Help with a basic website

[spoma]

I am interested in building a website. I know some html I just am not really sure where to start. What software do people use to build a basic website that would allow some people to look at products and would have a lot of pictures. How do you host the website. Could you host it from your home computer if you had a cable modem? Some hlep would be greatly appreciated.

 

[puffpio]

Dreamweaver is really good. Frontpage is probably a little bit easier to use, although less powerful.
There are a lot of free servers out there. There are some that aren't too bad. You could also host it on your computer if your internet connection is fast enough. Cable modem is ok, but if you're expecting a lot of traffic, I wouldn't recommend it. If you want to host it on your home computer, I would install Personal Web Server (assuming you have NT, 2000 or XP).

 

[ThePresence]

Dreamweaver, FrontPage, if your good enuff with your code, just do it in notepad. Anything made by Macromedia is good.

 

[Bleep]

I have made a couple of sites and know almost nothing about html. I use a really good free prog called Arachnophilia, if you have broadband install Apache and host it yourself, if it gets loaded down then move it to a provider somewhere. Here is one I made with Arachnophlia.. link

Bleep

 

[heartsurgeon]

frontpage is perfect for getting a decent website up and running quickly - i'm very satisfied with it (the key to a "good" web site in my opinion, is compelling content, not the latest bells and whistles)

you need a image processing program as well. hard to beat Photoshop. it really is a amazing program. if you can't get it at a "discount" it may actually be worth the price if your serious about your website (running it for/as a business)

good luck, and remember a web site is always a work in progress. don't wait until your site is "perfect" to put it on the web!

 

[spoma]

Guys thannks for the help so far. I have a couple more questions. I am not expecting to much traffic at first so I am going to try and host it myself on my computer with my cable modem. How do I go about getting the URL I want for it. I believe we already own the URL that I want because we bought it as soon as the company came around. But how do I assign so that that URL will be on my computer at home?
Also how do you make it so that you show up in search engines or when people search on the internet. Is this difficult?

 

[jjones]

ee-gads, Front Page sucks. Use it you absolutely have to but I'd recommend Dreamweaver. The learning curve is a little steeper but not by much and it's a much better page generator.

As for hosting, this is a company site correct? Why dink around with hosting it yourself when there are lots of good inexpensive services like 3-95.com and affordhosting.com.

As for the domain name to DNS propogation, you need to do that with the registrar. If you already have your domain name, then you will need to change the DNS (domain name server) information with whomever you have registered that domain with. They will have the appropriate links and information on their site to do that.

 

[heartsurgeon]

find out your registrar

get a request to link your IP address to your URL and send it to your registrar

alternatively, use a forwarding service like mydomain.com

submit your site to search engines

read up on meta tags - they help to get your site indexed appropriately by search engines.

do a google search on meta tags, URL forwarding, and internet registrar to get the dope you need

 

[heartsurgeon]

i do not feel that frontpage "sucks"
it is probably the perfect software for this individual creating their first "basic" web site.
by the time they get around to you're level of expertise, they may want to switch to another program such as dreamweaver, but i doubt they will use even 25% of what frontpage can do, much less dreamweaver.

you can get an idea about different web site creation tools by going to CNET and reading the software reviews
good luck

 

[spoma]

I am going to host it myself at first. It is a small company that is just starting up and I am not expecting that much traffic or income from the website to justify paying for it to be hosted. Right now it is more that people have asked if we have a website just to look around.
I am either going to go with Dreamweaver to create the website or I might just do it in html myself. Haven't decided yet.
I am trying to decide between Apache or Personal Web Server for hosting it. Does anyone have any recommendations here?
Again everyone thatnks for all the help.

 

[spoma]

heartsurgeon
i have looked around on google and have read up on meta tags, url forwarding, and internet registrar. i understand meta tags. but i have a couple of questions about where expenses will come from. does registering with a search engine cost money? from what i can tell even though i have purchased a domain name already i am going to have to pay extra to forward this address to my home ip address. is it possible to host a website at home is your ip is not static. i have cable modem so is not guaranteed to be static.

 

[911paramedic]

You NEED a static IP if you are going to host it yourself. Think of it as your street address, it is hard to find you if you are in an RV and never parked in the same place. I should say impossible. Meta tags help the search engine "crawlers" to find and identify your site, many times if you pay to get listed you also get junk mail up the wazoo.

You really should get a cheap host so they can configure everything for you if this is your first time. You will get email addresses as well as other benefits.

Good Luck

P.S. Please do us all a favor with your graphics, optimize them so they are not 1-2 megs each...a common first time error.

 

[Electric Amish]

Firstpage is cool...and FREE!

That's what I use.

amish

 

[spoma]

i really wanted to kind of do everything myself because it is my first time and it was something i wanted to learn. but since everyone seems to be suggesting having someone host the website for me i will look into that. does anyone have any suggestions of places to look at?

 

[911paramedic]

I use something called http://www.readyhosting.com and they are pretty good. It is $99 per year for quite a bit of resources. I think they have a reseller thing where I could get you hosted for half that if you want, check them out and let me know.

EDIT: Just checked it out, it would be under my account, so I would have to manage it, look at the $99 plan for yourself without me, sorry.

 

[911paramedic]

The $99 plan:


500MB Web Space
Free New Domain Registration
Unmetered Data Transfer
Unlimited Email
Unlimited Email Aliases
Unlimited Autoresponders
Web-Based Email
Toll-Free Technical Support
24 Hour FTP Access
99.9% Uptime Guarantee
30 Day Money-Back Guarantee
ASP Support
Live Statistics
FrontPage 2000 Extensions
Cold Fusion 4.5
Database Access
CGI/Perl
ASP Mail Component
ASPEmail Component
DevMailer Component
Instant Setup!
Password Protected Directories
Daily Backups
Custom 404 Error Page
Server Side Includes (.stm, .shtm, .shtml)
RealAudio/Video
PHP Server Extensions
SSL Security
E-commerce Shopping Cart by Cart32.com
Control Panel
SQL Server 2000 - ($25/Year Per Database)
ASP Simple Upload Component

 

[spoma]

911paramedic
thanks for all the information. i am going to look into that. if i have somebody else hosting the website then am i able to be changing it a lot?
somehting i would be interested in for the future would be purchasing online through our website. how do you go about getting that secure? do you go through the hosting company?

 

[kt]

<< Dreamweaver is really good. Frontpage is probably a little bit easier to use, although less powerful.
There are a lot of free servers out there. There are some that aren't too bad. You could also host it on your computer if your internet connection is fast enough. Cable modem is ok, but if you're expecting a lot of traffic, I wouldn't recommend it. If you want to host it on your home computer, I would install Personal Web Server (assuming you have NT, 2000 or XP). >>


Personal Web Server is for Win98/ME.. NT/2000/XP has IIS.

 

[notfred]

I wouldn't recommend hosting the site yourself unless you've got a T1 line in your house. Plus, administrating Apache is a lot more learning than jsut writing some HTML. I think if you try to learn them both at once, you're gonig to be biting off more than you can chew. Also, if you host it horself, oyu have to make sure that you leave the PC on 24/7. If your PC is off, your server is down. also, if you've got a 128k uplaod cap, and you're sending someone a file at 14k/sec, then you leave a total of 2k/sec for use by the webserver.

 

[spoma]

I do leave my pc on 24/7 so that was not a problem. But the bandwidth point is a good one. It really depends on what the business can afford. I was thinking of hosting it myself to try and save some money.

 

[heartsurgeon]

what internet service provider are you using? many of them will host a web site for you (included in the monthly charge for your access). they may not inform you of this up front unless you ask them outright.

for example, i use a local internet service provider in my community.
they will host a web site for free - 20 megs of space on the server, 300 Mbytes/month bandwidth

web site address they provide = www.evansville.net/~ict
i use mydomain.com (free) to redirect the url www.evansvilleheartcenter.com to www.evansville.net/~ict (looks more professional)
voila! corporate web site on the cheap.

check with your local internet service provider if they include free web hosting (with some limitations).
when you outgrow this, then you have a better handle on what your needs will be.

consider using services of atomz.com as well (free web site search engine).. good luck

 

[spoma]

i use charter cable modem so they are also my isp. i will check with them and find out if they do web hosting. thanks for the tip.