web hosting - confused!

[Steph]

I am looking for somewhere to host my website. Does it matter which country the host is in .. will I need to dial up a different number to upload my site .. ie. if I end up with a UK based host and they have an 08 number I wont be able to connect from France.

I might have got this all wrong .. it's just a had a look at www.123-reg.co.uk and they mentioned a dial up number ...

Any hosting suggestions would be welcome .. especially ones that can handle "technobimbos" .. !

Thanks ..

[Eslier]

Take a look at www.oneandone.co.uk

Very simple to use and will do everything you want and probably more. Simple pricing structure. I've been using them for a couple of years and have been very pleased.

[Ianhaycox]

It is very confusing.

For my websites I use a hosting company in the UK but use Wanadoo in France as my ISP. The hosting company provides an FTP username/password allowing one to upload files to the website regardless of the ISP (i.e. where I am in the world on, if on dial-up, ADSL, cyber cafe etc.) The hosting company receives all my mail then it gets forwarded to my current ISP for collection via a mail client.

For cheaper 'packages' (and 'free hosting') where the ISP and the hosting company are usually the same there are often restrictions to ensure you use their dial-up number to upload files. That's how they make their money. From the phone calls.

Separating the hosting and ISP gives you more flexibility but is slighty dearer and more complicated.

[Steph]

Thanks ... nice and simple language that a "technobimbo" can understand!!

My ISP is wanadoo (France), I don't mind using a French host but I might not understand how to do it !! Don't understand much when it's in "english" ... !

Will check out the web address .. and Ian who do you use? Don't want a free host as I want my own domain name.

Thanks for your help .. fingers crossed I might be live soon!

[Deimos]

Depending on what use you are making of your web site, it might be worth buying a domain name (£25 per year or less) and then diverting that to e.g. perso.wanadoo.fr – or whoever you select. The web site users will not really be aware as they will just see www.stephsdomain.com. that way, if you decide to move it in the future, it is an immediate move rather than being down for a few days whilst the old hosts relinquish the name and the new ones take it and the DNS’s around the place refresh their cached addresses. For relatively little money, allows you to change things later with less grief. Only really relevant if the site is for a business and downtime (a couple of days) would be disruptive.

You can have your own domain name separately to your host using the divert thing. Thus you could use e.g. your personal web space provided by Wanadoo (for free), and “point” your own domain name to this site (including keeping your own domain name in the browser title bar). This may cost a bit less than paying somebody for hosting.

Ian (a different Ian)

[Ianhaycox]

I use www.micronicos.com and have done for over 5 years. They are no where near the cheapest but there are no bandwidth restrictions, fantastic server uptime and any support issues I've ever had have been resolved within 24hrs. Because mine are business websites I prefer to pay the extra.

You can go to joker.com and register a name for just 10€ a year and point (redirect) to your 'free' webspace as Ian suggests. For a personal website this is fine but for a business website I would have to disagree with Ian. Google does not like redirects and I believe you will find it very difficult to get a good ranking using this method.

For business you should have dedicated paid for webspace with the extra controls and features you may want later.

As an example the Wanadoo free web space went through a major upgrade earlier this year and prevented any changes for nearly 2 months with access very flakey at times. Thats fine for a personal site or a blog but most probably not if the website is important to your business.

You get what you pay for (mostly)

[Richard-R]

I use yahoo.com 5US$ a year for a domain name and 11US$ a month for hosting. You get 5gb's of space, 200,000 mb's of data transfer, 15 e-mail addresses or more and lots of other stuff. Very easy to set up and use. Easy to upgrade to what you need. It's a big company so little chance of them going bust and leaving you high and dry. Support FTP and I've never had any problems with it.

There are also lots of add on you can use on your site.

[alnmike]

Another good hosting company is Lycos, and again you can buy your own domain name. As previously mentioned, being a large company is a good point, as if your hosting company goes bust it is a nightmare trying to get your name back! As happened to us once. Good help too with metatags, and testing your pages!

[Steph]

Thanks to you all ..

I now have a decent list of sites to investigate. As it's for a business I don't want any hassle plus I want to stand a chance of getting on search engines .. At least the expense will be tax deductable .. "different" Ian has scared me a bit with "DNS" and "cache" but I'm sure I'll get there in the end!

[Deimos]

Quote [Ianhaycox]: They are no where near the cheapest but there are no bandwidth restrictions, fantastic server uptime and any support issues I've ever had have been resolved within 24hrs.

Very sensible approach. People so often post wanting “the cheapest” and then start wanting all sorts for technical support from their supplier outside what their agreed contract provides for. “Cheapest deals” don’t include the cost of technical support (as they just can’t – technical support costs money and “at the end of the day” somebody has to pay for it and that somebody ends-up being the customer). If you think you might need help from your provider then go with somebody who provides a more “quality oriented service” rather than the cheapest you can find.

Servers can be quite reliable and you may only notice the “holes” in your service when things occasionally go wrong. Thus people paying “bargain basement” can give very genuine reports of “no problems”. However, on the day they do have a problem, their report will rapidly move to the other end of the spectrum and they will be looking for another supplier.

Re: Ian has scared me a bit with "DNS" and "cache" but I'm sure I'll get there in the end!. This relates to how a name (e.g. www.stephsdomain.com) is converted to an address Internet that a computer uses (e.g. 1.2.3.4) it is only an issue if you move your site from one hosting company to another and then might disrupt access to your web site by some ISPs for a short time. If you select your hosting company carefully (as you seem to be doing) then it is unlikely to be an issue.

Ian

[Iceni]

"It's a big company so little chance of them going bust and leaving you high and dry"

Not always true - the seniors amongst us remember Rolls Royce in 1970 ish.

As someone sort of in the business I agree with the advice of the 2 Ians. Sometimes cheap, when in business, is NOT the best way forward but that does not mean you have to spend €000's. And if someone says "I can do your website for £99" make sure that you know how many pages etc you are getting. Also just because you have the source code etc may not mean that you own the copyright.

John

not

[Owens88]

My site is hosted by Supanames. Their services come at all sorts of prices; low to middling.

Their service is quite good. For example last night they detected a problem and wanted to put in a fix. I had two notices of impending outages, one revision and then one 'its fixed' . To me that shows they care.

Good luck

John

[Steph]

Thanks again to you all .. your advice is really helpful.

I'm designing my own site at the moment, I've got a book (Idiot's guide) and I used to work in marketing so why not? Don't want to pay someone else to do what I "might" be able to do. I've looked at some of these web design sites and then clicked on "examples" and most of them are dire .. I can definately do better. I know it wont be 100% professional but hopefully it'll do the job. I'll post here when it's live and then you can give me your feedback ... ???!