I signed up with a webhost about a week ago. And I don't like them. I need a host that has a site builder, which I know a lot of you don't care for but hey, I am technically challenged. Also, I have a forum that I will have to move. I have no idea how much bandwidth or whatever I need.

Customer service is a must, especially in the first couple of weeks while I get the hang of their setup.

How large is the forum? About how many hits per day do you currently get?

Let us know how big your forum is and what type, phpBB,V-Bulliten, that sort of thing. Many host on here offer a site builder with their hosting plans so that should be no problem.

I am so frustrated researching hosts. I did for two months and finally settled on my current, but their site builder is terrible. You can't edit anything but text and you can't add links.

The forum is SMF and it has only been up for a week so it is hard to say what is going to happen with it. I don't think the current stats would help because it is so new. I think I'm going to cry.

a lot of host will do site transfers for you, so your forum would'nt be a problem

What site builder is it? Is there a name?

The only name I see is on the very bottom in small letters it says siteMagix. I don't think I have ever seen anything as cheesy as this builder.

Is a site builder really needed? There are really good CMS systems out there.

I only know the basics about building a website. What is CMS?

Any opinions on www.netfirms.com (http://www.netfirms.com) or www.site5.com (http://www.site5.com) although I am trying to find out if they have a site builder.

Content Management System
visit www.postnuke.com
that is one of them, really easy to use.
host that have cpanel and fantastico make it easy to install also
i think it is about 3 clicks with a user name and password and it is installed

Netfirms is fine, I'd think they oversell though looking at their crazy prices.

A CMS is a content management system, examples are:
www.joomla.org
www.phpnuke.org
www.drupal.org

My site uses Joomla, so that's pretty much an example of what you can do in a few hours work, around 2 hours without the content (includes installation).

If a host offer cPanel and fantastico, you can auto-install a load of scripts, and many CMS systems, so it's quite a handy tool, so I'd suggest you go with a host that offers some kind of control panel, like plesk, cPanel, directadmin - the list goes on.

I only know the basics about building a website. Maybe software like the one provided at nvu.com can help you out. You could start with a free template (plenty of sites to find such) and edit it as needed.

CMS = content management system

http://www.opensourcecms.com/ can give you an idea which are among the more popular, how they look, what users say about them etc.

Since people are mentioning content management systems, I have to mention Drupal (http://drupal.org/).

Thank you for all the help. I have more research to do.

Hi katers!

My feeling is that the site templates commonly offered with hosting accounts tend to be very basic. I tested one once, and surely found it lacking.

What you should do if you don't know how to code HTML is to use an HTML editor, or "content management system" as they seem to be called nowadays. (Well, I guess there may be a difference - the latter permit you to use templates I guess, haven't really tested them.)
I see you already have some suggestions, Good Luck!

Have you looked into Homestead (www.homestead.com) - it sounds exactly what you're after. Their sitebuilder would be very easy for you to use, as well.