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Anyway, I got a special 1-yr bargain plan recently for $70 (free domain name, no setup fee, vdeck control panel -- includes a ton of software, of which I only used a web template and phpbb so far -- 5000MB space, 100 Gig traffic transfer -- what on earth does that mean?! -- and on and on).
So far, its been good for my purposes as my website is new and has only 100-200 page views a day and a very inactive phpbb forum. I used the host's template via the Web Builder option in the Control Panel instead of beginning with html right of the bat and designing a website from scratch (since I was too lazy to learn more than basic html)! It was a MISTAKE as I find it hard to understand the source code they have in there now, and they use images all over the place for tabs such as "contact info" "product info" etc... so I can't change those names, which appear on every page, without deleting a lot of the code.
To start a new basic website from scratch, is it sufficient to only know an intermediate level of html? Or would I need to learn other things such as JAVA script etc... I want to make my second ever website, which I think will be at least 3-4 times as active as my current one (both in terms of page impressions and phpbb forum posts) as soon as its out there. Can anyone recommend good and cheap web hosting plans for my purposes? I like this host so far, and something along the same lines would be good. I What kind of space and file transfer space requirements whould I be looking at if I don't expect more than 1000 page impressions per day?
Primarily, I would like something with better options for html web designing. This host has NOTHING it seems! Either you use their templates, or you are on your own. Is there any hosting company with such an option? Their phone support is very slow, but I only had to use it initially when it took them a few days to get my webpage online. Otherwise, I doubt I will need good phone support as long as the hosting is reliable and fast. I will definitely neeed phpbb software and a decent control panel.
Also, can someone explain what the various hosting plans such as UNIX/LINUX/WINDOWS-based mean to a newbie such as myself? I use a WINDOWS machine, so should I make sure the plan is advertised as WINDOWS? I never did verify this with my host and don't know what kind of OS my plan is based on!
I don't mind paying around $10 a month (as opposed to less than $6 a month that I pay currently) as long as its similar in most ways. I do want to try a different host provider even if they have no improvement in helping me design a webpage from scratch. In that case, I would want someone that has better phone support and more popular appeal just to be on the safe side.
My host does have something called Frontpage which I thought would help me design a webpage. However, upon clicking on it in the control panel, it asked me to enter a password to install Frontpage server extensions and I decided not to mess with it. Am I expecting too much if templates and Frontpage is not sufficient for me to design a webpage from scratch using html!?
The biggest problem with the template my host offers is that if I change it via the "Web Builder" option in the vdeck control panel, my adsense code disappers at the end when I publish the website. If I change it via the actual files in the "Host Manager" under "File Manager", then the adsense code does not disappear as I don't have to click the "publish website" option. However, since I used the template via the "Web Builder" their are certain things that are a lot easier to change through their because I am not an expert html/Java Script programmer as yet.
Thanks for taking the time to read!
[edited by: tedster at 8:11 pm (utc) on Sep. 7, 2005]
[edit reason] remove specific host name [/edit]
First, though, you may want to edit your host name out of your post, or the moderators may do it. We try to stay away from specifics around here, so as to avoid potential spamming issues.
Anyway, I got a special 1-yr bargain plan with [a host] recently for $70 (free domain name, no setup fee, vdeck control panel (includes a ton of software, of which I only used a web template and phpbb so far), 5000MB space, 100 Gig traffic transfer (what on earth does that mean?!) and on and on!
It sounds to me like you're getting too much for your money. If you actually get those services AND reliable uptime, then great. But I wouldn't count on service being too good. The "100 gig traffic transfer" means the amount of data you're allowed to serve to visitors. If your average page is a total of 50kb, then your 100 gig of transfer (bandwidth) will allow you to serve 2,097,152 pages. (Although your FTP usage will also count against your bandwidth too.) You'll want to check with your host to find out if that 100 gig is per month, or for the full year. Either way, it's probably plenty for your purposes.
So far, its been good for my purposes as my website is new and has only 100-200 page views a day and a very inactive phpbb forum. I used [my host's] template via the Web Builder option in the Control Panel instead of beginning with html right of the bat and designing a website from scratch (since I was too lazy to learn more than basic html)! It was a MISTAKE as I find it hard to understand the source code they have in there now, and they use images all over the place for tabs such as "contact info" "product info" etc... so I can't change those names, which appear on every page, without deleting a lot of the code.
It's a little hard to understand what's going on here without knowing the system, but it sounds to me like the "Web Builder" tool generated some pretty poor markup. Starting from scratch may be a better option than trying to repair what got generated.
To start a new basic website from scratch, is it sufficient to only know an intermediate level of html?
Depends on how complex you want your site to be. The thing is, HTML is so easy that it should be very quick for you to move from an "intermediate" understanding of it to a full grasp of it. Of course, some topics such as "semantic markup" and some advanced techniques will normally come best after a fair amount of practice.
Or would I need to learn other things such as JAVA script etc...
Java and JavaScript are two separate things. As web developers go, very few know Java. That's the technology that is used to run some web-based games and other applications. If you view a radar loop on the National Weather Service website, that's using Java. JavaScript is entirely different, and though its capabilities are pretty robust, it is normally used only for "cute" things such as dropdown menus and image rollovers. If I were you, I would not spend a lot of time trying to learn Java or JavaScript. It will probably be well worth your while to learn a little about PHP includes, or SSI. Those techniques can save a lot of time by keeping commonly-used blocks of markup in a single file. For instance, use a PHP include file for your main navigation. When you want to make a change, you only have to change it in one place instead of every single page.
You'll also definitely want to look into learning CSS, which is probably the most intuitive of all web-related technologies and one of the biggest timesavers.
I want to make my second ever website, which I think will be at least 3-4 times as active as my current one (both in terms of page impressions and phpbb forum posts) as soon as its out there. Can anyone recommend good and cheap web hosting plans for my purposes? I like [my current host] so far, and something along the same lines would be good. I What kind of space and file transfer space requirements whould I be looking at if I don't expect more than 1000 page impressions per day?
We can't make recommendations here, but the basic thing to remember when choosing a host is to go for quality of service. Your current deal seems to include too much for the money for them to actually be able to deliver it all. Look around over at #*$! for specific recommendations and warnings - a lot of the posts over there aren't really helpful, but after awhile of lurking around, you'll probably be able to decide on a pretty good host. For space and bandwidth, most hosting plans now should be able to handle 1000 pageloads per day with no problem. Exact amounts will vary according to the sizes of your pages, images, etc. Also, you'll want to get a plan on a fairly decent server in the hardware area. phpBB uses PHP and MySQL databases to run, and this can result in sluggish performance if the server isn't up to the load (particularly if there are a lot of other customers on your server.) You may want to think about getting a "VPS" solution, which stands for "Virtual Private Server" and gives about the same performance as a low-end dedicated server.
Primarily, I would like something with better options for html web designing. [My current host] has NOTHING it seems! Either you use their templates, or you are on your own.
Do you mean you want a WYSIWYG editor? If so, I suggest a desktop application such as Dreamweaver or (shudder!) FrontPage. However, creating your pages by hand in a text editor is the best way to go, as long as you have at least a basic understanding of HTML.
Is there any hosting company with such an option?
Lots, but none of them (in my opinion) are very good.
[My host's] phone support is very slow, but I only had to use it initially when it took them a few days to get my webpage online. Otherwise, I doubt I will need good phone support as long as the hosting is reliable and fast.
Slow phone support is often a problem with the cheaper hosts. Even if you don't need phone support very often, I suggest you try to find a host that not only has phone support, but has fast phone support. There are times that this will save your bacon, when something goes wrong and needs quick attention.
I will definitely neeed phpbb software and a decent control panel.
Most control panels are pretty good, all things considered. Cpanel, Ensim and Plesk are some of the more popular ones. I tend to prefer Cpanel and Plesk. As for phpBB, that doesn't need to be included with your hosting plan (although most modern plans will include it). You can always download the program from phpBB's website and install it yourself - it's a snap to do.
Also, can someone explain what the various hosting plans such as UNIX/LINUX/WINDOWS-based mean to a newbie such as myself? I use a WINDOWS machine, so should I make sure the plan is advertised as WINDOWS? I never did verify this with [my host] and don't know what kind of OS my plan is based on!
Those are just the operating systems that are available on web hosts. Most people prefer *nix due to security issues with Windows servers. The OS you use on your computer has nothing to do with what's running on your server. I would not consider a web host that didn't offer Linux hosting on an Apache server. Nothing else has the proven track record that combination has.
I don't mind paying around $10 a month (as opposed to less than $6 a month that I pay [my host] for the special weekend promotion they had) as long as its similar to [my host] in most ways.
You may want to consider increasing the amount you're willing to pay to about $20 per month. That will get you a good VPS with plenty of space, bandwidth and features and a very good control panel. Support will be more reliable, too.
I do want to try a different host provider even if they have no improvement in helping me design a webpage from scratch relative to [my host].
If you're designing a website from scratch, I doubt any host will really help you much. Their job is just to keep the server running and provide support on the services they offer. If you're using a desktop WYSIWYG editor or a text editor to design your site, which will be the only way to get the control you seem to want, then any host will be pretty limited in what they can do for you when it comes to designing your site. Most hosts will offer support for getting your site published to the web, but when it comes to using your desktop programs, you'll need to get support from the program vendor.
[My host] does have something called Frontpage which I thought would help me design a webpage. However, upon clicking on it in the control panel, it asked me to enter a password to install Frontpage server extensions and I decided not to mess with it. Am I expecting too much if templates and Frontpage is not sufficient for me to design a webpage from scratch using html!?
FrontPage Extensions are just server-side features that allow you to use certain features of the MS FrontPage desktop software. There are many security risks to enabling FrontPage Extensions and I don't suggest you do it. Actually, they'd be worthless to you anyway, unless you are using FrontPage on your PC to design your site.
Also, you're mentioning "designing a webpage from scratch using HTML." It's a small thing, but normally that phrase would mean you're using a text-editor to design your pages using raw HTML. "From scratch" isn't normally used to describe a site built with a WYSIWYG editor. Like I said, this is a small thing, but getting the terminology right will help make sure people understand what you mean.
The biggest problem with the [my host's] template is that if I change it via the "Web Builder" option in the vdeck control panel, my adsense code disappers at the end when I publish the website. If I change it via the actual files in the "Host Manager" under "File Manager", then the adsense code does not disappear as I don't have to click the "publish website" option. However, since I used the template via the "Web Builder" their are certain things that are a lot easier to change through their because I am not an expert html/Java Script programmer as yet.
It's pretty much impossible to answer these questions without knowing the exact setup of your "Web Builder" tool. My guess is that the "Web Builder" is WYSIWYG and the "File Manager" lets you get at the raw HTML. If the "Web Builder" doesn't keep your AdSense code on the page, then I'd say it has a pretty serious bug that should be reported to your host.
To sum up, my suggestion to you is to get a good text-editor (such as Crimson Editor) and learn how to write HTML markup. This gives you the maximum control over your pages, and will likely be the easiest solution in the long run. You'll also save yourself a lot of time by learning CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and either PHP includes or SSI (Server Side Includes). As far as a host is concerned, try to find one with a good reputation for uptime and customer service. And, don't be afraid to start with a small plan at first. Most hosts offer seamless upgrades to higher plans, so if you find the small plan doesn't have the features you need, you can always upgrade. But there's no point in starting with a high-end plan when a cheaper one will do just fine.
Well, I hope I've been able to be some help. For some questions, it's just hard to know what to say without being familiar with proprietary control panels, etc. Hopefully I haven't started back and kindergarten and told you a lot of stuff you already know. Please let me know if anything needs clarification.
I can't believe someone answered in so much detail or even read my whole message.
Its too bad this site doesn't have a forum to discuss host providers due to spamming issues.
Update: The edit feature for my first post is unavailable, but is there for my second post in this thread. So I can't remove my host provider's name:-(
even read my whole message.
I read it and wanted to address a couple of your questions, but the number of questions kind of overwhelmed me. IMHO that you would have better success breaking them up a little. Hats off to Matthew for his reply.
Regarding paying $20 per month for a website, I can't really do that right now as I don't know how much my site will grow and how focused I will remain.
Matthew, the host providor name I originally wrote down just reached a milestone of 40,000 websites after less than 3 yrs of operation per google news! You didn't list the vdeck control panel as one of your top choices, which is what they offer. I did read good reviewss of it on google though, so perhaps it is just a matter of me learning html, css etc... as you recommend and never using templates again.
My host provider also told me that they will give me a 4th site free if I buy 3, so as things stand, I will probably use them for my second site. After a year, if I make some decent revenue on Adsense, I will think of something more expensive:-)
Anyway, I got a special 1-yr bargain plan recently for $70 (free domain name,
A "free" domain name is a red flag! Check the data on your domain to make sure it has your name as registratnt. Too many times I have seen "free" domains where the hosting company puts their own name as registrant.
So far, its been good for my purposes as my website is new and has only 100-200 page views a day and a very inactive phpbb forum.
If this is web stats provided free by your hosting co be wary of those figures. Install your own SiteMeter that gives you accurate visits.
I used the host's template via the Web Builder option in the Control Panel instead of beginning with html right of the bat and designing a website from scratch (since I was too lazy to learn more than basic html)! It was a MISTAKE as I find it hard to understand the source code they have in there now,
IT's not only hard to understand but every wizywig site builder program I've ever seen puts out deprecated code, even the newest versions of FrontPage and Dreamweaver, and therefore your pages will not validate and they often produce enormous code bloat also.
and they use images all over the place for tabs such as "contact info" "product info" etc... so I can't change those names, which appear on every page, without deleting a lot of the code.
Search engines can't read images so they will never see those keywords and links are one of the most important places to put your keywords.
I would recommend that you learn to write HTML by hand along with CSS as you will be wasting your effort by using WIZYWIG editors.
