[catwoman]

I need a little help. I've almost got my website for my business done, as basic as it may be, and I need to choose a web host. I'm pretty confused about who to go with and, while I realize everyone will have a different answer, I'd like to hear if anyone has any helpful suggestions. I've got it narrowed down to a few, but one is out of Australia. I'm not sure if I should be concerned about that or not. Hmmm? Also, what the heck is a CGI bin and why do I need one? What's transfer rate or space or whatever the measure is? What's that as compared to Bandwidth? I thought bandwidth was referring to when visitors view your website. So, what's "transfer"? Also, what do I look for if I want to know if and how I can update my site and how frequently, etc.? Thanks so much for any help!!

[Tom]

Transfer is the same as bandwidth. Basically it's the amount of traffic your site gets, usually specified in terms of GB per month. Space is how much web storage you use for your site. cgi-bin is for cgi scripts you run on your site, like a forum (though most forums like this one are now written in a language called php). Unless you're a perl programmer and/or know how to set up and run cgi scripts you're probably not going to get much use out of it. Almost every web host is going to let you run cgi or php scripts so it's not something to be all that worried about. Key considerations are: 1) what's their server uptime 2) how fast is their server 3) how good is their support If these are not up to par you'll probably notice it in the first month, so I would not consider a host that doesn't offer a 30 day money back guarantee.

[catwoman]

All great advice! Thanks so much! Also, is 6 GB of bandwidth alot? I mean, for a simple 5 page site (with one or two photos on each page), about how many visitors on a site per month is that? Also, I believe there are 1000 kb in a mb, so how many mb in a gb?

[C Dog]

[catwoman]

What about if this Australian website has their servers based in the US?

[JimK]

Word of mouth from people who are happy with their hosting is great. I found this forum to be very helpful when I was searching for information. Webhostingtalk

[catwoman]

Thank you. But I've been on there and that's where I heard about this Australian web host.

[MCaver]

Just to throw in my opinion, I've been extremely happy at [url]pair.com[/url]. Good support, fantastic uptime for both server and network, good prices. I haven't had a single problem since I signed with them over 3 years ago. They are also the place this site is hosted.

[Tom]

A web host that registers your domain for you is probably making a profit. The best place to register your domain (assuming you have your own webspace and don't need any extras like url forwarding or email forwarding) is www.godaddy.com which costs only $9 / year. I personally prefer www.mydomain.com which includes all the "extras" for $15 / year. In any case, I believe catwoman already has registered a domain => www.standingstones.org (don't click unless you want to be assaulted by pop-up windows).

[C Dog]

[Tom]

Does it warn you that a window is trying to pop up? Seems like that would be just as annoying to deal with. To the extent it doesn't warn you (and prevents all pop up messages) that is not necessarily deisrable either since you may be missing an important notification. For example, this forum pops up a window when you get a new private message. I noticed Mtn Goat hasn't opened a PM I sent him yesterday (since it still shows up in my outbox instead of my sentbox). He is either ignoring me or has some ad blocking software turned on that thinks the pop up notification is an advertisement.

[catwoman]

Technically, I do have that name registered. But shortly after I bought that, I learned that .org is for non-profits. I've never used that .org name, so that was money well-wasted. Soooooooooooo, I'll be registering a new name slightly different as a .com. Will either be standingstonesphotography.com, or standingstonesphoto.com, or standingstonesphotos.com. I have to look again, but it seemed that pair.com didn't offer what I needed or something. Can't remember. How do I know how much bandwidth I'll need? I mean, 2 gb or 3 gb doesn't sound like much. Also, it was mentioned to me awhile back that it's important to find out that I can update my site as often as I want and by myself, so where do I find that info in the criteria? Who'd of thought this would all be so complicated, as if designing a website isn't complicated enough!

[C Dog]

[catwoman]

Oh, and I'm a little confused by whether I need a "dedicated" or "shared". Does shared mean it's not secure and that it's not a good idea to transmit credit card info via email, etc.?

[Tom]

Back on topic. Catwoman, it's YOUR webspace. YOU should be able to update it whenever you want. Usually you'll get a web based "control panel" & file manager to upload files, manage your site, view stats, etc. If you don't get a control panel it's usually a "cut rate" hosting deal where you have to FTP everything. I had one of these and it kinda sucked because I couldn't access my site without ftp software. You seem pretty "new" to this so I'd recommend something that offers a control panel until you get more knowledgeable. You can probably get by with 2-3 GB of bandwidth. It doesn't appear you need a ton of space. From what you have told me you DON'T really want to pay a lot for hosting. I say go with a $5 / month host - you should be able to get 100 MB of space and 3-5GB of bandwidth for that price. Unless you just won the lottery and have lots of $$$, you'll want to opt for a "shared" account. Dedicated hosting is for a site with tons of hits, bandwidth & CPU usage requiring a "dedicated" server - it has very little to do with security.