Hosting my first website

ASP.NET hosting features

[Bucephalus]

Hi

I was going to do my first website in asp.net, and I'm surfing the web for web hosts.
I found some, but I don't think they provide asp.net functionality. The reason I say this is because it mentions php, but not asp. this is more than one webhost.

Are asp.net hosts more expensive because these hosts are really cheap, like 2.95 and 3.95 a month.
I'm going to contact one of these hosting companies and ask about asp also. This website is just my first one, it isn't a business website. actually it's a wedding website for my friend.


Regards
David.

[Barnamedve]

Hey David. There are numerous free hosting companies that in some favor return such as posting the logo of that company etc you can host your website at their server for free and it supports asp. I personally found a hungarian company that gives me a free 3GB space with db and supports almost everything however once or twice a year it does have downtime. I love it though. I recommend searching for these ind of deals if your doing your own website or even better if you host your own website with a server from home.

[Bucephalus]

Thanks for your response Barna.
I found one that I thought was relatively cheap.
$60 for the year, although, not as cheap as free.
I will look into the free ones too.

David.

[wyweb]

I will look into the free ones too.

You get what you pay for. You might keep that in mind, especially with regard to hosting.

[astupidname]

Many web hosts support asp.net, the main thing to look for is a windows server (which supports asp -asp being specific to windows platform), usually listed in the web hosts package sales pages as "Windows Hosting" or "Microsoft Hosting", versus "Linux hosting" which will not support asp. Easy to find, just search on your favorite search engine for "Windows Hosting".

[daveVk]

I was going to do my first website in asp.net

Interested to know why asp ?

What features other than plain HTML do you intend using ?

[Bucephalus]

Good question Dave.
This is my first website. I got a book on ASP.net, and I thought I would do the website using that technology. As I'm doing it, I'm realising that I don't need a lot of the controls. For example, the link tags and img tags. I'm just using html. But frankly, I just don't know enough yet to know what I should be using and what I shouldn't be, when, and when not too. I'm just plodding along and learning as I go.

For example, I have run into an issue now that I"m not sure if I should be solving with server side, or client side technology. I will ask this question in my other post I'm just about to do.

But bottom line, if I use asp.net, then I can put it in my resume that I have used asp.net, css, and html, instead of just html and css.

By the way, I found a server mob, charging $60 for the year with a promotion they had, and I decided to go with them.

Please feel free to give me feedback here and my other post.

David.

[daveVk]

If you stick to html + css it will run on any server. Most small sites need no more.

If you need database or other advanced features you choice is between Proprietary solutions like asp (windows) and open source like php ( linux + other ).

My bias is open source, public standards, asp has the advantage of integrating with (locking you into?) other MS products.

[Bucephalus]

Yeah thanks for your input. I have thought about what you are talking about actually, and I posted a question regarding this matter earlier.
You're right. This site doesn't need asp. It hasn't got a database attached and it's just a wedding site for my mate. But I'm getting into web design to make a career out of it and I do have some ecommerce website ideas that I want to do when I get better at this art.

So for an ecommerce site that has a database, is open source ok?
My idea is a dating site actually. I can say that without giving away how I'm going to competitively differentiate from the hundreds of other dating sites. So would you use php and mysql for a site like this. Say it has 10 000 accounts. At what point do companies decide to use microsoft technology and not open source. Why do some companies go one way, and others the other way?

david.

[daveVk]

Apache is the dominant server [news.netcraft.com...] I expect most of the large ecommerce sites use it.

I expect companies with existing microsoft databases would be major users of asp.

Rather than starting from scratch, look at ecommerce packages or frameworks, as a starting point, or at least to see the technology they use.

[icosytech]

Hi David,

The Web Development Technology does not depend on the type of the website basically.

So for an ecommerce site that has a database, is open source ok?

The asp and PHP has its own cons and Pros, but both are capable of building anykind of websites like ecommerce, social networking.

At what point do companies decide to use microsoft technology and not open source. Why do some companies go one way, and others the other way?

Here I like to go with daveVk as the asp application have advantage of integration with MS products apart from that the development cost and time is considered to be less in case of ASP than PHP.

PHP, the open source web development technology, it is flexible over the internet, it costs less, more supporting communities, more framework(options to choose, etc...

You need not choose between ASP and PHP based on site instead consider other factors like cost, time, resources, etc...

- Icosy

[Bucephalus]

yeah ok, so the natural path for someone who is just a lone person with not much money would be PHP by the sounds of it.
I will invest time in learning this after this website is completed.
Thanks for your valuable opinions.
David.