Cheapest web hosting?????

[johningram]

I am interested in getting web hosting but i know almost nothing about it. I dont know how mcuh bandwidth i will need, storage space, etc...

Also i need to know the place that would best fit my needs. I think the number one priority is keeping it very very cheap yet still functional.

I want to have a site with a main front page and maybe up to 10 sub pages. They will have photos but no flash or anything like that. I dont plan on any more than 5-10 hits a day either. But hopefully i can get my website to be

http://www.portlandaudio.com

How would i go about doing that? Do i have to buy the name first and seperately or does it come with my web hosting. Or is it going to have to be some funky web site name like portlandaudio/yahoo.com??????????
Thanks

 

[KiloZ]

Well, I checked with networksolutions.com and unfortunately for you the name portlandaudio.com is already taken. However, these are available:
portlandaudio.net
portlandaudio.org
portlandaudio.info
portlandaudio.biz
portlandaudio.tv
portlandaudio.us
portlandaudio.cc
portlandaudio.ws
portlandaudio.bz
portlandaudio.vg
portlandaudio.gs
portlandaudio.tc
portlandaudio.ms

If I were you I'd check out the various web hosting packages offered by the hundreds of web hosting site out there - such as CIHOSTS.com. The prices vary greatly so take your time with this. Most of the web host sites will also let you register what you'd like your domain name to be at the same time (such as those I listed above) but with an additional fee. Of course you have to re-register your domain name yearly and that costs a fee as well.

Happy hunting!

All great accomplishments were once considered impossible.

 

[franklin97355]

This is not the forum for this question. Find a forum dealing with web hosting. You are going to have to give them more info than you gave here for them to be able to help you. Try Network Solutions or register.com for domain names and hosting options but don't jump into anything until you do more research.

 

[johningram]

What if i have my own server that has a cable or DSL line? Then all i have to buy is the domain name right? No monthly charge?

 

[cdogg]

John,

1) As franklin said, this isn't the right forum. Use the [blue]Forum List[/blue] link at the top of the page to locate the right one.

2) There are advantages and disadvantages to use your own cable or DSL line. The obvious benefit is lower cost. However, you're at more risk to downtime and faced with more work to keep it running efficiently and securely. Unless you have a static IP address (which usually costs an extra $10 or so a month), then you will need to use an IP utility that uploads any IP changes to a DNS server. For basic webpages, using your own connection is fine. But if you have a lot of heavy content like high-res graphics or files, then the upload bandwidth on your broadband connection might not be enough.

That should be enough to get you started. This site might also help:

http://www.dslwebserver.com/

~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[felixc]

Go see:

Network Solutions
Pair Networks

They both have nice price structures, and they also have on-line info to explain how everything works.

 

[CreamCake]

You would need business class broadband to host yourself. Most ISP's block residential customers from web and especially mail hosting to cut down on spam.

 

[cdogg]

CreamCake,

Really? How so? If you register a domain name and use 3rd-party DNS servers, how would your ISP ever know about web hosting (aside from a human looking at your activity)?

Business Class is the way to go if you want decent upload speeds, but I haven't heard of that problem on residential before.

Mail hosting is a different can of worms...


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Fishguy]

Another cheap place to check out is

http://www.4dwebhosting.com.

They offer a pretty good beginner package and I have been very satisfied with their service over the last several years. I have reccomended them to people for all kinds of hosting solutions.


In response to your questions cdogg,

The only way that an ISP can determine whether or not you are hosting your own website/mail server/etc. and effectively block it(by cutting your connection for breaching their "terms of use" contract) is through monitoring your bandwidth usage. If there is a sudden spike or consistent overusage of your alloted bandwidth, they begin to ask questions.

It is also important to note that although many ISP's claim to offer unlimited bandwidth, if you read the fine print you will find that they actually set limits that they deem as reasonable; for home users it is usually around the 50gb/month range.

Hope that helps!

-----------------------
Fishguy

 

[CreamCake]

Actually, broadband internet providers have blocks of addresses designated for different types of services. If you have residential class service, outbound traffic is restricted on both ports 80 and 25. Your web server could be perfectly functional from a technical perspective and would receive requests if your local firewall permitted it (you DO have a firewall don’t you?), but the end user’s browser would never get any info back, as it would be dropped at the router, before it left the ISP who provides you your service.
This traffic is not restricted to business class addresses, and these addresses are also static… much handier to not be messing with your NS and MX records all the time.

Find a hosting provider, and see if they can register the name for you. portlandaudio.net or .biz sound fine to me. We certainly can and it cuts down on the hassle from both the customer’s and host's perspective as we can point network solutions to our name servers without any customer intervention at all. (think less phones ringing) Sorry, I can’t do this for you,so don't ask, as we only provide webhosting and ISP services to schools and non-profits organizations, etc.

Another reason to find a hosting provider for you is you get to avoid the seemingly endless supply of IIS patches Microsoft comes out with on sometimes daily and sometimes weekly basis. You COULD learn enough Linux to get an Apache webserver up I suppose, but most people don’t want to learn any Linux at all… I suppose that’s what RedHat is for though.
And you get your site backed up an a nightly.. sometimes hourly basis.

I see cheap providers all over the place, but have no experience with them (why would I when hosting is free for me here at work?).
Remember, you usually get what you pay for - so pay attention to the fine print. Try asking for a cheap hosting provider in the MIS/WebServers forum maybe?

Sorry for lack of info in my earlier post.. Spaceward HO! was demanding my attention.
This is what me and your friendly neighborhood ISP providers are usually doing... NOT watching your traffic for the most part.
...That only happens when we have to assist the FBI or someone trying to track down fraudulent credit card transactions or kiddie porn on our network.

Until next time... REMEMBER THAT SEPT 18 IS TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY! ARRRRRR.....

 

[cdogg]

OK, thanks for the info. I was aware that many ISP's starting blocking port 25 several years ago to help reduce the use of SPAM being sent from their networks. However, I guess port 80 depends on your contract and provider like you said. Yeah, I wouldn't imagine that your website would be much use without it!


Anyway, for others watching this thread that don't have those types of restrictions, you should consider going with an Apache server over IIS for security reasons as CCake pointed out. RedHat or Mandrake are good for beginners (I would take Mandrake out of the two), but there are many others for more advanced users like Gentoo or Debian. This is a good site to get more information and free downloads:

http://www.linuxiso.org/

Great discussion all and some good links in here!


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[CreamCake]

ARRRRR.. that's Sept 19 matey.
my bad!

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/howto.html

Weigh anchor or I'll give you a taste of the cap'n's daughter!