Website hosting question

[Kentucky_Travel]

For those of you who have your own website relating to RVing I have a few questions:
1. Who is your website host provider?
2. Why did you choose that particular provider?
3. What software do you use to develop your website and associated pages.

Any other information or details would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance.

[Kentucky_Travel]

Thank everyone for your answers.

[1492]

Chris Bryant wrote:
GoDaddy is notorious for holding domain names hostage if you try to move from them.

I've not experienced any issue with domain transfers away from GoDaddy.com. But often play the renewal game with them.

Basically, I wait until the last minute to renew, and most times the price magically drops. Sometimes as much as 40% less. If they don't drop the price, I transfer them to 1&1. Which appears to get GoDaddy's attention, as I start getting discounts on other renewals once again.

I find that 1&1 domain pricing to be similar to GoDaddy, but they offer free private registration. The only issue with 1&1 is that they tend to telemarket their services to you often. I have them on permanent auto voicemail, as it gets annoying.

[wittmeba]

Enter this in the URL line or your favorite search engine.

best webhosting sites

There are lots of very inexpensive (under $5.00/month) sites to choose from.

Our son signed up with GoDaddy several years ago and he gave me rights and space. We have never had a problem.

After you select a site you will want to find a good ftp (file transfer protocol) tool. There are 2 available from Mozilla. Fireftp loads within a tab/window of Firefox and it works great https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fireftp/. There is also a standalone version: https://filezilla-project.org/. They both work the same way. It is much like using MyComputer from Windows. The left window is your PC and the right window is the server where you will make your files accessible from the internet.

There are several free HTML editors that will help you develop your web pages. You can also use Notepad.

I use KompoZer which is a free WYSIWYG HTML development tool from Mozilla http://kompozer.net/. It hasn't been updated for the latest HTML 5 but works fine for general HTML 4 and CSS file handling.

There are organizations that provide listings of HTML and the proper syntax.

- W3C - http://www.w3.org/

- MDN Mozilla Developers Network - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/learn

When done with a page you can validate the page with the W3C validator for accuracy in coding practices:

- validator http://validator.w3.org/


Additional HTML editor information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_HTML_editors

[Chris_Bryant]

I go the industrial route- undoubtedly not what you are looking for, but I use Linode running a Virtual Private Server, which basicaly means I lease a virtual computer and can run anything I want on it, starting with operating system and ending with the web server/database stack (I use a standard apache/php/mysql setup). Right now I host 4 websites, with 4 more in development, and could host a hundred if I were better at tweaking 🙂
I chose Linode because of reputation and support- they are a small company, but have very good support, and good prices (though not the lowest). That said, I have an unmanaged setup- meaning that while they will assist with setup problems, they are only responsible for providing the machine and connectivity.
For domain names, I use Parsec- I like keeping domain and host separate- GoDaddy is notorious for holding domain names hostage if you try to move from them.
For development, I am trying Aptana Studio 3- very powerful, so far so good. I also just rewrote my main website to be "responsive", meaning the display will adapt to tablets and smart phones. For this I used HTML Kickstart framework.

All of that said- I would probably go with 1&1 if I wanted a shared host.

[shakyjay]

I have used bluehost.com for a couple of different sites for several years. I do my own coding but have also used Dreamweaver. I have not used them but like most services they have site templates you can build from.

[1775]

If you want to set up a blog site just go to Blogger or Wordpress and start your site. You can always assign a domain name to one of those. There are also a number of good free website hosts that will have an easy WYSIWYG editor to create a regular webpage and not a blogsite. You can also put your own domain name to one of these. Then there are the paid hosting companies like GoDaddy and 1&1 that will rent you a site - help you set it up or set it up for you for a fee, host it and supply the domain name - all for a price.

If you want to do this the easy way go to Blogger or Wordpress. Start for free and if it works out for you, then get the Domain name from any of the discount companies who will register them for you.

[CamperVamp]

I use Dreamhost for hosting (reputable company and service has been very good), and Wordpress for building and maintaining the site. Wordpress used to be a pure blogging platform, but these days you can do pretty much anything using Wordpress plugins, including e-commerce, affiliate advertising, and more. And you don't have to know how to code (though it's always helpful).

[camperforlife]

Go Daddy has some pretty cheap hosting options and Wordpress for design is free.

[mda]

Look at Dreamhost for web hosting. Hosting eight websites with them since 2000.

[1492]

My favorite website design tools are Photoshop or equivalent, and notepad. I stopped using WYSIWYG website design software some time ago, as many acted buggy at times and I had to end up tweaking them manually anyway to format correctly.

Take some time to learn HTML and CSS. There are many references on the web, and you can layout any type of custom website you want. In my case, I basically display a webpage I'm working on in notepad++ in a browser side by side, adding a meta tag to auto refresh the webpage continuously. This way when any changes are made in notepad++ and saved, the browser will display the changes almost instantly.

But you may not have to do any design work at all, as there are a huge number of free website templates available. These just require you to add or replace custom graphics or text for your purposes.

Though a little more complicated, there are also open source JavaScript libraries such as JQuery that can be used to add functionality or effects to your webpage. I've actually relied on these libraries quite often.

[1492]

Commenting in general terms, finding a reliable web host can be a daunting task. I do feel you get what you pay for. And personally, would go with a larger, more well established hosting company with a track record.

It's a cut throat business, and you need to watch out for cheap host providers, who can appear large and adequately staffed on their website. But may just be a single person running their own servers off a broadband connection, or leasing rack space from a third party data center.

The problem is that to cover server, bandwidth, and other expenses, many low cost providers will over sell capacity, degrading website performance. Worse, they have no real tech support or inexplicably shut down with little or no warning, leaving you hanging.

Few things I would be cautious when dealing with any web hosting company without a satisfactory track record. Beware of term contracts such as for 1+ years. The price may be tempting, but not really a good deal if they suddenly close down operations.

Check to see where the servers are located. In the U.S.? Or overseas in a third world country?

Avoid giving your credit card info directly to the web host on sign up? Use a third party intermediary such as PayPal. I can tell you personally why you need to be careful with this one!

IMO, the credit card sign up and long term cheap hosting contracts are used by some web hosts as a scam money making operation. For one, its common that web hosts push long term, but cheap hosting packages. Some with no intention of providing long term hosting services. They just oversell their servers, then shut down pocketing the profits.

Or sell the web host operation to buyers who may not be so concerned about getting an oversold hosting company, but to get the contracts, credit card, and personal info of its clients included with the sale.

May sound outlandish, but small web hosting operators can be hard to trace down if there is a problem. Even for law enforcement where legal issues arise. Virtually impossible if located in another country.

I would do some research, and don't go solely by pricing or by claims made on their website. One good source is WebHostingTalk.com forums, kind of the RV.NET of web hosting community. You'll at least get some feedback from customers, and can see how the host responds to issues. Also, alerts to potential scam operations.

[FrankoToo]

I have two sites hosted with a company called Netfirms. I am a developer so I code my websites from scratch but Netfirms provides pretty much everything you need to be up and running with a fair amount of ease.

I am not affiliated with this company by the way.

Good luck.

[Sea_scape]

Kentucky Traveler wrote:
For those of you who have your own website relating to RVing I have a few questions:
1. Who is your website host provider?
2. Why did you choose that particular provider?
3. What software do you use to develop your website and associated pages.

Any other information or details would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance.

1. Godaddy.com
2. I was able to get a domain name and hosting at a reasonable rate. They also have good reliability.
3. I'm using Word Press for the website.

[eubank]

I use MyHosting for all of the sites that I work on. From your description, I'd suggest just one of the "Personal Website" hosting accounts ($4.95/mo.).
🙂
Lynn