OT.....Question about web hosting & domain name?

[ssomega]

Hi,

Does anyone know how to go about getting your own domain name and the costs involved?

I've looked around for web hosting as well and there are so many that its getting frustrating. Can anyone recommend a good, inexpensive web hosting site?

Thanks in advance,
-Steve

[Pokeraddict]

A domain will be $8-$10 a year. It is a good idea to private register it so your mailing address and email arent on network solutions whois to get spammed. I use Hosting by Hastings and they serve for $5 a month for a small site and have a lot of extras, stats, one click scripts etc.

There are endless companies out there that serve and register domains.

[GrannyMae]

the simple site i have in my profile (this is not spam, nobody but ssomega needs to click it. it is just standard banners) cost me 8.95/yr for the domain, $9/yr to keep it private (optional), and $3 a month to host it. if you don't need much more than that, it comes to about $45 a year total without the private option.

i use http://www.godaddy.com/
they are great, cuz even with the basic stuff they give you awesome telephone tech support to walk you thru anything you need help on.

good luck

[moondogg]

What are you looking for in hosting?

Such as:
- Amount of website space needed
- NT/Win2000/Win2003? Linux?
- Database, if any? MSSQL or MySQL?
- Amount of database space needed?

The best deals I've seen is hostdepartment.com. However, it really depends on your specific needs.

[jasonHoldEm]

There are two parts to a web site, the domain name and the actual content (the webpages and whatnot).

Some sites handle this all in one, but you can manage each part seperately if you wish. I use www.godaddy.com as my registrar. The internet is based on IP addresses, but humans aren't very good at remembering strings of numbers so we use domain names instead. Domain names are translated by a domain name server (i.e. the registrar) so when someone types in http://www.twoplustwo.com to their browser it knows that it needs to go to http://69.20.26.209/ the IP address of the 2+2 website.

To host the content of your site you'll need a web server. This is disk space on a computer connected to the internet that your IP address will point to. Although it would be impractical to do so (unless you have a very nice setup and internet connection) you could actually use your own home computer to serve webpages, but because most of us don't have that kind of hardware and bandwidth we rent space with a web hosting company. As granny mentioned godaddy has some cheap options (and possibly others, I'm not really sure). I use www.hostmerit.com as my hosting company they are very affordable and I haven't expereinced any problems with them. If you are looking for something more than just a single page sort of thing I'd recommend host merit (they can also take care of registering the domain name for you, but it costs you a couple extra dollars).

Hope this helps...I've been up for more than 24 hours straight so sorry if my post involves more rambling than normal.

Peace,
J

[Slacker13]

I buy all of my hosting thru Hostexpress.com and all my domains at itsyourdomain.com. I have been hosting and designing for many years and have dealt with them all and i highly recommend the two companys I just mentioned.

[ssomega]

Wow.....What a great forum this is!!!!!!!

We are all very fortunate to have a place like this with such helpful people.

Thank you very much to all that responded.

Im just putting up a website with poker related content. Nothing fancy.

Thanks again,
-Steve

[CountDuckula]

I'm using 1and1.com for my web needs (minimal). I got in when they were having a "Professional Preview", which amounted to 3 years for free (this deal is no longer available). I also got my domain on sale for $2.99 for the 1st year (I think they usually run $5.99/year). I think their minimum package now runs $4.95/month, but they are always trying to sell me upgrades and such. I may get fancier with it, but I haven't done much with it yet (so far, just keeping track of my fantasy football league's standings). Anyway, you might want to wander over and see what they have to offer.

-Mike