How to DIY "My own website"

[Another John]

Usual story: looking for the voice of experience, rather than the legion voices of Google ...

We had a friend, who had a great website (logging how he had a new house built (from Finland) in c.2000). Unfortunately he died a couple of years ago, and now his website has died. Every now and again, someone would like to view his site.

I have the complete site in the form of HTML and JPG files, and I'd like to make it available across the web again.

I'm thinking I might load it up myself. I already have Google blogs of my own, but this isn't a blog, as such: it's a finished article.

So maybe I need my own website. Or what? I'm not a real techie, and don't want to get involved in the nitty gritty of coding.

I've heard of Google Sites -- maybe use that? I'm wondering what the hidden trade-offs might be. And I don't want to *build* a site, I just want to upload 70-odd megs of files and jpgs, in one go.

Any opinions, anyone?

Cheers John

[spuorgelgoog]

If it's still in static HTML files you need a traditional web host with FTP access, then just upload everything.

Start from about £3 a month.

Owain

[Mathew Newton]

I'd be happy to host it (for free) alongside my own site

that covers a previous house renovation of mine. Whilst it only sits on a server in my house I take pride in keeping it (and the other sites and email hosting for friends and family) up-and-running which has been the case since 2002 with only a few hours downtime here and there.

[Brian Gaff]

You also need to be careful of where he hosted it before. Some providers claim copyright over your work, and need permission to move it. I guess they do this to discourage people finding a better host, and as the person is no longer with us and the site has lapsed I doubt this is relevant. Brian

[David Wade]

Have you checked it isn't already archived in the wayback machive at archive.org?

[Martin Brown]

Before you do that check to see if it is still archived by putting the old URL into the wayback machine. If it is then the chances are posting a link in your blog (or even here) with a description of what it contains will make the archive searchable again.

You would need a domain name (approx £7 every couple of years for a .co.uk) and some hosting (about £40/year maybe less if it is low traffic and you don't require anything fancy by way of support or scripts).

FTP the original site image to the right place on the server and you are done. If you can find someone with similar interests to the content then you may be able to put the content onto their site if they are willing.

[RJH]

As an aside, what do you use to 'store' that site - a NAS? And editing software - looks simple/effective :-)

Thinking of doing the same myself, so long as the learning curve isn't too steep . . .

[Pancho]

I think Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services have a free tier offering free micro servers.

[Mathew Newton]

It actually sits on my 'main' desktop PC (well, a Dell T20 so more of a home/small-office server really) that I use every day and hosts various other services e.g. mail server, CCTV hub etc. If it wasn't for these other tasks then a Raspberry Pi or suitable NAS would almost certainly suffice.

:-) Like many I started out with Frontpage then when I moved over to Linux used things like nvu and kompozer but now I just use a text editor which is perfectly doable for such a simple site structure. New content is limited these days though as my current house project (and 2yr old toddler) take up most of my free time!

There will always be some gradient to the curve but it should be perfectly climbable given the amount of guides/HowTos out there on setting something like a Pi up with a web server. Search for 'raspberry pi web server' and there'll be loads of hits with most being variations of the same theme.

I'd definitely recommend it - I've given a few people of all backgrounds a bit of a helping hand with their own Pi's and have seen how much of a kick they have got setting something up that they (and others) can access over the Internet. Having a goal, such as a web server to host a few pages about their hobby, has been really helpful in giving something specific to aim for.

[John Rumm]

If the content is relevant, there is plenty of space available on the diyfaq site...

[Martin Brown]

They may well do but most such offerings are of the moron user drag and drop interface type with rigid site templates. He wants a server that will let him upload old school bare bones HTML (some free sites may).

A sympathetic webmaster might well make available a bit of space for a low traffic but interesting site. Old hobby sites are tiny 10's of MB compared with even the smallest aliquot ~2GB of hosting available today.

[Pancho]

I don't think that is correct. I think they provide a basic virtual machine. You can run what you like on it, A webserver such as Nginx, Apache, etc, or Wordpress.

I'm not 100% on the limitations as I've only actually used a Google Cloud paid for service, which was brilliant, but as I understand it the free services work in the same way.

Here is a guy discussing it.

[The Natural Philosopher]

There are three broad levels of hosting.

1/. Bare bones static pages. Upload and go 2/. Restricted access to things like databases or some content management system like word press or joomla 3/. Full virtual private server.

Oddly enough they are all similarly priced. The benefitrs of VPS is you get to do what you want. Te downside is its more compelx to set up - you probably need a linux guru to do that in te first instance

[John Rumm]

<fx> Waves!

[RJH]

Ah, good. I do have a NAS, which is on pretty much all the time anyway. I wasn't sure how it would work, though, and assumed some latency/lag as pages loaded. Yours is pretty snappy.

Thanks - I'll give it a go!

[John Rumm]

Depending on what nas it is, it might even have a web server capability available out of the box (or available from a quick download on its apps page). Then its just a case of telling it to create a site, sticking the pages in the right folder, and creating a forward though the router to allow the outside world to see it.

(having said that, basic hosting packages come setup and cheap, and don't require the outside world get anywhere near your personal store of files).