Should I be careful when registering/hosting a domain name?

Factual Questions
21

I’m not going to dispute that the best approach to building a webpage is to learn HTML (from whatever source) and use a superior product like Dreamweaver. I also won’t dispute that PageMill and FrontPage put out some crappy code. I know because I used PageMill for a couple years (I got it free) before I got Dreamweaver.

However, we were talking about software, not the overall best way to build a site. PageMill and FrontPage are by no means the best apps out there for website creation, but I still feel that they are better (especially for beginners) than barebones word processors such as Notepad and SimpleText. Crappy, biased code aside, they still put out code that the user can see as he’s creating his page. A user can see how the code changes, line by line, as he adds to his page on the WYSIWYG end. They contain reference libraries. They have a friendlier interface. They are specifically made for webpage creation. On the whole, they are better than Notepad and SimpleText for webpage creation.

If you just use Notepad or SimpleText, you will need a book, website, or basic knowledge to help you along. If you use a WYSIWYG program, you won’t be stuck if you don’t have those things.

Once a user passes the point where he’s totally dependent on the WYSIWYG aspect of those programs, he can graduate to BBEdit or HomeSite/Dreamweaver. But until then, PageMill and Frontpage beat Notepad and SimpleText.

22

I know enought to bulid a simple page in HTML with my own coding…
Now, I’m using a freeware version of coffee cup HTML editing… Is that one any good?

23

[Brad Pitt]
The first rule of domain registration is to make sure that the host will register the domain with your own details, not ‘Care of CheapAndNastyNet’)

The second rule of domain registration is to MAKE SURE THAT THE HOST WILL REGISTER THE DOMAIN WITH YOUR OWN DETAILS, NOT ‘CARE OF CHEAPANDNASTYNET’
[/Brad Pitt]

  • In case you’re wondering, I recently made the huge mistake of registering two domains with a very cheap virtual ISP, which promptly went out of business; instead of entering my details in the WHOIS database, they just put ‘Care of SquareInternet’ - it took ten weeks to effect the transfer to a new host as I had to go through the arbitration process at Nominet.
24

All good advice here. However, I’d like to recommend that if possible, register the domain yourself! (GoDaddy.com seems fine—I’ve used them many a time.) I had a terrible time transferring one of my domains to a new host because I foolishly let the hosting company register the domain. It was part of a “package deal”—hosting and domain registration for one low fee. They signed my domain up with a registrar company, they filled out the information for me, they had to have a username and password in order to “manage” my domain’s account with said registrar. And I wasn’t told what this username and password was.

Sure, the domain was registered in MY name and address and all that, but only the hosting company (which I later wanted to leave) had all the vital information about the domain’s account. When I wanted to change web hosts, I needed to get into this particular domain’s account to change nameservers (this is a vital step when you are switching hosts). I had to write to the old host and ask them to send me the info. Fortunately, they finally did send me the password and all that, but they took their sweet good time going about it. (And I know they didn’t really mind me leaving—they were having financial problems themselves, and I had pre-paid for the year and wasn’t going to get a refund.) Imagine the trouble a host who actively did NOT want me to leave could have been! They could have procrastinated forever, ignorning my emails—the whole nine yards. What’s in it for them to help me out? They are going to lose me as a customer by helping me out.

So my advice is, DON’T DO LET YOUR HOST REGISTER YOUR DOMAIN. Register yourself with one of the registrars (like register.com or godaddy.com or whatever) so you will have full control of your domain name, and won’t have to rely on anyone else to help you manage it. DON’T let the web host do it for you. DON’T. They’ll have you by the short and curlies then.

Another thing while I’m at it: don’t sign up with a “this sounds too good to be true” host. They don’t last. I’ve tried many of them. They don’t last. At this point, I recommend readyhosting.com (techchick told me about them) and dixiesys.com. Both have been solid for me for over a year.

25

I recommend Dreamweaver, too. I do not like the code Frontpage or Frontpage express (free on Windows—at least it was on Win98 though it didn’t install by default I don’t think) generates. But even still, I usually end up going over the HTML by hand for the finished product.

As far as hosts go, you won’t get unlimited bandwidth or space, so they are basically lying to you there. But if you aren’t going to be hosting huge files and just want to put up a small site without adds and pop-ups, they are great. I’ve used several and never had a problem with any of them.

For the bottom-up or top-down approach to learning I’ve started a thread in IMHO.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=156118

26

I heartily agree with what yosemitebabe says. I have my own hosting company and I spend tons of time every time we get a new client trying to wrestle their domain away from some hosting company and/or reseller just to get their site with us working.

I also highly recommend www.godaddy.com. Great prices, great service and excellent helpdesk.

One recomendation for cheap space is www.addr.com (not my company, btw). I’ve had my personal site with them for 3 years now and it’s $9.95/mo. I have tons of personal pics and files up there and I never get charged for extra space or bandwidth (but I don’t think I go over the limit). They have also tightened up their service (new Web site) in the last year or so and have some great features for users.

Put in my vote for Homesite as a favorite HTML editor. Can be used in “notepad” or WYSIWYG mode but the default is text mode.

27

There is never enough time and money to do it correctly from the beginning, but always enough time and money to fix what should have been done correctly the first time around.

Avoid PageMill and FrontPage, unless you have the time and money to do it correctly the second time around.

28

But presumably, if one is creating a website, one has access to other websites, right? So that pretty much neutralizes that stumbling block. Especially since there are several tutorial sites that are better than any book I’ve ever seen.

I initially learned HTML by using notepad and going to View->Source on webpages. I simultaneously tried to learn by using FrontPage Express and Netscape Composer (I think 4.5 was the current version at the time) and was so frustrated with the results and my inability to produce anything that looked remotely like I wanted it to that I gave up on WYSWIGS for the most part. After I learned a fair bit of HTML I began using the nightmare that is Frontpage 2000 (My favorite “feature”: adding <font> tags to table cells that contain only images and no text!), but IMO to have it produce consistent pages you have to be able to edit the HTML. I currently use Dreamweaver or a simple text editor. Yes, I really do sometimes make updates using Notepad.

My son, on the other hand, loves using FrontPage and is slowly learning to hand code HTML in the process.

The point: one size does not fit all.

29

Look at it another way:

Someone comes up to you and say “I’m totally clueless when it comes to making web pages. I’d like you to teach me, to show me how it’s done.” Would you shove a book or URL in his face and say “Come back when you’ve read and understood this”? Would you sit him down in front of a computer, open Notepad, and teach him HTML, tag by tag? Or would you open up a WYSIWYG program and show him what the buttons do, and what code they generate when you click them? If you were that person, which approach would you rather someone take in teaching you HTML?

If I was new to HTML, I’d take the WYSIWYG approach. You learn best by doing, and you learn best when you can see immediately the causes and effects of your actions. WYSIWYGs allow for both. Books, websites, and raw text editors don’t. And if I was new to HTML, I’d find it easier to unlearn WYSIWYG’s faulty code than plow headlong into the mammoth that is HTML.

Of course, YMMV.

I do not disagree that any of the apps named in this thread have their uses, or that they may work for some. My point was simply that the learning curve on WYSIWYG apps is gentler than the learn-it-and-Notepad-it approach, which makes it a better choice for newbies.

30

You can use Notepad and still see the results of your changes by simply loading the document into the browser. As you make a change to the Notepad document and save it, you see the results of what you’ve done in the browser simply by refreshing the screen. It’s sort of six on one and half a dozen of the other.

31

<nitpick>
Not always true.

If you’re using SSI, Java, ASP or PHP, or anything database driven, a local copy is next to worthless to you for previewing. OTOH, Dreamweaver and (hopefully) most WYSIWYGs will upload it to the server, fairly transparently depending on your internet connection, and give you a true® preview.

Using notepad, OTOH, you’d need to go into FTP, establish a connection, etc.
</nitpick>

32

Oh, and even if you are working on a simple HTML document, there’s a difference between the code/design changes being done as you type and having to save, switch applications, and reload.

33

I’m not sure the requirement one needs to know something in order to use Notepad is a valid drawback. If you want to perform brain surgery or fly a commercial airliner, a bit of knowledge about the subject matter might be desirable. Building webpages are not of that order of complexity or importance of course, but knowing what you’re doing is a positive IMO.

34

SSI, ASP, PHP are scripting languages, not HTML, and require a server for running properly. Using notepad, you can simply do a file open and a the page will be rendered. If you’re running a server, NT, 2000, etc. you can go the localhost route or you can set up virtual directories and go the Intranet route to view pages that require database backend support.

35

Once you’ve learned the basics the best way to learn HTML is by looking at other peoples source code. (View → Source or Right-Click → View Source) If you know how to copy and paste you can learn what all the functions in their source code do.

I make all my websites with Fireworks and you can buy it for around $250-280. Fireworks isn’t specifically designed for making webpages, but rather making graphics for your webpage (it’s a lot like adobe photoshop). Although, it has an export-to-html function, so whatever you make visually on the page it will export so it can be displayed in jpeg/gif or whatever format you like. I personally like Fireworks because I can visually make my web page as I see it, not be forced to the linear confines of trying to get pictures to fit in tables, Fireworks makes tables fit my pictures.

For instance, everything you see on these two sample sites I made with Fireworks: Sample 1 and Sample 2.

I have my site hosted for free from http://www.tripod.com . It’s a very nice site, it even provides templates of web pages so you don’t actually have to create your own if you don’t want to. You just plug the material in where you want it. Tripod does have pop-up ads. Although, here’s a trick I learned: Make a page with frames, even if you don’t need to, just make a small frame on the bottom that you won’t notice. Then when you navigate in the top frame, no pop-ups will come up. :smiley: So, you only get one pop-up when the page intially loads. Tripods free version has a 20mb storage limit, and a 1 ghz per month upload limit (if my memory serves correct). So, I suggest you first give Tripod a try, especially since it’s free.

(FYI: Those links to my site don’t make any money for me, and it’s the same site as in my www button which we’re permitted to provide. :wink: )

36

That’s some speedy data you have there. :wink:

::looks around:: Okay, who’s the wise guy that said that these were HTML? ('Cause it wasn’t me.)

They are, however, used to develop web pages, and since we’re talking about web development software…

Now you’ll argue that no newbie in his right mind would be futzing around with any of these languages, and you’d be right.

OTOH, I honestly can’t imagine developing a templatized site (and aren’t they all, these days?) without using SSI (which, AFAIK isn’t a scripting language, but merely an acronym for an apache function), and SSI is something that anybody can pick up and implement in a matter of minutes, newbie or no.*

And previews don’t work locally, at least without a whole lotta setup that your average newbie (heck, your average web developer) wouldn’t be messing with.

So, yeah, we’re arguing the same point on the details - I’m just using it to make the point that notepad sucks as a web development tool (for chrissakes, use something that color-codes your code, at least) and that WYSIWYGs aren’t totally useless.
*For those wondering what I’m talking about, a Server Side Include is a single line of code that you can put in an web document - as long as your server supports it - that essentially copies and pastes code from other documents and sticks it where you put the include.

For example, if you put <!–#include file=“header.html”–> in a document, the browser would stick the code from header.html in where you had the include. Clear as mud, right? Well, take my word for it that it’s nifty and is a godsend when it comes to working with templates.

37

I use one dollar hosting too, but there was a $49 setup fee…

38

Oh, and to expand (ever so slightly) on a point Mr. Rabbit had, Adobe ImageReady does the same thing (so it sounds) as Fireworks. Fireworks probably integrates better with Dreamweaver and is almost certainly cheaper (IR comes with Photoshop, so it’s a two-for-one, if an expensive one), however.

I can’t speak for Fireworks, but Imageready is, IMHO, an excellent tool to design a site - it slices, creates, and names your graphics for you, and places them in very cleanly coded tables. (You gotta clear out the placeholder graphics it puts in there, but it’s still better than what your average WYSIWYG will give you.)

39

I was assuming that was way beyond the scope of the newbie.

I guess it depends on what we call implement.:wink: The Server Side Include will either be constants or script code or a mixture of the two. True the newbie could type in the SSI line, but it would require a little more to provide code that actually does something.

With a web server running locally i.e. Win 2000 or NT Server you can preview once you’ve copied the file to the virtual directory with the benefit of walking through the code in the event of an error.

I agree with the color coded editor approach, that does help, but Notepad is still a good general use editor when you don’t want extraneous characters and the like thrown into the code and you can’t get your hands on an appropriate IDE(Integrated Developement Environment).

I find that the WYSIWYGs get in my way more than they help me, but then again I’m mostly working with scripts that are generating all of the HTML.