than only knowing how to do it via a calculator, learning HTML coding will be a long-term blessing in disguise.
Forget Notepad. It’s only a text editor. In the “old days” Notepad was OK for HTML editing. But why punish yourself now? Get yourself a quality text editor such as NoteTab or UltraEdit. Both are also HTML Editors, meaning they were designed to assist you in writing HTML code.
Both NoteTab and UltraEdit have versions you can try before you buy.
Moving up the food chain, with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editors, go for Australia’s 1st Page. It’s a fully featured HTML editor, and it’s free! Couple this with one or both of the text/HTML editors mentioned above and you can maintain a small web site forever.
Buyt when it comes to doing “big stuff,” go for Dreamweaver hands down. It cannot be beat. Some think the learning curve is rough but that’s only because too many want to do everything it offer for a web site, instead of starting small and adding features as you get confortable with it. Add in HomeSite as your HTML editor (it comes with Dreamweaver) and you’ll never look back.
When shopping for web hosting, don’t be overly concerned about what’s included, just make sure they offer the things you need - “unlimited” anything is a BIG warning sign. Check for reviews and comments from previous and current customers of the hosting company you are considering. WebHostingTalk is a good place to find such reviews and comments.
Ask the company a couple of questions about their service before signing up. If they are slow to respond or if you’re not satisfied with their answers, look elsewhere. If they won’t bother answering a question from a prospective customer, how do you think their support will be like?
The lowest price you’ll find is 0$ per month (that is, free hosting) but if you have ruled out free hosting you might not like the almost-free hosting, either. It’s worth paying a little extra for stability and good support.
When registering a domain name, the only thing you really MUST make sure is that the name is indeed registered in your own name and not in someone else’s (like a web hosting company). As long as you are the actual owner of the domain name, you’ll be able to switch hosting companies.
Stay the hell away from hosts that tout unlimited anything.
I use http://www.venturesonline.com. They’re not the cheapest, but they’re reasonable, and their service and support is the best I’ve ever dealt with. They’ll register your domain at godaddy for you, and you can get a basic hosting package for like $7.95/month.
As for editors, start with something like Mozilla Composer. Once you make something you like, you can then take a look at the source code to start getting the hang of how (good) HTML works.
On registering a domain name, you might also want to search in search engines (and looking in the Internet archive) if the domain name has been used before and expired. Depending on what the site associated with the domain under a previous owner was about, you might not want your new site to be confused with it…
This used not to be an issue but nowadays thousand of domain names expire every day so the name you want might possibly have been used in the past.
On the choice of hosting provider: I’d very much recommend avoiding like the plague any provider that makes you include ads of any kind (banners or popups) on your pages. Ads make your site look cheap and will prejudice a lot of visitors against your site.
Slight hijack but have you ever stopped to actually LOOK at the code these programs generate? When I’m surfing the web looking for design ideas I will often stop to examine the source of a page with a design I like to see how it was done if I can’t figure it out right away (By the way I’m a strict Notepad/Emacs HTML writer). I can always spot a page made by Frontpage/Pagemill because the code is absolutely incomprehensible. Anyone creating a page in them would throw up their hands in frustration trying to learn code from the generated gibberish (not to mention occassionally HORRIBLE syntax) If you want to learn web design and you want to learn HTML the only way to do it is to hop onto the web and practice. You get better with time. If you absolutely must use a WYSISYG editor stick with Dreamweaver and a few shareware progs that generate real code.
As an aside, I would not recommend Frontpage for anything, not only because of my anti-Microsoft slant but because it is software that is VERY MS biased. Quite a bit of the codeing it generates, and almost all of the advanced features, can only be understood by Windows and Internet Explorer. In its very nature the web is NOT an enviroinment of only one OS or Browser and you want to be sure not to make something that only particular people will be able to view.