Hello Massassi!

I'm about to set up a website. I've had websites before but always hosted them on freewebs or some other free hosting equivalent. However as this is a portfolio I want a professional edge.

I'm looking to buy a URL and server space. I'm not having any large downloads (so far just one at <15megs) as it's generally just a link to embedded videos on youtube and such.

The site looks spiffy because I've used dreamweaver for the first time. I'm so proud of it. But I'll need to be able to use javascript and css. This is probably as standard these days but I remember (MANY moons ago) that those free hosting websites that I referenced earlier didn't allow some of these to be incorporated.

So without falling into the trap of not doing my research and making a rookie mistake, does anyone have any tips? Especially on where to buy urls / server space from?

Thanks! Sorry if I sound noobish. I am.

Uh, Javascript and CSS are both client-side code. No web host, even a free one, is going to block those sorts of files (and they'd have a very hard time doing so even if they wanted to). This worked even back in 2000.

For domain names, I would recommend hover, which I can shamelessly give you a referral discount for: https://hover.com/MMerkle

They're not the cheapest, but they're by far one of the most pleasant to work with. If you don't go with Hover, just do not make the mistake of using GoDaddy. They are awful.

Note that you will not need to subscribe for email from hover or any other domain name registrar, unless the host you choose is really, really awful. Almost all hosts provide email now.

As for hosting, I still offer hosting ($5/m) which will do everything you'd ever need.

I looked at prices on the Web Hosting Hub, and 127 dollars for two years I get;

• Free Web Builder
• 24/7 US Support
• Unlimited Space
• Unlimited Bandwith
• Unlimited E-mail
• Unlimited Websites

(just copied and pasted that obv, haha)

...and obviously, my domain name. So that's the cheapest option thus far. I had a look at Hover and I got put off by how much the mail additions cost...

You shouldn't really take "unlimited" at it's face value. Everyone offers unlimited bandwidth, but that doesn't mean their servers are going to survive reddit. I've had CM for the few things I do, and his stuff has been more than adequate, so I wouldn't know where to go for hosting. I also use godaddy though, and have never had much of a problem with them.

That's why I specifically said don't get the mail. You don't need it, no one does. You will have email from whatever hosting provider you use. Hover only provides it as an option just in case your host does not.

Also, there is no such thing as unlimited space/bandwidth. They will always limit you in some manner (read the TOS).

Finally, do not get your domain name from your web host. Most of the time, they sit on it, meaning if you ever want to move your site, you will have an enormous hassle (if they even let you).

I just read that now. I'm so confused. There's so many options. Another thing I've read is that you need privacy to avoid being on WHOIS.com, which I haven't seen as an option on Hover when I've been comparing prices.

I remember that in The Social Network, Zuckerberg uses Network Solutions. However, the prices on that seem ridiculous!

That's because Hover offers it by default, it doesn't charge you for it (part of the reason they're nice, they don't nickel and dime you to death. GoDaddy for example would love to have you spend $100 on a domain if you just click everything it asks you to).

Well in that case I'm really liking Hover then! $40.50 for a .com and a .co.uk, which works out at £25.

But Hover with email (now it says "mail+" and "mailboxes" - I'm guessing mail+ is forwarding) is £101.

At Godaddy the same would cost £97 with email.

Network Solutions (with 3 emails and domain forwarding) is £219. Ha.

www.one.com seems really cheap and provides hosting. However, I know I have to shy away from that - though added email is a bonus.

There's bloody loads of these things to look through.

I know you said I wouldn't have to subscribe for email - but why is it giving me an option to do so? Is it a con?

I'm really tempted by your $5 a month offer. Although my site in total is around 20megs at most, so should I just use a free one with no adverts? If such a thing exists. I'm sure they do. Honesty required

Do you have a computer that you can leave online all the time? If so, you can run your own website for just the cost of your domain name (usually $15/yr or less). This would include e-mail, FTP, and MySQL.

For your DNS you can use freedns.afraid.org to point to your server (your external IP address). If you don't have a static IP address, then you can install the freedns updater from freedns.afraid.org. This will use your freedns login to automatically update the DNS records if/when your IP address changes. Then install XAMPP, which is a server software package that includes Apache (Web Server), Mercury 32 (E-Mail Server), Filezilla (FTP Server), and MySQL (SQL Database Server). The last step is to do port forwarding to your server. The common ports are: Port 80 for Web, Port 25 for SMTP, Port 110 for POP3, and Port 21 for FTP. Just set your Server Computer to a static IP address and then login to your router and use the Port Forwarding or Pinhole (depending on your router) to point those ports to the internal static IP address of your server.

Stay away from GoDaddy

Nope! Thanks anyway though!

And yeah, I'm staying clear of Godaddy

Agreed. I can't abide anyone on the web who actually supports SOPA.

But they don't support SOPA anymore!

lol

Nobody can re-write history, not even George Lucas. Or godaddy for that matter.
Dreamweaver is hella cool, that's all I have to say.

/shrug I'm happy with them...my roommate used to work there and figured out how to get me a really good deal.

I purposefully switched away from GoDaddy even with a "good deal". I was sick and tired of being upsold every time I needed a domain, not to mention their shady business practices (SOPA just being the latest).