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Sep 09.2005

I don’t know if I am posting this in an appropriate place or not….I am an information junkie. I like…need to collect, organize, manage and disseminate information. That is why I am very anxious to get started with my own webpages. I am also going to be opening my own non-profit organization in the U.S. aimed at helping the disabled people and orphans get vocational training. I am usually in China for 3 years at a time so I really need to learn how to take advantage of multimedia in website design.

I need to be able to do the following with my website:

Post streaming video
Be able to synchronize my bookmarks on any computer I am working on with a file on the website
Have my own e-group – I need to send out 400 e-mails every month for a newsletter.
SSL e-mail service for webmail
Offer hundreds of e-mails so that people who help me can have a free one
Host my own chat session
Host a forum
Host video conferencing with up to 6 people in total
Post live video of my aquarium
Synchronize my address book with Thunderbird
Screen comments made in my guest book and forward the comments to different e-mail addresses based on key words..
Will be either using Frontpage or Dreamweaver – not sure which
Need to publicize my website
Will do some e-commerce kinds of things with it – receiving donations.
Display local time – I live in China – and weather conditions

I will not implement all of these things at one time but probably over 16-18 months.

I understand that I first have to decide between using a Windows based server or a Linux/Unix based server. My understanding is that Linux/Unix is cheaper that Windows? I am guessing that both Linux and Windows has the software that I need to do the things I have just mentioned.

Secondly, I have to choose a server. Any reccommendations? Either for a specific host or guidelines?

What factors are important i.e. bandwidth, etc

Thanks

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@bogbrushianSep 10.2005 — http://forum.snitz.com/

for your forum

with all the complicated things you are wanting to do i suggest learning some languages rather than frontpage/dreamweaver. start with html www.w3schools.com and if you have to choose between those progs. use dreamweaver.
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@the_treeSep 11.2005 — O.k. you'll probably want a *nix host that provides some decent server-side technologies. (PHP scripting an MySQL databases are a great start). Try [url=http://asmallorange.com]A small orange[/url], they have a decent selection of plans.

Then you can pick up some (free) ready made forum software like [url=http://www.phpbb.com/]PHPBB[/url], that will also allow you to send e-mails to members.

You can get [url=http://paypal.com]PayPal[/url] to handle donations, and then you've done the easy bit.

Along the way you will find a need to learn [url=http://htmlhelp.com]HTML[/url] and [url=http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp]CSS[/url] and (if your end up with a PHP host) the basics of [url=http://php.net]PHP[/url]. You'll need them to create your pages and tweak your forum.

That's the easy part, streaming video is tres difficult and should probably be left until later.

Dynamic bookmarks are quite achiveable with [url=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss]RSS[/url] feeds, modern browsers like Firefox have excellent support for them.

When ever you come across any major difficulties, ask here.
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@PengyouauthorSep 11.2005 — Thanks! Yes, I know it is going to be a very involved haul, maybe even long...but I think your advice will get me started in the right direction. What kind of experience have you had with "A small orange"? Have you heard of "startlogic"? Oohhhhhh this webhost choice thing is soooooo confusing... I have read 3 different "impartial" websites that supposedly offer "expert and unbiased" opinions about webhosts and they often give very conflicting information.

What kinds of things can be put on a website to faciliitate streaming video? Is it a hardware thing or a software thing or a configuration? I think...it is easier to assemble an atomic bomb blindfolded than to choose a webhost...
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