Hi Shel... A little background: My day/night job is project manager for an educational company's web-based product. This means I write code, design pages and plan deployment for what is essentially a really fancy website with subscription access. See comments below.
On 3/14/02 9:35 PM, Shel Belinkoff wrote: > I want to set up my own domain. There are numerous places where one can > register a domain name, and, of course, some are less expensive than > others. Some offer mail forwarding and linking to my current site. > Others just register the chosen name. My ISP will register a domain, > increase the size of my site, add a few perks, and charge me a lot more > than it seems other places charge. Like many things in life, it all comes down to what you want to do yourself balanced against what you're willing to pay for. First off, your ISP does NOT have to be your website host. Shop around, find someone that you can work with and has the patience to answer your questions. I'd recommend staying away from the Big Boys in the hosting business. They will charge you plenty and the service tends to be awful. See if you can find a local hosting service that's run by folks you can take out for a beer and a chat. Get a copy of your local geek magazine (they're usually free at technical bookstores) and look at the ads - there will be dozens of web hosting companies wanting your business. For about $60/year (not including an internet connection), you can host your own site, including email, web, chat, et cetera, but you will need to do EVERYTHING on your own: maintain routers, firewalls, operating systems, server apps, hardware, the list is endless. You can do all of it for free if you're motivated, industrious and resourceful. Linux forms the foundation of this approach, and, of course, you must become a proficient juggler. That $60 comes from registering your domain name with Network Solutions ($30 fee, www.netsol.com) and starting a Dynamic DNS account ($30 donation, www.dyndns.org). Your site host can take on some or all of this for you, depending on how much money you are willing to spend. > How hard is it to move a web site? No more difficult than a simple file copy if your website is basic HTML. Things get hairier if you've got server-side scripting or executables to move. > What do you suggest as a good way to get a domain name - register and > set up a site with the same provider? With links? Or what? Shop around. I registered my personal domain name (for family stuff) with Network Solutions (www.netsol.com). I personally think they're a bunch of money grubbing jerks, but they had best price for what I needed at the time. AT&T provides my 1.5MB pipe for $50/month, and I do everything else myself. All of my servers are old Macs running various bits of shareware and freeware. This solution isn't robust enough to handle thousands of hits per hour, but it works fine for sharing pix and stories with friends and family. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
