[Tom]

BTW, ReallyReallyReallyLongDomainNames.com suck. The shorter the better IMO. standingstonesphoto.com is as long as I'd want. Don't go with something hard to remember or where people will naturally forget to add an "s" or by habit type will type .com instead of .net like, uhhh, nwhikers.net .

[mb]

if you're concerned about bandwidth (which you should be, but not as your primary concern), find out what the 'excess' policy is--lots money? locking out your site? throttling (things work, but reallllly slowly)? i use a local ISP which has a 'peaks are ok' rule, that is if your site gets mentioned somewhere and gets a huge number of hits for a short period of time, that's ok. if it stays high, they'll ask you to pay more. another thing to ask about is logging. it's nice to find out who's reading your site, and how they find out about it. (oh, for those popupstopping people, you can get an add-in to IE which does this. i use my own tool which blocks 'evil' sites, i manually add them as I find them. works for popups (they still pop but are blank), images, frames, etc.)

[catwoman]

"might get by with" and "should be plenty" for 2-3 gb bandwidth doesn't really give me an idea of approx. how many visitors to my site that would equal. Anybody know? And no, I won't be dealing with a freebie website because this is for a business.

[David¹]

[MCaver]

Originally, ".com" domains were for companies, ".net" for networks (ISPs, etc) and ".org" for non-profits. I worked at a non-profit (sorta) right out of college and we had to jump through a lot of hoops to get a ".org" domain. I'd heard that getting a ".net" required the same -- proof that you provided a network. All of this changed when the registrars realized they could make a lot of money off these domains, about 1995. Since then, there's no difference in the registration process, no proof of anything required. It's just another suffix. They don't really mean anything any more. The ".edu", ".mil" and ".gov" suffixes still have their original requirements, I believe, but even the country codes are sold left and right for anyone willing to pay. from what I've seen.

[catwoman]

Ok, I've looked everywhere on this thread and I thought there was a response that mentioned what to look for when I want to be able to update my site as often and whenever I want, but I can't find it anywhere. What is that called again? Also, isn't there something to look for if you don't want to get an ftp program? MB, who's your webhost? And, what does it matter what type of server it is, ie. Linux, Unix, Windowsm etc.? I just saw good reviews about this particular host http://hostworkz.com/hosting/index.html, and it looks like they have a LOT to offer.

[mb]

I didn't mention who I use (eskimo north) because I don't really reccomend them, especially if you're a novice. They're aimed at geeky users. If you want someone local, you can also look at drizzle. Both of these companies handle more than just web hosting. You should always be able to update any time you want. Some sites only have FTP access, which isn't all that hard to use, most operating systems (incluidng Windows) have basic FTP software built in. Others use more 'friendly' systems which work through the web browser. Others use either WebDAV or Front Page Server Extensions, which let programs like Front Page manage your site from your computer. Do you plan to do all the design work yourself? Or use a mostly-premade template? Or what...

[catwoman]

I downloaded a free web page program called First Page 2000. It doesn't have much special and I'm having to learn as much html I can. I am designing it myself. It's about done, at least for starters, but I know I'll find things I want to change and update probably frequently. I just need to get something out there. How will I know if a host has other than ftp access?

[catwoman]

Thanks for the input and help everyone! Much appreciated. I now have a bonified website! Woo hoo! Simple as it is (hard to learn html in a hurry), but it's there! Yay!