Web page hosting?

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JR

JR

Pissed off senior member.
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Ummmm, Help?

I have no idea what Im looking for...

My dad has a crappy one page web site for our auto appraisal service www.autoideas.net and I would like to transfer it to a new host and redo the whole thing with at least 2 email accounts and set it up so that there is more than one very crappy page along with being able to do online appraisals. He knows nothing about how to work it and said that I can redo the whole thing. My brother in law knows HTML and said that we can build the whole site in one day with the outline that we came up with.
What will I have to do to transfer autoideas.net to a new host, is it pretty simple to do?

This is what I came up with options for a host search.
http://www.findmyhosting.com/searchresults.asp?page=1&op=1&sid=1636666
 
I helped my friend with a site. We used infojunky.net . Cheap rates, and never a problem in the three years he has used it. I'm sure there are lots of good places out there. You would just need to change the DNS information for the current domain name to the IP(s) of the new host once your ready.
 
What about these guys?

http://www.arvixe.com/index.php?menu=domains

Arvixe Web Solutions (USA) | Host Interview
Personal Windows Hosting Plan (Plan Value 80018)
Windows | Check Host Reliability
98% (369 ratings posted)

$5.00 a month
payment plan- monthly
no set up fee
Disk storage - 200 GB
Data transfer - 2000 GB
Email acounts -No Limit
 
Godaddy.com is the big hoster on the block with cheap prices. I use Domain.com aka dotster.com they are ok they have much better plans than Godaddy but there backend interface isn't as nicely polished and often confusing at times. I prefer Cpanel as a good backend but doesn't seem like anyone uses this anymore.
 
Basically you pick the hosting company you want to go with and sign up for a package, in your case I would recommend a very basic package, but be sure you can upgrade later to something larger should the need arise. You could pay anywhere from $3 to $20 depending on what you want.

Once you sign up, they will send you the required information, the domain name server location. You input that information wherever you registered your domain name, then wait for the servers to propogate the new information. Basically you are telling the internet where exactly the files that make up www.autoideas.net reside, and where the domain name servers will point when a user types in www.autoideas.net. As long as you maintain your domain name, you can "host" your files with any hosting company you want for the rest of your life. I've switched hosting company quite a few times, but maintained the same domain names so nobody but me knows the difference.

The Hosting company will provide you with tools to manage your account and domains. With the tools you will be able to set up your own email addresses, transfer files, etc.

I have what's called a reseller package with www.valuhost.com. I can host domain names as if I were a host provider myself. I wanted this because I have quite a few different domain names and actually charge a few people for their hosting. I pay $20/month for this. I can control all the email addresses I want for each domain I host (about 10) as well as user accounts to control access to the domains, etc. I don't think you want anything this complex, but I started out just like you with one domain name with a basic package.
 
Up until February 22, I would have wholeheartedly recommended Dot5 web hosting. It was easy to use, template-based (basically fill out forms that turn into web pages), and their customer service was great. It was under $80 for 2 years, and that included my site's .com registration fee and reserved my website name until the end of time.

BUT ... they recently transitioned their existing accounts to a new platform, Vdeck 3.0. Everything worked fine -- EXCEPT FOR MY WORK SAMPLE PHOTO GALLERY, the most popular section of my website! Now it has a "404 Error" and the pages are GONE.

I HATE IT! It went from being easy to use to requiring a degree in computer engineering. I've been trying to figure out how to get my Gallery back since February 23 ... but it's beyond me.

For the time being (until I get this crap figured out), you can see the work sample photos under the "Color Charts" tab ... I had to upload all the pictures onto photobucket because I couldn't see any alternative, and I'm losing business as a result of the host's transition.

Any computer engineers who wanna give me a hand, I'd be forever in your debt!!!
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Up until February 22, I would have wholeheartedly recommended Dot5 web hosting. It was easy to use, template-based (basically fill out forms that turn into web pages), and their customer service was great. It was under $80 for 2 years, and that included my site's .com registration fee and reserved my website name until the end of time.

BUT ... they recently transitioned their existing accounts to a new platform, Vdeck 3.0. Everything worked fine -- EXCEPT FOR MY WORK SAMPLE PHOTO GALLERY, the most popular section of my website! Now it has a "404 Error" and the pages are GONE.

I HATE IT! It went from being easy to use to requiring a degree in computer engineering. I've been trying to figure out how to get my Gallery back since February 23 ... but it's beyond me.

For the time being (until I get this crap figured out), you can see the work sample photos under the "Color Charts" tab ... I had to upload all the pictures onto photobucket because I couldn't see any alternative, and I'm losing business as a result of the host's transition.

Any computer engineers who wanna give me a hand, I'd be forever in your debt!!!
Click to expand...

I am not familiar with Vdeck so i couldn't even begin to explain how to do this. I have a feeling your pics are still on your site. When they got rid whatever you were using before and updated to Vdeck the new software would not know what you had setup before in the old. So you will have to log into vdeck and see what they have for tools. I am sure there is some sort of gallery in there as this is pretty standard for any web hosting package. It may even be the same gallery software as before you only need to go back in there and reset it all back up.
 
Cudachick, you might have to upload your photos again to their server, or it might be something even simpler. I've seen different software react funny to things like upper or lower case file names or directory names.

What separates a good host from a bad host is their SERVICE. When you have a problem like Cudachick is having, what kind of HELP do you get from the company? That's what's important.
 
65s said:
What separates a good host from a bad host is their SERVICE. When you have a problem like Cudachick is having, what kind of HELP do you get from the company? That's what's important.
Click to expand...

Exactly!
 
I've had great host providers that offered everything I needed for a good price, but then when something went wrong there was nobody around to help me. One in particular I can remember moved everything to a new server and then 2 of my domains just wouldn't work. I tried everything!! Nobody would answer emails, nobody anwers the phone..finally I had to abandon ship because I needed the domains working. They still send me a bill....as if I'm going to pay it....and my server access is still good but I don't have any domains there any longer. I suppose I could upload a bunch of crap to their server to try and slow it down or something... Anyhow, now I know they don't know what they're doing. They were called Authentic Hosting, beware!
 
go to my website and click on who does my webpage. my girlfriend's dad did my website and deals with all of whatever needs to be. he might be able to give some insight and take care of it for cheap.
 
Godaddy.com is easy to use and priced good. They give you the tools to create a site. I have done 5 or 6 sites with them and never had any problems and you don't have to know html to do it.
 
With no thanks at all to Dot5Hosting (their customer service is really lame), since I had to relearn the whole Vdeck 3.0 program anyway (yessssssss ... after 10 days of wanting to pull my hair out, it's finally a success!!!!), I took the opportunity to make a few much-needed changes on my website too. Though I had to go with a whole new layout for the Gallery, it allowed for a couple new capabilities like slide shows and stuff. (Links are below my signature line now.)

Check out my work on the Gallery and the PSC Feedback sections. You'll recognize some names in there, I'm sure.

I've still got a lot more work to do but I'm happy with it so far. I might be an ol' dog, but I guess I can still learn a few new tricks. Computer tricks, ahem.
 
65s said:
I've had great host providers that offered everything I needed for a good price, but then when something went wrong there was nobody around to help me. One in particular I can remember moved everything to a new server and then 2 of my domains just wouldn't work. I tried everything!! Nobody would answer emails, nobody anwers the phone..finally I had to abandon ship because I needed the domains working. They still send me a bill....as if I'm going to pay it....and my server access is still good but I don't have any domains there any longer. I suppose I could upload a bunch of crap to their server to try and slow it down or something... Anyhow, now I know they don't know what they're doing. They were called Authentic Hosting, beware!
Click to expand...

Sounds like maybe the nameservers just had to be pointed at the new servers but yea your right if they can't provide good support to tell you how to do that, its useless!
 
We ended up going with discountasp.net. Price is cheap and it's run by net Geeks. You never get connected with someone in another country with an annoying accent you can't make out and they don't have to look up the answer to your problems. Having said that, The internet has become such a mismash of Different Browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc) your website ends up looking different. Then there is fonts, language stuff and on and on. There is now a common platform which takes all this stuff and fixes it so everybody sees your site like you designed it.
They have lots of templates you can use or like we do you can use Expression web or Frontpage (which Expression is replacing). Plus others called Dreamweaver and such. Just re:did our site celticaura.com probobly not a site for the average Mopar guy ,cudachick might like it.
 
beastie340 said:
We ended up going with discountasp.net. Price is cheap and it's run by net Geeks. You never get connected with someone in another country with an annoying accent you can't make out and they don't have to look up the answer to your problems. Having said that, The internet has become such a mismash of Different Browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc) your website ends up looking different. Then there is fonts, language stuff and on and on. There is now a common platform which takes all this stuff and fixes it so everybody sees your site like you designed it.
They have lots of templates you can use or like we do you can use Expression web or Frontpage (which Expression is replacing). Plus others called Dreamweaver and such. Just re:did our site celticaura.com probobly not a site for the average Mopar guy ,cudachick might like it.
Click to expand...

If you want your web page to look good in most browsers, stay away from frontpage if at all possible. If you know HTML just do some research and learn CSS its not really any more complicated than HTML. If you make a webpage in frontpage it will only look good in IE. Since most regular web users either use Firefox, Safaria, Konqueror , or Opera and these browsers tend to follow web standards closer than MS, as they tend to follow there own set of rules.
 
beastie340 said:
Just re:did our site celticaura.com probobly not a site for the average Mopar guy ,cudachick might like it.
Click to expand...


Beastie, I guess I must be more of an "average Mopar guy." LOL! It may -- or may not -- come as a surprise, but I hate to shop, avoid the mall at all costs, don't gossip, hang out in the garage with the guys during parties rather than in the kitchen with the girls exchanging recipes and embarrassing stories about my man ... and, aside from one pair of earrings and my engagement ring, I'm not really much into diamonds either. But thanks for the thought!!! Very nice website though -- you did great! :cheers:

Despite all my complaints a couple weeks ago about Dot5's new hosting platform, I think I've got it figured out now. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks??
 
It's time to take control of our club's website. It's got to the point where we're hesitant to make changes as we were once billed $500 to download 150 car show pictures. And our webmaster has acquired a major God complex
I didn't learn website design over night; it's not something that you can just pick up ... In the time I have spent emailing you with all of this I could have had several hours of updates done.
Click to expand...
I'd like to use a host website that is fairly easy to setup but doesn't limit us in the future. I don't want to switch if the new website will look amateurish. Also does our current club website disappear (with all the content, IE pictures) until I design one on the new hostsite?
 
I'm able to provide webhosting and domainname registrations.
Have about 80 domainnames registered and got about 50+ websites running on my webserver for people.

Usually I just setup a Wordpress website which can be modified by the users themselves. Within a day I can have your site online.

Beware that the domainname you register is actually registered in your name, and not on the name of the registrar itself. That way you could loose the domainname if you ever get into an argument with your registrar/website-provider.


Plugger340,
Check if you can download or make a backup from your entire site through your website's controlpanel. The most common website controlpanels are cPanel, DirectAdmin and Plesk. All of them provide means to create and download a complete website-backup.
You also might be able to download the entire site's directory through an FTP-connection. Although if you move to another webhoster or server, you would have to re-setup posible emailadresses you had on the previous server.
 
Thanks BigBlockMopar. Our domain name is registered to the club. Can I change web hosts without the current web host having to do anything? I don't want her to go postal before the switch and have her sabotage things.
 
There are a few ways to go about this.

Normally you would setup an account at a new webhoster and move the domainname to that.
In order for a domainname to be moved, a confirmation email is sent to the emailaddress listed in the 'Owner'-field. A link in that emailmessage has to be clicked by the owner so the move is actually iniated.

If the current webhoster/person is reasonable, then you could honestly explain what your plans are and that you like to cancel your hosting-agreement after the next renewal and tell them you will be moving the domainname to a new webhoster.

If the webhoster doesn't know how "handle" normal cancellations and becomes greedy and thinks he can prevent you leaving by taking your site 'hostage', then usually some prodding with legal-actions should be enough to make them think otherwise.
Before you get into this situation it is wise to already have made a complete backup of your website.

If you have access to your domainname's control panel you should be able to find a way to backup and download everything (unless that function is blocked by the webhoster).

If you have full DNS-control over the nameservers of your domainname then you can setup a new site with a different webhoster and work on the site in the background while the current one is still running.
After your new site is up and running you can change the nameservers to the new hoster's webserver and the new site will come online in about a day usually.

The smartest course of action depends a lot on how you're current standings are with the webhoster, if you have a backup, and if the webhoster is listed in your domainname as a 'admin and/or technical contact'. As such they can make life hard on you if they get to idea you want to move.
If they really billed you $500,- for you to be able to download a bunch of photo's then I don't think they'll let this 'gold egglaying goose' runaway easily.
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Up until February 22, I would have wholeheartedly recommended Dot5 web hosting. It was easy to use, template-based (basically fill out forms that turn into web pages), and their customer service was great. It was under $80 for 2 years, and that included my site's .com registration fee and reserved my website name until the end of time.

BUT ... they recently transitioned their existing accounts to a new platform, Vdeck 3.0. Everything worked fine -- EXCEPT FOR MY WORK SAMPLE PHOTO GALLERY, the most popular section of my website! Now it has a "404 Error" and the pages are GONE.

I HATE IT! It went from being easy to use to requiring a degree in computer engineering. I've been trying to figure out how to get my Gallery back since February 23 ... but it's beyond me.

For the time being (until I get this crap figured out), you can see the work sample photos under the "Color Charts" tab ... I had to upload all the pictures onto photobucket because I couldn't see any alternative, and I'm losing business as a result of the host's transition.

Any computer engineers who wanna give me a hand, I'd be forever in your debt!!!
Click to expand...

I Can't help you but I do feel your pain.
I started out at IXwebhosting and I'm still there today only because I'm not sure how or where to go. I could imagine going from bad to worse before reading of your experience.
For me, simply adding a pic to a existing page is impossible. The correct click is there somewhere but dang if I could find it. Egg hunting is for children.
The worst part(s)... the cost has increased quite a bit over the 5+ years. They've made changes claiming "easier" when all they've done is hidden the eggs I had found in different places.
I remember thinking.. " I'll get a customer who is willing to barter what they do for what I do". That never happened.
So now I'm negotiating the sale of the entire business to another vendor.
Yeah that's too much information, blame my attitude. At least I did state where NOT to go for hosting. Good luck to all
 
RedFish said:
I Can't help you but I do feel your pain.
I started out at IXwebhosting and I'm still there today only because I'm not sure how or where to go. I could imagine going from bad to worse before reading of your experience.
For me, simply adding a pic to a existing page is impossible. The correct click is there somewhere but dang if I could find it. Egg hunting is for children.
The worst part(s)... the cost has increased quite a bit over the 5+ years. They've made changes claiming "easier" when all they've done is hidden the eggs I had found in different places.
I remember thinking.. " I'll get a customer who is willing to barter what they do for what I do". That never happened.
So now I'm negotiating the sale of the entire business to another vendor.
Yeah that's too much information, blame my attitude. At least I did state where NOT to go for hosting. Good luck to all
Click to expand...

You do realize her post was 5 years old....
 
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