OT: Web site hosting

[Roger Mills]

[Sort of DIY, and I'm sure there's lots of relevant knowledge here!]

I maintain a website for a choir, which is currently hosted by a free PlusNet account - which came with 25MB of webspace when it was created a few years ago. The URL is of the form www.{choir-initials}.plus.com and the email addresses are of the form xxx@{choir-initials}.plus.com

It is possible (for reasons which I won't go into) that the choir may change its name at some time in the next few months. It this happens, the ideal solution would be to change the name of the PN account so that the URL and email address would reflect the new name. However, PN won't allow that, and they no longer offer free accounts with webspace - so I can't just junk the existing site and start again.

So it looks as if I might be looking for some third-party hosting outfit. The requirements are very modest. The webspace required is well within PN's 25MB limit. Web traffic is very light - typically 2 visitors per day, each looking at 2 or 3 pages.

I presume that we would need to acquire a domain name (such as {new_choir_name}.co.uk) for which we would probably have to pay a registration fee (and ongoing fee?) and we would then need to rent some webspace somewhere or other. It would be nice if it came with a matching email address - hosted on a suitable POP server - but, at a push we could keep the old PN account for email and set up an address in the form {new_choir_name}@{(old) choir-initials}.plus.com - or we could even set up a free gmail account of the form {new_choir_name}@gmail.com

This is all somewhat outside my current experience, so I'm seeking advice on the simplest (and cheapest!) way of acquiring a domain name and hosting the site and (possibly) email facility.

TIA.

[The Medway Handyman]

Recommendation from a complete numpty - me.

& you can speak to a human being in the UK for support.

[fred]

In article , Roger Mills writes

These guys have been good to us, speedy support and friendly:

a year for basic hosting plus 8.50 per 2 years .co.uk registration (18 for .net or .org etc).

Perhaps not the absolute cheapest but pretty close to it and good value IMO.

[Paul Herber]

use the link at the bottom of

[djc]

There are any number of web-hosting companies out there who will provide hosting, email and domain name registration for a modest annual fee. I have several domains and sites for business and personal use; based on personal experience I can recommend the following, but there are many others:

shell account ~£50pa Web Hosting - Basic Plan ~£24pa

[F]

No need for a hosting package or any new webspace.

Keep your existing free Plusnet account and buy the new domain name from

1and1 at (referral link).

From the 'Control Panel' at 1and1 forward web page requests to your Plusnet webspace and forward emails to your existing email account at Plusnet.

Finally, to avoid confusion, set up your email client with a 'reply-to' address which reflects your new domain name. Using this method, you will receive emails addressed to both old and new email addresses.

It all works, I've done it.

[John Rumm]

Why not just register a domain in the form of newchoirname.co.uk or similar, set up framed web forwarding to point it at the old plusnet hosting, and email forwarding for the email?

Change the settings on your email software to reflect the new address.

Yup every two years for a .co.uk typically.

Technically speaking the email address goes with the domain, the mailbox is a separate thing. Again the plusnet one will do fine.

You could also use a gmail account to read existing POP3 accounts...

Feel free to mail me off group if you want, I can set it up for you or point you in the right direction as your prefer...

[Tim Streater]

If it's a choir you prolly want newchoirname.org.uk

I use

[Nightjar]

On 07/04/2012 17:36, F wrote: ...

Forwarding from a new name also means that anyone who has the current domain bookmarked or the email in their address book doesn't have to change anything.

Colin Bignell

[Him & Her]

for your domain name - UK domains @ £2.95 per year paid 2 years at a time.

for your hosting. Owned by Alex Threlfall who has a lot of customers through usenet (particularly via the computer groups) £15 per year

1 Domain Name Supported, 1 Domain Alias, 30 e-Mail Boxes, 100Mb Webspace 1GB Monthly Bandwidth, CGI/Perl, PHP Scripting, ASP/.net 1 to 3.5 Scripting Web Based Control Panel, Webmail, Frontpage Extensions, Free MySQL Database FTP Access, Free Stats, SPAM & Virus Protection.

Regards,

[Him & Her]

: Alex has been missing for awhile, not heard form him in weeks, and : some of my sites have been down on his server.

I got 2 sites hosted with him and, having just checked, they're both working fine.

Are you still able to access Helm?

[Dave Liquorice]

Forwarding means "something odd" happens with the URL shown in the address box of browsers. I first started with web forwarding but got annoyed by this "feature". It's so long ago now that I can't remember exactly what it was I have a feeling that the URL never changed so a person couldn't bookmark a particular page.

[Him & Her]

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message news: [e-mail]... : On Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:50:31 +0100, Nightjar wrote: : : > Forwarding from a new name also means that anyone who has the current : > domain bookmarked or the email in their address book doesn't have to : > change anything. : : Forwarding means "something odd" happens with the URL shown in the : address box of browsers. I first started with web forwarding but got : annoyed by this "feature". It's so long ago now that I can't remember : exactly what it was I have a feeling that the URL never changed so a : person couldn't bookmark a particular page.

You are correct Dave. If "Masked" forwarding is used then you would only ever see

in the address bar meaning that, as you say, you could never bookmark an individual page. You also can't "refresh" a page as clicking refresh will reload the homepage.

If the forwarding isn't Masked then instead of

in the address bar you would see (e.g.) Although you can bookmark individual pages this way, IMHO it doesn't look very professional.

Regards,

[Him & Her]

Sorry, that should be

Regards,

[Roger Mills]

Many thanks, John - I may well take you up on that offer if it proves to be necessary.

Many thanks, too, to everyone else who has responded. I now have a big heap of links to follow up!

[info]

i can access Helm still, but one of my clients SSL's have expired and he's nowhere around to renew it! and its been 2 weeks

[Him & Her]

he's nowhere around to renew it! and its been 2 weeks

[Steve]

I got a lousy email from namehog a few years ago claiming I hadn't paid when I had, he gave me 24 hours to pay or he would release my domain. When I transferred my domain elseware I got another email asking me to end my hosting as well.

An unpleasant experience after many years with them. Hopeless support which seemed to be run from a garden shed!

Look the other way and start walking!

[Peter Johnson]

Me, too.

[Roger Mills]

So which particular 1&1 option would I need to buy?