1st time website hosting

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theitman

189 posts

Master Geek

#80237 29-Mar-2011 10:51

Hi folks

I am currently finishing my final project of my IT degree and am building a website for a customer (home company). I am abit confused about the whole hosting deal. I know i have to get a domain name but what are the options with hosting? I need the website to be able to be edited when i have finished with it (pictures/content etc). Was thinking wordpress for the CMS. Do i go to a hosting company and ask them to host the website or do i get a webserver and have it at his house? Thoughts?

Thanks
Mike

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#453080 29-Mar-2011 11:12

Well their is lots to consider - is this a small website or are you planning on getting thousands of hits a day?

Do you need database access?

What language have you coded the website in?

You might want to look at shared hosting, or getting a virtual server - or if it is a larger website a dedicated server.

Actually buying a server and having it at his house simply won't work for an external website.

theitman

189 posts

Master Geek

#453085 29-Mar-2011 11:22

The website is purely to promote his business which is just starting up, so will only be around five pages, contact us, homepage, the product etc. Traffic will be minimal. Doesnt need a database i dont think. Can pictures/graphics be put up through wordpress?

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#453088 29-Mar-2011 11:27

Well yes you could use wordpress as a CMS, their are others around though.

If your are using a CMS you will need a database.

I would suggest using shared hosting and most companies will have an auto-installer so you can install wordpress or another CMS with one click. The only problem with this is the version they use is usual a few months out of date so is more vulnerable to attacks.

semigeek

1606 posts

Uber Geek

#453090 29-Mar-2011 11:31

What about this http://www.weebly.com/

You can have a business or personal site, a sub-domain e.g. sitename.weebly.com or upgrade to a domain of your own which you can purchase there or buy a doman name somewhere else and transfer it to weebly.

There are already options for e-commerce, contact us forms etc

theitman

189 posts

Master Geek

#453092 29-Mar-2011 11:35

ok cool, thanks. Are there any companies that stand out above the rest in terms of shared hosting? Is there a CMS that is better than Wordpress? My client will maybe once a month be altering content and or graphics/pictures maybe.

timmmay

20575 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#453095 29-Mar-2011 11:40

There are three things that need to be done here:
1) Register the domain name. Use 1st domain or discount domains if it's an .nz address.
2) Get web hosting. Shared hosting is fine for smaller businesses.
3) Design the website, and then develop it

1 is simple.

2 You can host in NZ, which is faster but a bunch more expensive, or in the US which is a lot cheaper but slower. It's still fast enough most of the time though, I host all my websites in the US with http://www.hostgator.com. My custom written php/mysql on HG (which gets 2M hits/month) runs really fast, wordpress is a little slower but is fine.

You can do either static html, or use wordpress as a CMS. html is faster, but the business can't easily change it. With Wordpress they can easily log in and edit things themselves, big advantage. I suggest wordpress, for flexibility. You can either buy a template, or develop your own, there's heaps of resources for it.

I have a hostgator 25% discount code, gznz111111, enter it if you sign up with them. It's 25% off your first order, whether it's one month or twelve months hosting. Disclaimer: I am an affiliate and I make a few bucks from it, but I host all of my personal and business websites with them. Great service and support, good performance, great value.

theitman

189 posts

Master Geek

#453109 29-Mar-2011 12:02

Thanks for your help guys! Right now im just doing the planning and analysis and am yet to start on the website properly. Will get in touch with the client and see what he thinks.

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kingjj

1728 posts

Uber Geek

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#453131 29-Mar-2011 13:27

Firstly, for your needs I would go with a Linux based host. Windows based hosts offer different technology, are usually more expensive and really targetted at professionals.

HostGator's not a bad host, but experience shows that their support is not the best. Would highly recommend jonesolutions.com as another viable option for small business sites. Their base reseller account is $3.99 US per month and allows you to host multiple domains under their own accounts. So you could host your clients website, plus your own website under different account that you setup and manage using Cpanel. This this you the option to host more websites in the future for other clients. I have several websites hosted with them (not an affiliate) and have found support is exceptional and uptime is excellent. Speeds to NZ are great too.

If you want more information on webhosting, including recommendations and deals you could have a look at: webhostingtalk.com

timmmay

20575 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#453135 29-Mar-2011 13:47

kingjj: Firstly, for your needs I would go with a Linux based host. Windows based hosts offer different technology, are usually more expensive and really targetted at professionals.

Huh? I would've said it was more for the beginners, or for places that have custom solutions developed with microsoft software.

HostGator's not a bad host, but experience shows that their support is not the best. Would highly recommend jonesolutions.com as another viable option for small business sites. Their base reseller account is $3.99 US per month and allows you to host multiple domains under their own accounts. So you could host your clients website, plus your own website under different account that you setup and manage using Cpanel. This this you the option to host more websites in the future for other clients. I have several websites hosted with them (not an affiliate) and have found support is exceptional and uptime is excellent. Speeds to NZ are great too.

If you want more information on webhosting, including recommendations and deals you could have a look at: webhostingtalk.com

HG support is really, really good in my experience. No matter what kind of questions I asked (including curly ones about DNS records for spam prevention) tech support replied within 15 minutes with a solution.

They also do reseller accounts, which would be handy for someone who wants to sell hosting. In this case though it's probably just as good to have the business sign up for a standard hosting account on the business credit card, so it gets paid automatically. Make sure the business get domain and hosting emails too.

There are plenty of good hosts, but i've had some really bad ones too. Do read reviews. Every hosting company will get some bad reviews, just take into account how large they are. A guy with a server in his basement on a DSL line who's been operating for a week won't have any bad reviews at all :)

redjet

299 posts

Ultimate Geek

#453143 29-Mar-2011 14:08

I use Host Gator for dozens of sites and highly recommend it. Also you can't really beat WordPress as a CMS as it's the biggest and IMHO the best.

As you are a student I'd be happy to host a test version of your site on my test server at no charge while you are building it and also give you advice with WordPress, plugins, security, etc. PM me if you are interested.

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