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Hosting A Web page


Ralph A

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I want to have a web page this year for my light display and, was wondering if any of you Hi Tech guys would have any suggestions on a good source of Web Hostings? Of course, I will have a few videos to show, pictures and just the general stuff that we all display. There are a lot of choices out there and I was wondering if any were better suited for our needs as christmas light enthusiasts than just a regular hosting service.

Thanks for the advice!!

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hbomb341 wrote:

For Video use YouTube and hosting 1and1 is recomened; I have also used GoDaddy. I personal do my own server from the house but thats over the edge.

Harrison




From my experience (since 2006), 1and1 is not only consistently cheaper, but you also get more bandwidth and more space than the other guys. Their tech support can be :? sometimes, but they will get the job done if you're persistent.

They are offering a sale (50% off the first 3 months) until February 29th. $4 a month gets you adequate space and the domain name is free! Feel free to use my affiliate link if you decide to go with them. :P


http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=10981765
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The easy way to get a good site up quickly is to use a Content Management System (CMS), like Joomla (http://www.joomla.org/). It's fairly easy to install and then you can use the tools to create your content. There are extensions to do everything from calendars and weather to streaming, hosting or linking to video. Every Open Source (aka FREE) CMS I know has a ton of free templates but also some that can be purchased or you can cutomize your own.

There are some hosts wo will even get it set up for you, but it's easy and cheap if not free, so doing it on your own is the way to go, most times.

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Bjorn74 wrote:

The easy way to get a good site up quickly is to use a Content Management System (CMS), like Joomla [snip]

Having used Joomla in the past, I can't say that I would recommend it to someone just starting out. While I haven't looked at the 1.5 platform, the 1.0.x platform did take some reading up on to get going. I'm not saying don't use it. I'm saying you should read up on it before you commit.

I would also encourage people to look at Wordpress. I've been quite pleased with it's abilities and run a few sites off the platform.
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I like Vimeo.com. The video is much better than Youtube. This is also the provider that Richard Holdman uses for his videos.

Dennis

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Don wrote:

Bjorn74 wrote:
The easy way to get a good site up quickly is to use a Content Management System (CMS), like Joomla [snip]

Having used Joomla in the past, I can't say that I would recommend it to someone just starting out. While I haven't looked at the 1.5 platform, the 1.0.x platform did take some reading up on to get going. I'm not saying don't use it. I'm saying you should read up on it before you commit.

I would also encourage people to look at Wordpress. I've been quite pleased with it's abilities and run a few sites off the platform.


v1.5 is better organized, but Joomla still has a learning curve. The main advantage is you don't have to know any coding. If you're willing to poke around the admin control panel and learn a CMS like Mambo or Joomla, it does provide a lot of great options.

I installed v1.5 yesterday for the new version of LORsequences.com. 1.5 is so new, a lot of modules and components don't support it yet. So, I trashed the whole thing and installed 1.0.14. 1.5 is a great choice if you want to grow into it and give people time to get some of the additional plugins coded. If you want everything at your fingertips now, v1.5 is not the best choice.
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I've been using Hostgator for nearly two years, and have no complaints. I'm running 12 separate website on one "Baby" plan: 600GB disk, 6TB transfer (in theory, haven't tested that), for $7.95 per month. The couple of times I've needed support they've been very responsive.

Bjorn74 nailed it. Unless you want to write HTML or use something like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, a CMS will get you up and running fast. Hostgator has the Fantastico script installer, (I think many hosts do,) which can set up 14 different CMS's including Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Xoops, etc. It's a quick way to get a website up and running, then you just have to dive in and learn how to add your content. There's tons of community support for the popular CMS's.

I've been using various flavors of Xoops for maybe 4 years now. I can't argue that it's better than any other CMS, I'm just used to it. Besides, all of them can get the job done.

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DanCampbell wrote:

I've been using Hostgator for nearly two years, and have no complaints. I'm running 12 separate website on one "Baby" plan: 600GB disk, 6TB transfer (in theory, haven't tested that), for $7.95 per month. The couple of times I've needed support they've been very responsive.

Bjorn74 nailed it. Unless you want to write HTML or use something like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, a CMS will get you up and running fast. Hostgator has the Fantastico script installer, (I think many hosts do,) which can set up 14 different CMS's including Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Xoops, etc. It's a quick way to get a website up and running, then you just have to dive in and learn how to add your content. There's tons of community support for the popular CMS's.

I've been using various flavors of Xoops for maybe 4 years now. I can't argue that it's better than any other CMS, I'm just used to it. Besides, all of them can get the job done.



Just weigh the type of resources you will need for your website. You'll find that most plans are similar, but you get more or less of individual things. For me, bandwidth transfer is critical. My site moved over 200GB of transfer in the past 12 months, 42.3427 last December, and the record for the most transfer in one day? 6.4 gb.

The point being, consider what you will need for your website. For the average smaller display, any plan will be just fine. But where will you be in 5 years? Will you have the same quiet display, or will you be something big online that everyone goes to see? Will you offer tutorials or other services to community? When I was starting back in 2006, I was looking for high bandwidth plans because I was planning on starting http://LORsequences.com (currently down -- I'm working on that). I knew such a service would be a high traffic, high download site. So I picked a good transfer plan in preparation, and I am glad I did. For $5 a month, I get 1200gb of transfer a month. Notice how the plan above is only 6gb. However, my plan has considerably LESS space than the plan above. I'd have to pay $20 a month to get the BEST PLAN my webhost offers, and that would only be only 300gb of space - the plan above has 600gb of space for $8. So as you can see, these numbers really vary by plan and price.

My example is a little extreme, because the "average joe" isn't going to worry about such things. I'd recommend a minimum of 50gig of space just because you will run out of space quickly with videos. Just plan ahead if you have any ideas for the next "gem" of a site that everyone will visit.

If all the numbers, plans, and prices are confusing, post a few of them here and we can give you some pointers of the good, bad, and ugly of each.
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Thanks to DanCampbell for pointing out an error in my post. I misread his post as having a 6g plan, not a 6tb plan. A 6tb plan is around 6,000gb...now who has a better plan? :laughing:

I will seriously have to investigate this webhost!!! I love bandwidth. :)

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WOW!! Thank you for all of your responses As a newbie, I am already having a lot of fun, and of course lots of little problems to figure out. I will do some research on all of your suggestions, after I take advantage of the sale tomorrow!!!

Is, 1and1, considered a CMS? Being my first year I want to focus on the musical sequences and building all trees etc. etc. So I do want the web page but do not want to spend a lot of time on it till after next christmas.

Again, this support group is awesome (sounds like I'm in A.A.) Thanks for all your advise and help!!

Ralph

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Ralph A wrote:

...
Again, this support group is awesome (sounds like I'm in A.A.) Thanks for all your advise and help!!

Me: "Hi, I'm Dan, and I am a Christmas light addict."
Group: "Hi, Dan!"

My bride kids me about that. Well, I think she's kidding...
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Ralph A wrote:

WOW!! Thank you for all of your responses As a newbie, I am already having a lot of fun, and of course lots of little problems to figure out. I will do some research on all of your suggestions, after I take advantage of the sale tomorrow!!!

Is, 1and1, considered a CMS? Being my first year I want to focus on the musical sequences and building all trees etc. etc. So I do want the web page but do not want to spend a lot of time on it till after next christmas.

Again, this support group is awesome (sounds like I'm in A.A.) Thanks for all your advise and help!!

Ralph




In 1and1 hosting you can INSTALL a CMS. Content Management System (CMS) is just a cute name for a package you install on your webserver and then it gives you management of your website via administrative screens instead of you writing the code yourself. I just installed Joomla 1.5 (if you remember from a few posts above.) As it turns out, I never deleted the actual folder. You might try poking around in there to get a feel for what CMS is all about.

[url/Directions removed]

It's setup for a 3 column layout. Anything that's a "module" is in the first or third column, which are narrow. Anything that appears in the larger, middle column is an article or a component. That jargon just might help you navigate the admin area. Go ahead and try changing a few things and see if you can figure any of it out. The code you're working in is an abandoned Joomla 1.5 installation that will be deleted, so no sweat!
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Here are my thoughts on a content management system

Pros:

-Easy to install

-Good for updating

-Don't necessarily have to have lots of technical expertise to get it up and running

Cons:

-You are often confined to a particular templating system

-Security risks (hacking, and making SURE you make backups of your website)

-Learning curve

That being said, I think Joomla is a good CMS system for a Christmas display site. And make sure that you choose a hosting company that supports this CMS. From what I have heard, www.siteground.com is a good hosting company for Joomla. Many web hosts do not specialize in hosting for web CMS systems. 1and1 does support Joomla as well, but Site Ground is "optimized" for Joomla hosting.


Like someone else mentioned, Wordpress is a good platform as well.

You can always design a "static" HTML site using programs like Microsoft Expression Web, Dreamweaver, NVU, and others and have your web project hosted through most hosting companies.

This is one of many options available for you...but I recommend that you look at your options before making a decision.

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