Hi, i fancy having a go at making my own website, nothing flash, just really to see if i can do it, maybe a build diary or something. My broadband provider say i can have some free webspace, is this a good starting place or is it best to buy a name? One thing i want to know is will my computer have to be switched on all the time for the website to work? or does everything get saved to the webspace? Also are there any security/virus risks for me doing this? Any advice welcome. Thanks.

Free webspace is a decent start, but you wont get a catchy web address: itll be something like

www.dsl.myisp.com/hosting/dsl/yourname
or something like that.

You can buy a name for a few quid every year. I've got my site through Pickaweb, and they have proved really good.

Your computer will NOT have to be switched on at all for the site to be viewable on the internet. That is what you pay a monthly fee for if you buy a site(usually 5 or 10 quid or so). Youre paying for the host (Pickaweb in my case) to make the site available to other people on the internet 24/7.

There are no security worries about having a website (well, unless you post your credit card number on the homepage or something really dumb!!).

You build the website with Microsoft Frontpage or similar, and publish it when youre done. Publishing means that your PC will log into your webspace (using the login details you wil have been supplied with via a letter from the host), upload the content, and logout again.

Your website is then "up".

In short, you pay:

Yearly domain registration fee (if you want your own web address, like www.yourwebsite.com or the like). Normally a tenner a year or something.

Monthly fee for them hosting the website.


If you use your free space youve currently got, you dont have to pay anything, but it'll have a weird address, and the provider may insist on putting advertising on your site (geocities etc all do this, and its how they can afford to give away webspace).

HTH.

Ed.

[Edited on 13/3/06 by ed_crouch]

I host my websites at www.heartinternet.co.uk They will provide you with a a free hosting package that is almos identical to the one that costs £50 a year only differance is the bandwidth, but even the free one will be more than enough bandwidth for you.

The benefit of this is that you have a website with your web address and no annoying adverts (which you get with most free hosts)
Go here to see what you get
http://www.heartinternet.co.uk/comparison-h.shtml

www.iwantoneofthose.com sell a "takeaway" website with full in structions i dont know how much it is but i think its probably worth it as iirc it comes with alot of tools pre programmed that would take a while to do by yourself

Andy Harding on here provides free web hosting for personal websites as long as its a locost related one. Mines hosted with him. Send him a message and see what he says.

David

mines hosted through.. 'www.weblogica.co.uk' I havent seen a cheaper deal anywhere!! 3G webspace and domain name for £4 a month. It comes with a webbuilder too.

Best bet is to register your domain name with someone like www.123reg.co.uk

You can then link it in with the totally free host www.jamroll.co.uk

They put a very small line at the bottom of your site with a few google links but it's virtually unnoticable.

They offer top notch features and an online forum help service.

If you want to do a 'build diary' type of site then they have a choice of blogs you can use as well.

Theres a list of sites hosted by them so you can check them out first.


Cheers

G

[Edited on 13/3/06 by Mr G]

Great thanks for the advice everyone, i think ill just go for my free one at the moment just to see how i get on, then possibly get a better one once its up and runing if it works out well. Ps, whats a blog?

An online diary. Like this:

http://flak-monkey.livejournal.com/

A really easy way to create a build diary actually!

David

PS I wouldnt read that, its boring!

[Edited on 13/3/06 by flak monkey]