Creating a Website

[JohnFeg]

Well, you guys who already have sites have made me envious.

I'd like to have my own website, but, do not have a clue where to start.

I don't want to do anything wildly complicated, just a post some photographs for friends and family and be able to share some of my V. 5 work with you folk, who have been so inspiratioal in sharing your's

Can anyone you tell me:

a) Where I can get a tutorial?

What the start up and running costs might be?

John

[Lin Evans]

Well, you guys who already have sites have made me envious.

I'd like to have my own website, but, do not have a clue where to start.

I don't want to do anything wildly complicated, just a post some photographs for friends and family and be able to share some of my V. 5 work with you folk, who have been so inspiratioal in sharing your's

Can anyone you tell me:

a) Where I can get a tutorial?

What the start up and running costs might be?

John

Hi John,

There are any number of internet providers out there and some of the least expensive I've found are in Canada. It really doesn't matter where they are physically located, you just need to determine how much storage space you need and sign up. Prices vary depending on the services you need - for example it's more if you want to sell products, etc., but for just posting images and such it can be very reasonable. There are places such as PBase, where you can post images free, but frankly I think you would be happier over all if you had your own provider.

Here's a link to the one I use (IPowerWeb) which I've found to be very reasonable and reliable. Their prices begin at about $8.00 per month and that us usually payable in advance for a year. You will also need to register a name such as "johnE.net" - they will help with that as well. They also have a free service which helps you quickly build a very basic website.

http://www.ipowerweb.com/

Best regards,

Lin

[Ronniebootwest]

I had the same problem when I made my own web site. I found all the help I needed in a tutorial made by Barry Beckham. Just visit his site and look in the CD Tutorial > Miscellaneous section for the tutorial called, 'Create your own Web Site' I can really recommend it to you.

Click this link:

Ron West

My Webpage

[JohnFeg]

Lin & Ron,

Thanks for that info, I'm following it up.

John

[alrobin]

There are any number of internet providers out there and some of the least expensive I've found are in Canada.

I found that the providers here in Canada are typically much more expensive than in the US. The charges for Brinkster, the US provider that I use, are even lower than the price you quoted. I have found them very reliable and responsive, and they even provide a real-time chat service for when I need assistance. No more waiting until the tech returned to work on Monday.

Probably more important than price is the level of service and also the throughput and disk space provided. Just for comparison, my previous local provider was charging me $300 CDN per year for only 50 Mb of storage space, and 5 email addresses, but fairly unlimited throughput. I could add another 25 Mb of space for another $10 per year. Service was OK, but limited, compared to what the current provider offers. These prices were fairly representative of others in the area.

You can check out Brinkster's charges on the website above, but suffice it to say that their basic service is only $4.95 US per month, for 1,500 Mb of storage space, 35 Gb throughput, and 50 email (proxy) accounts. They also provide basic web setup facilities.

[thedom]

John,

If you want to share photos and don't want (or have time) to make developpment, you can install Coppermine Photo Gallery (http://coppermine-gallery.net/index.php"]http://coppermine-gallery.net/index.php).

It's a multi-purpose fully-featured and integrated web picture gallery script written in PHP.

It's very easy to install and very convenient to administrate.

You can see the demo here

About providers, I think I'm very lucky because I pay only 30 euros per month for :

- internet access

- unlimited telephone

- television

- 10Gb of storage space.

[Lin Evans]

I found that the providers here in Canada are typically much more expensive than in the US. The charges for Brinkster, the US provider that I use, are even lower than the price you quoted. I have found them very reliable and responsive, and they even provide a real-time chat service for when I need assistance. No more waiting until the tech returned to work on Monday.

Probably more important than price is the level of service and also the throughput and disk space provided. Just for comparison, my previous local provider was charging me $300 CDN per year for only 50 Mb of storage space, and 5 email addresses, but fairly unlimited throughput. I could add another 25 Mb of space for another $10 per year. Service was OK, but limited, compared to what the current provider offers. These prices were fairly representative of others in the area.

You can check out Brinkster's charges on the website above, but suffice it to say that their basic service is only $4.95 US per month, for 1,500 Mb of storage space, 35 Gb throughput, and 50 email (proxy) accounts. They also provide basic web setup facilities.

Hi Al,

iPower had their offices in Canada when I signed on with them several years ago, but their servers are located in California and their central offices are now in Arizona so they are not really a Canadian company per-se.

I get 10 gigabytes of storage, 250 gigabytes per month of bandwidth for downloads, domain registration is included and this costs me a total of $214 for three years of all the above which is pretty hard to beat. Real time toll-free telephone technical support, SSL / CGI / PHP / MySQL - E-Commerce Enabled all included. It's really hard to beat their combination of services and prices.

Best regards,

Lin

[alrobin]

Hi Al,

iPower had their offices in Canada when I signed on with them several years ago, but their servers are located in California and their central offices are now in Arizona so they are not really a Canadian company per-se.

I get 10 gigabytes of storage, 250 gigabytes per month of bandwidth for downloads, domain registration is included and this costs me a total of $214 for three years of all the above which is pretty hard to beat. Real time toll-free telephone technical support, SSL / CGI / PHP / MySQL - E-Commerce Enabled all included. It's really hard to beat their combination of services and prices.

No, they don't even list a Canadian office any more, so I wouldn't call them a Canadian Company, although these days, most companies of this type are "global", anyway.

I see, too, that their lowest-priced package is still more expensive than Brinkster's. ($7.95 vs. $4.95). I have the "Pro" package, at $7.95/mo. (used to be $9.95). This gives me 3 Gb of space - much more than I will ever use, and 75 Gb/mo worth of downloading (again more than I need).

But other things are important, too, such as the items you mentioned. I know Brinkster offer PHP, SSL, CGI, and I suspect MySQL, as well, since that seems to be the way MS are going these days. But, just like buying a car, it's usually the add-ons that make the difference. But in the end it really boils down to what you really need and what you are going to use the website for.

[Lin Evans]

No, they don't even list a Canadian office any more, so I wouldn't call them a Canadian Company, although these days, most companies of this type are "global", anyway.

I see, too, that their lowest-priced package is still more expensive than Brinkster's. ($7.95 vs. $4.95). I have the "Pro" package, at $7.95/mo. (used to be $9.95). This gives me 3 Gb of space - much more than I will ever use, and 75 Gb/mo worth of downloading (again more than I need).

But other things are important, too, such as the items you mentioned. I know Brinkster offer PHP, SSL, CGI, and I suspect MySQL, as well, since that seems to be the way MS are going these days. But, just like buying a car, it's usually the add-ons that make the difference. But in the end it really boils down to what you really need and what you are going to use the website for.

Hi Al,

Yes, it's difficult to keep up with all the changes in the global ISP market. Storage is much less expensive today than only a year ago so many companies compete on that basis and it's absolutely true that one's needs versus the features and benefits offered must be considered. For personal purposes and uploading a few hundred images on a website even 1 gigabyte of storage is a lot and for some professional purposes 10 gigabytes is way too little - LOL. For some time I had my own server which was very convenient but rather expensive. At that time my ISP was only about 15 miles from my office so I could do my own on-site server maintenance when necessary and my ISP was very cooperative, but when I cut back my operations and tried to retire (fat chance!) I ended up needing more storage and bandwidth than my contract provided for and the penalty costs were becoming prohibitive so I went looking for the best deals around. At that time there were several Canadian based (at least their offices were in Canada) companies which were just getting started and who offered very competitive rates and excellent services. That's when I signed on with iPower. I renewed my 3 year subscription a few days ago and were quite surprised to find that they no longer had any Canadian offices and that their servers were now in California and offices and support were in Arizona. As you say, it's become a global thing these days.

My wife was recently working remote in Colorado for a California based software corporation who had their servers and ISP in Texas. They pay $5000 per month and thought it was a fantastic deal. When I checked into what they actually had in terms of storage, servers, maintenance agreements and features I found that they could duplicate it for about $200 per month! It's amazing how many of these ISP's can hijack corporations for thousands of dollars and how little knowledge there is in many corporations, even those with reasonably savvy IT professionals about true costs. I guess it's almost a full-time job just trying to stay informed these days.....

Best regards,

Lin

[dagrace]

This thread sort of got me interested, so I looked around a bit. Note that I do not have any actual experience. However, iPower and Brinkster mentioned above both look like good sites, with offerings in the $4-5 US / month range.

One that caught my eye was Dot 5 Hosting at Dot5Hosting

If someone has some energy to talk me out of this one, I'd be interested.

Hmmm.... I'm not sure the link is going to work above. Just in case, it's

http://www.dot5hosting.com/index.html

David

[JohnFeg]

John,

If you want to share photos and don't want (or have time) to make developpment, you can install Coppermine Photo Gallery (http://coppermine-gallery.net/index.php'>http://coppermine-gallery.net/index.php]

Dominique,

The Coppermine route is exactly what my wife is looking for. She's going to follow that up. However, I'll continue to persue putting together a website. Primarily, because I'd like to be able to share some of my attempts at slideshow creation using V.5 (you're right, it is addictive!)

Incidentally, the rates you are paying for the services you get are incredible (envy making!) You must be in a different European Union!

Here in "rip-off" UK, my bill for Broadband(30Gb month transfer) and phone calls, within the UK only. is just in excess of £50 per. month.

PS liked your intro sequence.

John

[JohnFeg]

You can check out Brinkster's charges on the website above, but suffice it to say that their basic service is only $4.95 US per month, for 1,500 Mb of storage space, 35 Gb throughput, and 50 email (proxy) accounts. They also provide basic web setup facilities.

Al,

I had a look at Brinkster. It certainly looks suitable for my needs. The availibility of a "Website Creator" is a very appealing feature and, as you say, it's not going to break the bank.

Will keep you posted.

John

[ronwil]

I designed my website using Serif Webmaster software and my Telewest Broadband Elite costs £35 per month.

Ron [uK]

[Maureen]

I spent ages teaching myself to build a website & now use Dreamweaver.

However my sites need updating & I recently found many web templates.

I especially like the range at http://allwebcodesign.com/setup/templates.htm

They have lots of templates at a range of prices.

There are lots of free web site templates too but be careful they don't keep opening up other windows/pages offering alsorts of things.

I have been happily using Easyspace.com for web hosting for many years.

Their current offer is

£19.99 for a year 500mb

Windows or Linux

500Mb Webspace

10Gb Bandwidth

10 Mailboxes

Free co.uk domain

More Information

We're currently traveling between England & Wales very often so am not on the web very often.

Working on lots of projects .........including the garden & housework

Hoping to catch up with lots of PTE members at the UK Internationals at Cirencester in September.

Maybe we should copy the French Forum and wear a big Forum badge with our name so we can recognise each other

BW Maureen

[JohnFeg]

Thanks for that information Maureen, I'll check it out and compare it with the other I now have on my short list.

Good idea that, about the name badge.

John

[Bethan]

Lin said that:

It really doesn't matter where they are physically located, you just need to determine how much storage space you need and sign up

In some instances physical location may be important if, for example, you need to access your web hosts support service. If I am in the UK and my web host is on, for instance, Pacific Standard Time, then I can only access their support at certain times of day that are not always convenient. Also, where there are time differences like this then the web server hosting your web site may in fact be running back-up or maintenance routines at a time you want your web site to be running at it's fastest. I've encountered these issues a number of times now.

Hopes that useful.

Beth

[Lin Evans]

Lin said that:

In some instances physical location may be important if, for example, you need to access your web hosts support service. If I am in the UK and my web host is on, for instance, Pacific Standard Time, then I can only access their support at certain times of day that are not always convenient. Also, where there are time differences like this then the web server hosting your web site may in fact be running back-up or maintenance routines at a time you want your web site to be running at it's fastest. I've encountered these issues a number of times now.

Hopes that useful.

Beth

Hi Beth,

I should have been more explicit. The large IP hosts have 24/7 live technical support (iPower, for example) and there is rarely, if ever down time with maintenance (I've never had this problem with iPower). However, there are all types and sizes of internet providers so it's incumbent upon the subscriber to carefully check out the potential company they plan to have host their site because smaller IP hosts may indeed have limited hours for live technical support or not have live support at all and, as you say, may be out of service just when you need them while they run maintenance.

Best regards,

Lin