Hello,

I am just looking for a company to host a website but I do not know much about this. I have my domain and will be building the site on Frontpage, until I learn Flash and Dreamweaver. Also I am a mainstream photographer if you were curious what my site contained. It would mainly be used as a portfolio and would not be a pay site.

Basically the questions I have are the following. First, I was wondering how I can determine the amount of bandwith I will need? Second, are there lists of the top hosting groups? I don't mind paying a little more as long as the service is really good. Finally, does anyone know of a good book I could read to learn a little more about how this process works? I am not trying to be a webhost or webmaster, but I would like some basic knowledge.

I appreciate anyone who can give me some advice here. Thank you in advance and Happy Holliday's to everyone :D

I have my domain and will be building the site on Frontpage, until I learn Flash and Dreamweaver.

You can host any html file done up with any html editor. There is absolutely no problem. However, if you r using frontpage, u might need to email the admin to enable frontpage extensions, if required.

First, I was wondering how I can determine the amount of bandwith I will need?

The amount of bandwidth required cannot be determined, but can be estimated. You have to give thoughts to how often do you update your site, do you allow any downloads of big files, how many visitors do u expect per month.

Second, are there lists of the top hosting groups?


There are some reputable webhosts around in the Internet. You might want to check out some other threads which name them.

Finally, does anyone know of a good book I could read to learn a little more about how this process works? I am not trying to be a webhost or webmaster, but I would like some basic knowledge.

Basically, you do not require much knowledge about the process of how a host works. Most hosts comes with a control panel, which seriously simplifies your job. Most Control Panel are either in easy language or graphical. They seldom will include very powerful, difficult-to-understand, technical terms.

Also, all u need to know is just FTP. If you know how to FTP up your website, it would be more convenient. Some hosts allow you to upload your web via a web interface. That's a possiblity if you do not know FTP, but FTP to me is still the preferred choice as it is faster. FTP is not difficult either.

Check out these directories:

http://webhostdir.com
http://tophosts.com
http://hostpulse.com
http://findsp.com
http://thewhir.com

Find some hosts you like then come back here and a search. I recommend finding hosts that run great forum communities. Many use vbulletin like WHT just as we do. Browse the forum and get a general feel for how happy everyone is or sign up and ask direct questions of the forum members just as you have done here.

if u want a good FTP programme, http://www.smartftp.com

Thanks for the responses :)

Well in terms of bandwith I will be trying to update my site about once a month or maybe twice. I am a photographer so I will only have photos. I don't have anything for people to download either. Also in regards to visitors I only expect a thousand people a month at the most. What do you think in these terms as far as the amount of space I would need?

Also what is the ftp program you mentioned? I went to the site but it really doesn't discuss what it is used for? I am assuming it is used to upload images? Anyway if it is useful I will download it.

Last, I still woul like to learn a little about the process so if anyone knows where I can read up that would be helpful. Ok thanks again to the people who read my message :)

I am just looking for a company to host a website but I do not know much about this. I have my domain and will be building the site on Frontpage, until I learn Flash and Dreamweaver. Also I am a mainstream photographer if you were curious what my site contained. It would mainly be used as a portfolio and would not be a pay site.If you are using FrontPage, you need to make sure your Hoster provides FrontPage Extensions, otherwise, the program will not work. FP will also be used to upload/download your HTML pages as well -- otherwise they won't properly. Images maybe also required to upload/download with FP, don't work with that program so not sure. If you do need an easy to use (and Free) FTP program, ImageFTP.com (http://imageFTP.com) is a good one for beginners.

First, I was wondering how I can determine the amount of bandwidth I will need?Start with 1 GB and see what happens after a few months. You could start with less, but most Hosters provide that or more, at good prices. How well your images are compressed or optimized, will be a big factor.

Second, are there lists of the top hosting groups? I don't mind paying a little more as long as the service is really good.Some good places were listed above by NexDog.

Finally, does anyone know of a good book I could read to learn a little more about how this process works? I am not trying to be a webhost or webmaster, but I would like some basic knowledge.Take a tip from me and "buy" a book. I got my first Tutorial book from the Public Library and paid 5x over the cover price -- in late fees that is. :D

Anything published by SAMS (i.e., Learn HTML in X Days by Laura Lemay) are usualy good or one I like, Mastering HTML by Deborah Ray & Eric Ray. Both books maybe a little outdated now, but were current when I bought them. You will need them handy for reference so keep any books close by.