New Discussion Forum

Hypothetical_2

I want to set up a discussion forum which initially would be likely to require <1GB of server space and <5GB bandwidth. I am new to this and would welcome absolutely ANY advice.

Provisional decisions taken so far:-

1. To use smf forum software and Simple Portal to add features to the default forum build.

2. To use a .com website to provide a portal to front end the forum.

Main specific questions so far:-

1. Which UK company to register the domain name with?

2. Which UK company to best host the site?

Although money IS an object, I need service over price. Value for money is all that I ask.

KillerWatt

Krystal Hosting works for me.

UK based, phones answered by a real person (only ever called them once in 4 years), very sensible pricing, and a network that can easily cope.

http://www.krystal.co.uk/

Hypothetical_2

£24.99 pa for the basic package is very competitive. Even the next bigger package (which I might need quite soon due to the anticipated 1GB site size) at £49.99 pa still wouldn't be too painful.

Thanks for the quick response.

Registration company, anyone? Just to explain, I've been advised not to register a domain name with the same company that is doing the hosting. Although, I'm open to any advice.

KiwiCrazy

You can try:
http://www.cheapdomainnames.co.uk/domains.html?
http://www.godaddy.com/Compare/domain-compare.aspx?isc=gfivuk03&currencytype=GBP

Why do you feel the need to only register the domain with a UK company?

Anywho, I am not sure if you would get any WHOIS Privacy with these companies so you would need to look into that as well, that is only £5 a year last time I looked.

Hypothetical_2

Thanks, Kiwi.

I'm in the UK and feel that I ought to 'buy' locally.

There are a number of USA companies that will register a domain name for a reasonable fee and will give WHOIS anonymity free of charge. But, for £5 pa in the UK, I'd be happy to pay locally.

Come on, peeps, reccies please!

debitcardmayhem

No recommendations from me I am afraid, but if you want to keep the server space down don't allow Mac vs PC discussions.:D

KillerWatt

Hypothetical wrote: »

egistration company, anyone? Just to explain, I've been advised not to register a domain name with the same company that is doing the hosting. Although, I'm open to any advice.

Krystal will register you with Nominet on your behalf and you get full control of any domains registered.
As far as WHOIS privacy goes, you set that yourself in the Nominet control panel.

Hypothetical_2

Thanks for the responses so far. I've made a number of provisional decisions pending further advice:-

1. Forum Software - SMF (free, stable and secure) - http://download.simplemachines.org/ SMF 1.1.12 for the time being and to avoid SMF 2.0 RC4 until the final 'bug free' public release.

2. Mod Software - Simple Portal (free and well recommended) - http://simpleportal.net/index.php?action=downloads;area=cat1 This will enable the adding of features such as 'forum latest' and 'shout box' which are not part of the default install.

3. FTP Software - FileZilla (free and well recommended) - http://filezilla-project.org/download.php To upload SMF and other software to the host server.

4. Domain Name Registration - Heart Internet (cheap and well recommended) http://www.heartinternet.co.uk/ - .com @ £8.49 (+VAT) p.a. & .co.uk @ £5.58 (+VAT) p.a. is pretty good. For an additional £4.99 (+VAT) p.a. per domain name, this company will assure ownership anonymity in the WHOIS database.

5. Web Hosting - Heart Internet (reasonably priced and recommended) http://www.heartinternet.co.uk/ - They will provide 4.9GB of server space and allow 29.3GB of bandwidth for £29.88 (+VAT) p.a. . That's pretty good.

Please keep the suggestions and advice coming.

jennikitten

It doesn't really matter if your domain name and hosting are both with Heart Internet. Definitely a good choice if you want value for money. If you're going with a well-known company then you won't have any issues, it's only the small ones (often stupidly cheap) that are far less reliable and tend to disappear without a trace.

UK-based servers will also help for UK search engine rankings, though that isn't always important for forums I thought I'd mention it anyway in case it's something you want to consider.

Hypothetical_2

Thanks for the observations.