Newbie questions about hosting a website

@muddy51Mar 15.2012

Hey I have about 4 or 5 websites I wish to publish. I have never done this before. The content for these websites is complete. I know basic html, css and javascript. I want to get one up as soon as possible because I think the best way to learn more is by actually doing it. Ill use a CMS like joomla or wordpress for the first one I publish. I dont know if this is the correct category by the way, apologies if it isnt.

1) So as far as I know you need a domain name and then somewhere to host your website. You purchase a domain name from a website (123reg, godaddy etc), you then pay a company like hostgator to host the website. You link your domain to this. You can then publish your website. You can install wordpress onto your host and then edit the content through wordpress or joomla. Is that correct?

2) A domain name costs about 10GBP per year (for a .com) and for “the baby plan” on hostgator you pay about 6 dollars per month. Will there be any extra cost for linking the domain to the host?

3) If you purchase a domain name for 2 years do you have priority on that domain name for when it runs out? So after 2 years the domain will go back on the market. Prior to that will I have the opportunity to renew and will I have priority over anyone else who wishes to buy it? Someone else cannot reserve the domain name for 2 years time can they?

4) UNLIMITED Domains
UNLIMITED Disk Space
UNLIMITED Bandwidth
Shared SSL Certificate

That is what the “baby plan” on hostgator offers. Does this mean I can link my 5 websites all to this one hosting account? I will not need to make another account for another website? Will having 5 websites on one account affect the performance of the sites? Is there a downside to doing this?

5) What is an SSL certificate? What does it do and why would I need one? What does “shared” mean? Can anyone tell me what this means in laymans terms.

6) Why is this web hosting so cheap? I know somebody who owns a website and he says he pays 250 dollars per month to host it. Is this because he is using a dedicated server? Do you need a dedicated server to handle large amounts of traffic? Will this hostgator plan or a similar godaddy one be good enough? Why is this so cheap?

7) Are there any hidden costs anywhere? If you have a lot of users visiting the site do they charge you extra?

8) Is using a CMS always the best idea? I can make a website on my computer using .html and .css files. Would you just upload those to hostgator and then manage the website through hostgator by editing the text files?

9) Are Hostgator/godaddy ok to use from the UK? Is there any downside to using them?

I appreciate any answers to any of these questions and any other tips you have prior to me doing this. I plan on publishing my first site in 1-2 weeks time whilst perfecting the others. Hopefully that one site will give me the experience I need for the others.

So
– Buy a domain name
– Purchase a hosting plan
– Link the two together
– Install a CMS
– Publish website

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1 Comments(s) _↴

@spufiMar 22.2012 — #I'll do my best since there's a ton here.

1) So as far as I know you need a domain name and then somewhere to host your website. You purchase a domain name from a website (123reg, godaddy etc), you then pay a company like hostgator to host the website. You link your domain to this. You can then publish your website. You can install wordpress onto your host and then edit the content through wordpress or joomla. Is that correct?[/QUOTE]

Yes.

2) A domain name costs about 10GBP per year (for a .com) and for "the baby plan" on hostgator you pay about 6 dollars per month. Will there be any extra cost for linking the domain to the host?[/QUOTE]

Cost is the domain name via someplace like GoDaddy and then the hosting via HostGator. That's it.

3) If you purchase a domain name for 2 years do you have priority on that domain name for when it runs out? So after 2 years the domain will go back on the market. Prior to that will I have the opportunity to renew and will I have priority over anyone else who wishes to buy it? Someone else cannot reserve the domain name for 2 years time can they?[/QUOTE]

The difference between getting it from a web host and a register is very small. Web host companies can clam the domain name even after you drop their service, but my guess is almost none of them do since that isn't really what they are about. The domain name is yours as long as you keep up with the cost of it. If you lax even a day and it goes back to being not used, anybody can grab it. I know GoDaddy sends me e-mails reminding me when it's time to renew so you are given plenty of time to make sure you keep the name.

4) UNLIMITED Domains

UNLIMITED Disk Space

UNLIMITED Bandwidth

Shared SSL Certificate

That is what the "baby plan" on hostgator offers. Does this mean I can link my 5 websites all to this one hosting account? I will not need to make another account for another website? Will having 5 websites on one account affect the performance of the sites? Is there a downside to doing this?[/QUOTE]

Yes, five sites or more per account. You would be given access to one copy of cPanel as a way to admin all of your sites. Reseller hosting means you can have a cPanel for each domain. The performance should be the same unless you are talking being on a shared server vs. dedicated.

5) What is an SSL certificate? What does it do and why would I need one? What does "shared" mean? Can anyone tell me what this means in laymans terms.[/QUOTE]

It deals with security and can be a way to get a https URL versus just a http one. If you are doing a web site that deals with credit card info, you basically have to have a https URL as nobody would want to post credit card info on a unsecured transaction.

6) Why is this web hosting so cheap? I know somebody who owns a website and he says he pays 250 dollars per month to host it. Is this because he is using a dedicated server? Do you need a dedicated server to handle large amounts of traffic? Will this hostgator plan or a similar godaddy one be good enough? Why is this so cheap?[/QUOTE]

Shared means you and however many people are on one server. This why it is so cheap. Dedicated means only your sites are on a server. You have to figure out what your needs are to decide what you need. If you are staring out, a shared plan works.

7) Are there any hidden costs anywhere? If you have a lot of users visiting the site do they charge you extra?[/QUOTE]

If you exceed the bandwidth, then yes. "But it's unlimited." Sort of. Even unlimited has limits. It's just those limits tend to be so high it's rarely an issue. Case in point, if you are on a shared server and something on your site goes viral, you could easily exceed what the server could handle.

8) Is using a CMS always the best idea? I can make a website on my computer using .html and .css files. Would you just upload those to hostgator and then manage the website through hostgator by editing the text files?[/QUOTE]

For ease of use and lack of technically know how, a CMS is a good way to go. A host might have a CMS already to go on their server and all you have to do is the official install. If you feel comfortable with just doing the code yourself with HTML and CSS files, you can do that as well.

9) Are Hostgator/godaddy ok to use from the UK? Is there any downside to using them?[/QUOTE]

Not sure since I'm in the US. 1 & 1 is UK based hosting.

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