Domain, website & hosting basics please

honeypop

Hello Techies,

Please be gentle with me, it's my first foray into this sort of thing. Probably very basic questions, but after spending some time looking around am somehow confusing myself further. Also looked at the stickies on this board and they seem to be dated 2005-6 so not sure how relevant they are now.

I need to create a website, will be text based, perhaps some general photos of office-y type things though not necessary. Just to provide info really on my business/service and I want to update it every now and then. I know the domain I want is available but it seems to be different prices depending on who which site I look at getting it through. Is it really as simple as finding it cheapest?

With regard to the website, being nothing 'exciting' I presume I can set this up myself with a template with the likes of 1&1, 123, etc. I want to be able to have an email address linked to the site, eg [EMAIL="me@mysite.co.uk"]me@mysite.co.uk[/EMAIL].

Then I've seen mention of hosting, I understand this is where my website information will 'live' and the site won't actually be working unless I have hosting, is this right (in a very simple way)?

So to get a cost for the whole thing, I'm looking at buying the domain, having the website, and also the hosting - am I missing anything? I have a few days to put the costs and plans into my business plan and want to be sure I've understood the process correctly before looking foolish.

One final thing, my laptop which I will be using for these things is Windows 8, will this cause any problems? (Problems for this specifically I mean, it's causing problems for me as it seem a bit rubbish generally though)

Apologies for all the questions, which to you learned people will probably seem obvious and trivial!

honeypop

Can someone let me know if I put this in the wrong place? I know I waffled on a bit but I thought my questions would be a breeze for the techie based board. Someone please put me out of my misery before I go ahead and get it wrong or pay for things I didnt need.

googler

Hey, it's Saturday afternoon/evening.... Can't speak for anyone else, but I was taking down the Xmas decs.... Back soon with detail

colin79666

Not the cheapest but you can build a pretty good site with this lot and they can handle the domain for you as well: http://www.squarespace.com/
SquareSpace do a 14 day free trial so you can give it a try first and see if it meets your needs (trial doesn't include a domain name). They aren't the cheapest but they seem to be reliable and you can get good results without having to know html/css/javascript etc.

Personally I use http://www.hover.com for my domain and do the hosting myself out of Amazon EC2 but that is probably more complex and overkill for your needs.

S0litaire

*burp* Just sorry finishing off the Xmas spirit(s) ..

Most hosts will have a template / or "wizard" that you can go through and set up a very simple 1 or 2 page site.

For email, it can be a bit tricky I would have suggested "Google apps" for domain/email service but they stopped the free "google apps for business" a few weeks ago, so new members have to pay a monthly (£3.30) or yearly (£33) fee per user!.

As each host/domain provider is different it's hard to give anything other than general advice. Take a look around providers and I'm sure someone will have a recommendation or 2

WilliamO

I would recommend https://www.namecheap.com for your domain name both for price and ease of pointing your domain name to your separate web space....Yes, get the web hosting separate. That way if web hosting A goes down you could fall back to using web hosting B. (i.e. get a domain name from namecheap for example and a web hosting package from NetHosted (http://www.nethosted.co.uk) for example and see how you get on.....if you experience temporary problems with NetHosted you could point your namecheap domain name to your second (backup) web host - Krystal (http://krystal.co.uk/web-hosting-uk/) for example.

Many people just order their domain name and web hosting from the same company wondering what to do when their (your) website goes down (not live on the internet) due to problems with the web hosting company's server etc.

There are many web hosting companies out there that do web hosting for under £35 per year, but they then charge stupid amounts for the domain name; sometimes bringing the general cost to £50 per year for example.

Many web hosting companies also use CPanel and its tools whereby you can build a simple website with their built-in website builder, blogger and so on.

Don't go too cheap though, because in the web hosting world cheap isn't always good; especially if you want a business website that runs (is hosted) without, too, many problems. Some web hosts for example are resellers and might not have the technical know-how to help you out immediately.

NetHosted is superb at customer service. They usually respond within 15 Minutes....even at 2am!!! I have used NetHosted, Krystal, LincWebHosting and so on all without problems.

WilliamO

honeypop

Thanks all of you, yes I appreciate it was Saturday and many people are busy, so thank you for the answers I received.

I guess it's not as simple as I thought then, with so many choices of who to use for what part of everything I need. At least I have some companies to look into a bit more, something for me to get going on.

fenlander_uk

You can spend a lot of time going through all the cost options, trying to sort out the conflicting recommendations for hosting, etc. and end up saving £10 per year if you're lucky. Fact is, there are a lot of hosting companies out there who will also sort out your domain registration and include an email domain with a decent number of accounts, all for £40-£50 per annum. If you're prepared to design and maintain the site yourself, that's all you need to pay. If you need to contract out your design work, things get a whole lot more expensive. Similarly, if you need to buy software (a lot of people recommend Serif WebPlus) to design your site, that will cost more than the hosting charges.

Cornucopia

You can now get down to a price as low as £free for hosting. I've used http://www.000webhost.com/ for free hosting (no ads) and found them to be okay.

If you want a more reliable packaged service with an active support team, I would recommend FreeVirtualServers. They aren't actually £free, but do have a number of packages that start from about £15 per year. You shouldn't be paying any more than around that price for your domain name, either.

I run a small company that designs & hosts websites.

edit: In answer to your specific questions:-

- You will get at least one email address with your hosting. Many providers have their own webmail application that they provide so you can use your website's email address without connecting it to the email on your PC.

- You can register your domain and buy your hosting from 2 different companies, but for simplicity for a first-time webmaster, I would avoid the additional complexity of doing that and get them both from the same company. They will then seamlessly connect them without you having to get involved.

- Most large companies provide a simplified design environment of some sort. Usually free when you buy hosting. There's no need to be paying per-month for this. If you are paying more than a few pounds per month, and aren't getting personal service for your site, you are with the wrong company.

- At its most basic, a website consists of three things: the website code itself, the domain name registration and hosting. You need all three to have a functional site.

- Windows 8 shouldn't be a problem, though you may end up using the "classic" interface a lot.

booler

I would disagree that domain name and hosting should be from separate suppliers. I have been in the business since 2001 (I am a website designer) and IMO all this does is make it more complicated for someone in your position.

It is hardly worth fretting over the cost of a domain name. I mean £2.99 a year or £4.99 a year is not going to be make or break for your business. I can tell you that in another business forum https://www.vidahost.com/ are highly rated by many people. I have used them myself and I can happily recommend them (I have no connections to them).

Their "starter" package offers easy installation of content management systems like Drupal, Joomla and Wrodpress, which allow you to create and manage your own website.

What I have to tell you is that you would be much better getting a professional to do this for you. Doing it yourself will cause you lots of grief and take a massive amount of your time. If you have the time , the expertise and the patience then fair enough, go ahead. Other wise get someone knowledgable to do it for you. It will cost you aeround £400 but it will be much easier for you in the long run.

Despite what companies like 1&1 tell you, launching a real business website is much more than pulling some information together and putting it up there on the Internet. There are other factors that you need to be aware of if you have any ambitions for your site and if you want to use it to find customers.

Cornucopia

booler wrote: »

I would disagree that domain name and hosting should be from separate suppliers. I have been in the business since 2001 (I am a website designer) and IMO all this does is make it more complicated for someone in your position.

It is hardly worth fretting over the cost of a domain name. I mean £2.99 a year or £4.99 a year is not going to be make or break for your business. I can tell you that in another business forum https://www.vidahost.com/ are highly rated by many people. I have used them myself and I can happily recommend them (I have no connections to them).

Their "starter" package offers easy installation of content management systems like Drupal, Joomla and Wrodpress, which allow you to create and manage your own website.

What I have to tell you is that you would be much better getting a professional to do this for you. Doing it yourself will cause you lots of grief and take a massive amount of your time. If you have the time , the expertise and the patience then fair enough, go ahead. Other wise get someone knowledgable to do it for you. It will cost you aeround £400 but it will be much easier for you in the long run.

Despite what companies like 1&1 tell you, launching a real business website is much more than pulling some information together and putting it up there on the Internet. There are other factors that you need to be aware of if you have any ambitions for your site and if you want to use it to find customers.

£400 is high-end for a small website with no transactional capability.