Buy hosting. Now!
Where are we?
You’ve learned how Web browsers and servers interact. Time to start putting your knowledge into practice. But first, you need your own home on the Web.
This lesson’s goals
By the end of this lesson, you should:
- Understand that you need your own domain name and Web presence.
- Know what “buying hosting” means.
- Know about some different kinds of hosting.
- Know what features to look for from a shared hosting plan.
- Be ready to buy hosting.
You need a home on the Web
You need your own Web site. Yes, you do. Really, you need your own Web site. With your own domain name and everything.
You may not have much skill right now, so your first site won’t rock the world. But you’ll learn. And your Web site will improve.
Some things to put on your site.
- Your resumé. You can have the short, one-pager, then a longer version with more details.
- Reference letters. You can scan them, and put them online.
- Work samples. If you’re an artist, show off your work. Or post copies of articles you’ve written. Photos of you working on construction jobs.
- CoreDogs work. You can put a link to your CoreDogs portfolio. Show employers that you actively study the Web.
- Lots of other things…
Exercise: What else can go on your site?
List other things you'd like to put on your Web site.
(Log in to enter your solution to this exercise.)
You also need your own domain name. Use it for your Web site, and also for email addresses. If your domain name is robinson.info, your email address might be sarah@robinson.info.
Most domain names end in .com, .org, .edu, or .gov. These are called “top-level domain names.” There are lots of other options, including .info, .biz, and .name. Wikipedia has a complete list.
Countries have their own top-level domain names. Like .au for Australia, and .uk for the United Kingdom.
Domain names are unique. You must choose one that nobody else is using.
There are two ways to figure out whether a domain name is available. The first way is to type it into your browser, and see if you get anything back. If you do, the domain is taken.
A more reliable way is to look up the domain database. There are Web sites that will do this for you.
A warning: be careful of the lookup service you choose. Some of the them might register the domain while you’re thinking about it. (I think this has happened to me, though it’s hard to be sure.)
One service that’s probably safe is Network Solutions. It will tell you whether a name your thinking about is available.
Exercise: Choose a domain name
Choose a domain name that’s easy for people to associate with you. It could be your name, though if you have a common name, domain names based on it might be taken.
Think of at least three options. Talk it over with your friends. See if they can come up with some good names.
If you have some advice for choosing domain names, please share it.
(Log in to enter your solution to this exercise.)
What you get when you buy hosting
You get a bunch o’ stuff, but here are the main things:
- Disk space on a server. This is where you’ll store your Web pages. Each server has an IP address. The hosting company will tell you what it is.
- Some way to upload files to the server from your computer.
- A domain name. This is actually separate from hosting, but hosting companies make it easy to register a domain name during account sign up.
- The right to associate the domain name with the IP address of your host.
More on what you get in a moment, but these are the basics.
Types of hosting
There are lots of hosting companies. They have lots of different hosting plans. But they fall into a few main types.
BTW, some companies offer free hosting. Be careful. You usually don’t control the ads on your pages. Do you want an employer looking at your online resumé, and seeing a flashing ad for “Hot Bondage Boys! Click NOW!”?!?
Also, the company doesn’t have much incentive to look after your content. If the disk drive with your content crashes, they might not be in a hurry to restore it from their backups. If they have backups.
My advice: Web hosting is cheap. Buy some.
Shared hosting
The cheapest, and what you’ll use to begin with. With shared hosting, you share a server with other people. So you might have, say, ten Web sites on the server, along with your own.
This usually works fine. Reputable hosting companies make sure that none of the individual sites uses too much of the server’s processing time.
The hosting company does most of the server management for you. They take care of basic software updates and such. You can just worry about your Web site.
Most shared hosting accounts run on Unix machines. Some run on Windows machines.
I don’t know how to use Unix. So I should get a Windows server?
No! You should get a Unix account.
You interact with servers differently from the way you interact with your PC. For a Windows user, a Windows server is not easier to work with than a Unix server. They’re about the same.
But a Unix server will run more free software than a Windows server. All sorts of goodies, at your fingertips.
And remember that most Web servers run Unix. That means most employers use Unix servers.
Finally, Unix hosting accounts are often a little cheaper than Windows hosting accounts. Why? Because there are lots of free versions of Unix. Not so for Windows.
Shared hosting runs from about $5 USD to $20 USD per month. About one pizza per month, depending on your tastes.
Dedicated hosting
Web sites that need lots of power run on dedicated servers. That is, the site has its own computer. The hosting company maintains the computer – connects it to the Internet, keeps it running, backs up the data, etc.
The main difference between shared and dedicated is that dedicated hosts can support many more concurrent users without slowing down. “Concurrent” means “using the server at the same time.” Further, since you’re the only site on the computer, no other sites can interfere with yours.
Dedicated hosting starts around $200 USD per month, depending on the options you buy. For example, the more memory on your server, the more it will cost you (but the faster your Web site can run).
Virtual dedicated hosting
This is a hybrid of the two previous options. You share a host, but your account is configured so that it acts like a separate computer. You’re usually guaranteed to get certain performance from your server. Such-and-such processing speed, such-and-so memory, and so on. These services start around $40 USD per month.
If shared hosting is too slow, but dedicated hosting is too expensive, consider virtual dedicated hosting.
Of these options – shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and virtual dedicated hosting – you want to go with shared hosting to start with. It’s cheap, and Cheap is Good.
Choosing a hosting company
Choose a hosting company based on:
Price
Make this low, but not necessarily the lowest. Right now, about $10 USD per month will get hosting with a good company. You usually get a discount if you pay yearly.
Reputation
I’ve been burned by a company that went out of business. I ended up losing a domain name. Not fun.
I also had a site that stopped working because of a hardware failure. It took the hosting company a week to fix it. I wasn’t pleased with that company, either.
Choose a hosting company with a good reputation. Do they keep their sites running well? How is their customer service? Do they handle security well?
One place to read hosting company reviews is ClickFire. They seem to be honest. In fact, Joe Eitel wrote an article Is Clickfire the Only Honest Web Host Review Site?.
Features
Most companies offer more-or-less the same features on their shared accounts. They differ in the limits on their accounts. Look for:
- Lots of server disk space. At least 200 megabytes (MB). “Unlimited” is best.
- Lots of transfer. This is the amount of data that people can download from your site, without you being charged extra. A few gigabytes (GB) per month is good. “Unlimited” is best.
- Email accounts. Make sure you can have twice as many as you think you’ll ever need. “Unlimited” is best.
- PHP and Perl. Server-side programming languages.
- Database server. MySQL is the most common. Make sure you get to create at least 10 databases. “Unlimited” is best.
- Multiple sites per account. This means you could run several Web sites on the same account without paying extra. Maybe one for you, one for your dog, and one for your Webcomic. Look for at least three at no extra cost. As always, “unlimited” is best.
What does CoreDogs use?
CoreDogs runs on Hostgator. Their support forums have usually had information I needed. Security, backup, and other things are also done well. Their customer service has a good reputation.
You can buy a Hostgator account by clicking here:
If you buy hosting using this link, CoreDogs gets a referral fee.
BTW, I’d recommend the Baby rather than the Hatchling plan. It’s a couple of dollars more per month, but you get unlimited domain names per account, and some other extra stuff.
You can register a domain name during the buying process. Hostgator will set it up and link it to your account. So choose a domain name first, with a backup in case the one you want is taken. They’ll send you information on uploading files to your account. More on how to do that in the next lesson.
You don’t have to use Hostgator. An account with any reputable company should work fine. But make sure you check out the hosting company before buying. Really! It’s worth a little research.
What are you waiting for?
Well? What are you waiting for?
Get out your credit card. Or use your PayPal account. Buy a hosting account. Now!
Many, many, many people have their own Web sites. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of regular, non-geek people have their own Web sites.
Now it’s your turn. If so many people can do it, so can you. And you have CoreDogs to help.
It’s the best investment you can make in your Web future.
Summary
In this lesson, you learned:
- You need your own domain name and Web presence.
- What you get when you “buy hosting.”
- That there are different kinds of hosting.
- What features to look for from a shared hosting plan.
Most important of all, you bought your own hosting account, and your own domain name.
You did, right?
What now?
In the next lesson, you’ll create a simple Web page about yourself. It will live on your own computer to start with. But then you’ll upload it to your server. W00f!
