How easy is it to host your own website?

Cornucopia

I suspect he won't have access to the code or to the admin panel. I know Yell, and I think they'll have a nice call centre manned front-end, so that customers don't have to "worry about the tech".

And if it is their code, he'll be in a water-tight contract, too.

There's no point in speculating. The OP needs to answer these questions, and then we'll be able to help:-

- What is the site, what does it do? (Transactions/databases or just info)

- Who created the site? What technology? What contract terms?

- Does he already have access to the Admin Panel, and know how to use it?

- If Yell created the site, does the monthly fee cover all/some of that cost?

- If Yell created the site, what are the lock-in terms? What is the technology?

- If someone else created the site, can you go back to them and get their help in transferring?

- Who owns the domain name, where is it registered, and does the OP have the password for it?

railbuff

looked at a site that is hosted by Yell and looking at source code nothing looks like its locked its a basic PHP code.
looked at http://marketing.yell.com/products/web-design/

and in the footer is states

* All rates shown are in UK pounds sterling (£) and are exclusive of VAT. Rates are indicative only and do not constitute an offer. Initial payment £150 monthly, ongoing charge £20 (managed service), minimum term 12 months. Price depends on your location and the channel through which you have purchased a Yellsite.

johnnyboyrebel

I'm not sure if Yell will simply 'give you the site'. If they are overcharging you £24 per month for, most probably, a static html site then they probably aren't the type of company who will give up that kind of easy money so easy. As said previously, this is the first thing to determine so have a word with Yell. If they won't give you full access to it (without a 'getout fee' which is most probable) then we can sort this for you easy enough. Do you want to give us a link to your site? It can easily be cloned so you have a copy of all the files needed to reupload your site with new hosting, the only things you wont be able to copy are php files so a working contact form for example cant be cloned as the code to make it work is 'server side' meaning the php code is not public. You would get the physical form but clicking submit won't actually do anything.

The bottom line is it can be cloned easy enough and a php contact form fixed very easily.

The only thing is whether they have small print saying they own the code but this doesn't really matter as once you clone it, you have full access to it so make a few changes here and there, change colours etc. remove any reference to yell.com and any google analytics code they may have embedded then as far as they are concerned you have simply created a new site yourself or got a designer to do it for you.

Of course, if they are unreasonable as above then you can't use the same domain name as they will have access to it unless you bought the domain then asked them to do the site for you. If so, then you would need to use a new domain.

This is always why I recommend not using sites like yell.com to do a site for anyone. Firstly you have now more full access to your site and secondly every site they create looks exactly the same as they are not done by professional web designers, they simply use templates. If your site looks the same as everyone else's then it is actually questionable whether it is worth having one anyway.

Ultimately, all the above may sound complicated but is easy to do. HGet in touch or reply if you want help with anything.

railbuff

read my last post

Initial payment £150 monthly, ongoing charge £20 (managed service), minimum term 12 months. Price depends on your location and the channel through which you have purchased a Yellsite.

it looks like you pay and intial £150 and then a £20 a month managed fee, so i assume the other £4 is the hosting fee.

but i have never heard any company charge shared accounts a managed fee as managed fees are usually associated with VPS and dedicated servers.

johnnyboyrebel

railbuff wrote: »

read my last post

it looks like you pay and intial £150 and then a £20 a month managed fee, so i assume the other £4 is the hosting fee.

but i have never heard any company charge shared accounts a managed fee as managed fees are usually associated with VPS and dedicated servers.

Sorry, was that meant for me?

If so then it is still a disgusting amount of money to be charging. I mean what is a 'managed fee' anyway? The only issue that can happen with a site is a hosting issue where the hosting company fix the issue and Yell charge £20 for the privilege. They are aiming at people who know no better.

Since when did the yellow pages become experts in web design anyway? It makes me laugh really and I would urge anyone reading this who is thinking about going with Yell not to. Of course, I would say come to me but that would be advertising

railbuff

johnnyboyrebel wrote: »

. I mean what is a 'managed fee' anyway?

Managed fees are ususlly associated with VPS or dedicated server and never with shared ( which Yell is providing) or reseller accounts.


in VPS/dedicated server terms when you normally purchase/rent a VPS ( virtual private server) or dedicated server these will come unmanaged which means that it is your responsibilty to make sure the server is secure and to install any software or fix any issues unless you pay a system admin to do this work for you. but if you get a managed server then these services are usually included.

but as shared and reseller plans are on a VPS or ded server then this is covered by the server provider between them and their provider as shared and reseller account holder do not have root acces to the server.

esuhl

railbuff wrote: »

yes but nothing is unlimited.

Have you an unlimited HDD on your computer
Have you an unlimited fuel tank on your car.

i dare say the answer will be no

Sure, but have you ever downloaded an infinitely large file or had to drive an infinite number of miles in your car...?

I dare say the answer to those questions will also be no.

booler

I think we need some clarification from the OP on this but I build websites and something like this should cost no more than about £500 as a one off payment with hosting at about £3 per month.

Yell are well known in the web design community. They are best avoided.

gb12345

Cornucopia wrote: »

- Who owns the domain name, where is it registered, and does the OP have the password for it?

I've just had a look at a Yell hosted website and the domain is registered to Yell.

johnnyboyrebel

booler wrote: »

I think we need some clarification from the OP on this but I build websites and something like this should cost no more than about £500 as a one off payment with hosting at about £3 per month.

Yell are well known in the web design community. They are best avoided.

Well, most of the Yell sites I have seen like this one for example, are very basic so I think even £500 for this type of site is excessive. This example is just not a nice website so for me to design a site with this many pages I would charge about £300 max (of course it would look a hell of a lot better)

For me to be charging £500, the site would need to include php or javascript with a database (for example, a recruitment site with search facility I finished recently)

I think a lot of designers (not a dig at you) don't realise that what they are charging is too much. I mean most sites are not worth £500 unless they include advanced technology.

gb12345 wrote: »

I've just had a look at a Yell hosted website and the domain is registered to Yell.

It will probably be a getout payment then, having said that I did a job recently who had a media company design and maintain their website and we wanted full access so I got in touch with them and they handed it over, no probs.