who has built their own website

[Shuie]

Ive got a couple of domains that I currently own. I want to build a website or two. I don't need anything fancy, just somewhere to document the rebuild of my car on one of the domains, post pictures of the kid on another, maybe post my resume later, etc. I wouldn't mind a domain email account, but I don't need anything commercial like shopping carts, etc. I don't have static IP and I have absolutely no desire to host anything myself or build my own servers, etc.

I own the domains. What are the next steps of the process? Any recommendations for references on how to do all of this?

TIA

[island_dude]

There are (unfortunately) many options. I am hosting my domain from the house over a comercial cable service. It has been a hassle at times, but I have the ultimate flexibility. I chose to start out letting the ISP host the email service, but everything else I provide. In this case the main issue is associating your domain name with an IP address. For static IP this is pretty easy, your ISP can manage that for you. For dynamic IP, you can use dyndns.com. For a nominal (one time) fee they will track you IP address changes and keep your DNS entries updated.

There are zillions of hosting services out there. The cost varies a lot and is probably most dependent on how much traffic you expect. I think I have seen fees as low as $8/month up to God knows. The cost depends on how much capabilty you want. In your situation, low end will fit the bill. You proabably don't need a database or any of the other active content capabilities.

[id10t]

If you have a high speed connection, and your ISP doesn't block port 80, you can use your domains with a pointer from zoneedit.com and a free subdomain (and updater for when your IP changes) from dyndns.org.

Or drop me a PM and we'll talk about me hosting you on my dedicated server.

[targa911S]

I have two accounts with netfirms. I have been very satisfied with them. $119.00 a year. They have a wysiwyg click and build that should suit your needs. No need to know html. Goto

http://www.netfirms.com

[widebody911]

http://godaddy.com has domain hosting as well, and tools to make it easier for n00bs to set up their own sites.

Me, I do it the old fashioned way with vi, perl and apache

[targa911S]

I'm with you widebody. I just can't write code late at night or I can't sleep. Too briany, it wires me up.

[nostatic]

i'm a slacker, I use BBEdit.

[RallyJon]

BBEdit looks cool, but it's only for that small percentage of people who use Macs.

The ubiquitous editor for PCs is Dreamweaver. Stay away from Microsoft Frontpage--it's a bit too proprietary.

For hosting, I've had good luck with www.readyhosting.com It's where I host www.rallystuff.com

[dhoward]

www.superb.net
Excellent customer support, High bandwidth, and oh, they don't care what they host...

[Shuie]

thanks guys!

okay, so the next step is to find someone to host the domain name? From there, I will do some kind of development with some kind of tool and send the host a packaged website? They will then handle the web servers, app servers, mail servers, etc?

Sorry for the noob questions. I know this stuff is old hat to you guys. I do packaged integration database stuff for a living, but Im really ignorant about the basic webpage creation process. Im not scared of any code. Well, maybe assembly

[techweenie]

Originally posted by Shuie
thanks guys!

okay, so the next step is to find someone to host the domain name? From there, I will do some kind of development with some kind of tool and send the host a packaged website? They will then handle the web servers, app servers, mail servers, etc?

That's exactly right. You will get a 'back door' access to your site via something called ftp, or they will give you a 'site admin' access through your browser. All good advice above. Dreamweaver is great; front page is awful. There may be some freeware/shareware HTML editors out there in the PC world, too. Go visit tucows.com and search.

You'll find it's kinda fun to do.

Whatever HTML editing process you choose, the key thing will be to be able to edit (crop, resize) graphics. Again, try Tucows if you don't have a graphics program.

We were all noobs once. I learned HTML and hand-coded my first site 10 years ago. It's easier now

[MichiganMat]

Adobe GoLive
BBEdit
Apache
Movable Type

[id10t]

And for Free and free, try quanta, bluefish, or nvu

[930addict]

Check out Avahost for hosting services. Reliable, inexpensive and flexible. http://www.avahost.net/

[FrayAdjacent911]

I got bored one day and remoted into my box at home and used FrontPage to whip out a quick page using frames. I had IIS running on that box, so I could also view the page over the web as I worked on it.

It's since gone... I do have a domain, but no site on it. I need to whip something out... I'd like to have just a page that goes to a couple different subjects, one being my Porsche. I'd want a slideshow on it, and that's what messed me up a lot trying to set up before. Frontpage had something that would do it, but it never worked on the site.

Now my webserver is running on Apache via Linux (FC4).

[HardDrive]

Being the Microsoft whore that I am, I use Frontpage to edit my sites. You will need Frontpage server extension turned if you are going to use a Linux/Unix host. I use hostingmatters.com for my web hosting. There are much better deals out there, but their support is the excellent.

Frontpage HTML is....ummmm.....verbose.

[HardDrive]

Short explanation I wrote some years ago...dunno if it helps...

http://www.networkoracle.com/website.htm

[RallyJon]

So HardDrive, you write:

Should I register my domain name with the same people I get my web space from?

As long as they are a stable company, sure, why not? HOWEVER, a word of warning about small operations. If they go out of business, they will sell off their naming database to the highest bidder. This could go to Verisign because they are the largest company. Verisign are evil blood sucking corporate stink weasels from hell.

I keep my domains with Verisign precisely BECAUSE I know they'll never go under. Name another registrar that's as reliable and cheaper.

[RKC]

Adobe GoLive
Adobe Live Motion (Easier than Macromedia Flash for movies - there are still new copies out there on EBay)

Second the vote for Verisign. I run three sites and finally moved over when my 3rd host in 6 years went belly up.

Plus, all our credit card stuff is a good deal easier to find/direct/refund/trace through them (we do about $1.2M on the web last year).

[HardDrive]

Originally posted by RallyJon
So HardDrive, you write:I keep my domains with Verisign precisely BECAUSE I know they'll never go under. Name another registrar that's as reliable and cheaper.

Name another registrar that are bigger monoplistic, customer abusing a55holes who could care less about customer service. Verisign sucks.