So, I'd like to set up a website. I know that I need to go about finding a free domain of my desire, registering it, getting a host for bandwidth and all that jazz but that's where I get lost. Also, I can't imagine I'll be able to do much when it comes to website design. Anyone willing to have a little chat so that I can get some guidance on the best path to choose? Cheers!
Registering a domain is very simple; you just need to hop over to some domain registrar and pay for one (they typically cost about $8.00 USD per year). Whatever you do, do not use GoDaddy; they are a deplorable company and should be completely avoided. Off-hand I cannot think of any quality registrars to recommend because I have a friend who runs a registrar, so I use his to help him out. It's right here if you feel like using it, though I'm sure some other user on here and recommend a better place.
As for hosting the site itself: that depends on what it is you want to do. If you just want a LAMP stack (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) then you're spoiled for choice; those are incredibly ubiquitous. I've used APIs Networks in the past and they were a solid host. I've also heard good things about Lithium Hosting but haven't used them myself.
Personally I have a VPN (Virtual Private Network) with Beta Force and have been more than happy with them. Using a VPN is more complicated, since you're just given a server with nothing installed on it other than an operating system, and it's up to you to setup your server. I personally don't like Apache or PHP, and don't recommend using either, so I use a VPN to let me use Python and Ruby web frameworks at my whimsy.
Having said that, there is certainly nothing wrong with using a LAMP stack, and using shared hosting that has all that setup for you is significantly easier, which is something you are probably going to want as a beginner. In the end it's up to you: I recommend learning Python over PHP, but using Python will make things trickier for you at first (once you learn and get used to it, it becomes second nature).
Can't really help you with designing websites though; I'm not very good at that. All I can say is you'll need some kind of image editing software (I use Photoshop) and learn how to make pretty things (I suck at that part).
At 10/12/13 04:15 PM, Diki wrote: Registering a domain is very simple; you just need to hop over to some domain registrar and pay for one (they typically cost about $8.00 USD per year). Whatever you do, do not use GoDaddy; they are a deplorable company and should be completely avoided.
I feel like a complete noob, I don't really understand any of that u_u
To register a domain you literally just fill out a form, and complete it with some method of payment (e.g. PayPal). It's no more complicated than registering an account on Newgrounds.
GoDaddy is just the name of a domain registrar, and they're terrible.
At 10/12/13 05:28 PM, Diki wrote: To register a domain you literally just fill out a form, and complete it with some method of payment (e.g. PayPal). It's no more complicated than registering an account on Newgrounds.
GoDaddy is just the name of a domain registrar, and they're terrible.
No I get that. It's just the hosting and bandwidth part of it that confuses me.
At 10/12/13 05:28 PM, Diki wrote: To register a domain you literally just fill out a form, and complete it with some method of payment (e.g. PayPal). It's no more complicated than registering an account on Newgrounds.
GoDaddy is just the name of a domain registrar, and they're terrible.
I'm really just curious as to why you think godaddy is terrible? I really don't know godaddy's reputation but I have been doing web design for just about 10 years now and I have used them for countless websites. I haven't found much else out there that is as easy to use and with good prices. I have had to call customer support numerous times and I was able to get my problem solved very quickly. My only problem is that the way they have security set up means I can't use SQLite (which I needed for one project). Is there something I'm missing?
Cheers!
At 10/17/13 11:26 AM, CrownNation wrote: I'm really just curious as to why you think godaddy is terrible?
The problem really is the limitations they have. The larger and more intuitive applications you start to build, the more they will not work. GoDaddy is fine for someone buying web space for the first time, and using it for basic website/email, but eventually a developer will outgrow what they offer.
At 10/17/13 11:51 AM, WoogieNoogie wrote:At 10/17/13 11:26 AM, CrownNation wrote: I'm really just curious as to why you think godaddy is terrible?The problem really is the limitations they have. The larger and more intuitive applications you start to build, the more they will not work. GoDaddy is fine for someone buying web space for the first time, and using it for basic website/email, but eventually a developer will outgrow what they offer.
Honesely, I'm not trying to be an ass here, but can you give any examples? I build pretty big, multi-tiered applications for fairly large clients. I haven't found any major limitations. Granted, I don't have an application server and I don't have any dedicated server processes that my application has to connect to, so perhaps it's the type of application I'm developing. Saying that, I think writing off Godaddy isn't necessarily appropriate since they can more than adequately handle projects for probably 90% or more of the population.
At 10/21/13 11:50 AM, CrownNation wrote: Honesely, I'm not trying to be an ass here, but can you give any examples?
Their primary focus is on the easy setup crowd. Most all of their services are for small hosting with almost no management, auto-installation of CMS's and such. Once you get into the VPS/Dedicated Server area, they start to lose their edge in pricing, but try to throw a bunch of "freebies" at you.
A lot of the negativity against GoDaddy as well comes from their sleazy business practices. They have been proven to work with Domain Squatters in the past (I don't find it to be coincidence that the one domain I bought from them happened to be snatched up the day I let it lapse, but my others from other providers were not), and they will park themselves sometimes as well.
At 10/12/13 06:06 PM, etherealwinds wrote: No I get that. It's just the hosting and bandwidth part of it that confuses me.
If you're just trying to build a basic site, don't worry about bandwidth. All you need to do is exactly what has been posted by both yourself and Diki. Get yourself a domain name, find yourself a good host (Diki provided many great options), and wa-bam. Most LAMP stack hosts (see Diki's post), which is probably what you'll want to do first, provide a free theme or template choice for your webpages. You could also use Wordpress or something of the likes to get yourself off the ground with little-to-no coding experience.
If you really want to get your feet wet I'd recommend learning HTML/CSS to design your website. After that, you should learn Javascript to give it functionality. If you're really adventurous you could learn a server-side language such as Python or Ruby or PHP, provided the host you chose has it installed on their server (they'll tell you if they do).
However, if you're just looking for a simple website/blog to dump some files and have a cool site out there, I'd just stick with what I said in the first paragraph.
At 10/21/13 06:17 PM, WoogieNoogie wrote:At 10/21/13 11:50 AM, CrownNation wrote: Honesely, I'm not trying to be an ass here, but can you give any examples?Their primary focus is on the easy setup crowd. Most all of their services are for small hosting with almost no management, auto-installation of CMS's and such. Once you get into the VPS/Dedicated Server area, they start to lose their edge in pricing, but try to throw a bunch of "freebies" at you.
A lot of the negativity against GoDaddy as well comes from their sleazy business practices. They have been proven to work with Domain Squatters in the past (I don't find it to be coincidence that the one domain I bought from them happened to be snatched up the day I let it lapse, but my others from other providers were not), and they will park themselves sometimes as well.
AHHHhhh, ok, thanks for clarification. As I said, I haven't dealt with their dedicated servers and I haven't heard about their domain squatter connection. If I ever have to use a dedicated server situation I'll have to do some research first. Any recommendations?
At 10/23/13 12:24 PM, CrownNation wrote: Any recommendations?
This is a very open-ended question, that just about everyone has a different answer to, so don't be surprised if everyone says something different, and has something bad to say about another's preference :P
That being said, I currently use GearHost, because they are local, and their technology intrigues me (100% uptime).
