Newbie looking to make site better

[marsh]

Ok first off, as of right now, I don't know PHP at all, but will be learning it shortly. I right now have a site that is constantly getting shut down for exeeding my bandwidth allocations (a little more than 2 GIG a day). I do have a lot MP3's on the site and I suppose that uses quite a bite. This site is a basic HTML site built in Dreamweaver MX and is on a Linux server. My question is, if I rebuild the site using PHP and MySql, because it is database driven, will that cut down my bandwidth consumption? I also want to possibly add a forum to the site, do I need PHP for that? Any suggests you can offer would be great! I am planning on rebuilding the site with PHP, but I won't be able to do this until the end of August. Thanks for your help!

Marsh

[Elijah]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld marsh! :)

if I rebuild the site using PHP and MySql, because it is database driven, will that cut down my bandwidth consumption?

No, not unless you reduce the size of your images, pages, or downloads.

I also want to possibly add a forum to the site, do I need PHP for that?

No, you could use perl or some other language, but you will have to use something other than just HTML. I would recommend getting a php/mysql based forum. Some that I have used are phpBB, PunBB, and Invision Power Board.

Any suggests you can offer would be great!

Bookmark php.net ;)

I would download and install apache, php, ad mysql so that you can test your php scripts locally.

Have fun,

Elijah