If I were to buy a URL to create a website for my online portfolio is there a specific company to deal with? Do all company’s offer the same amount of space/size for information or memory? I need to get this in the works or up to speed with the masses.
Thanks!
There are a bunch of places to purchase a domain name. I got mine from godaddy. Domain name purchase is the easy thing. Find the best price for the term you want and get it.
Hosting is a little more tricky. It all depends on what you want to do with your website. There are soooo many packages and little differences. I can’t keep track of them all. Maybe you’re better versed than I am. I just picked the basic one on godaddy to test the waters. The only problem I had with godaddy hosting is that their management tools are not very user friendly. Super nerds probably have no problem with it but, the wanna-be nerd (me) had a hard time with it.
I’ve recently cancelled my domain name and hosting so I don’t have an example you can reference. I cancelled it because the site was going absolutely no where fast. Had nothing to do with the service I was getting from godaddy.
Hopefully others will add their experiences to the mix. I’m interested to see what the best way to set up a site is and for the lowest price.
Good luck,
I have never created a site before. So I don’t know what your talking about by “Hosting”? What do you mean the management tools are not very user friendly? What are the management tools? Things I need to consider before purchasing.
P.S. I would like to build the site in Flash.
Hold on,
If you’re trying to get a website online buying a domain name isn’t going to get you very far because thats all you get - the name.
In order to put your website online you are going to need a hosting service. This is someone with servers, shared or dedicated, that stores your web pages for you and makes them available via the internet. The hosting service will then give you the nameserver IP address for your webspace and this gets linked to the domain name you pick.
Basically it works like getting a phone number with callerID.
Phone number = IP Address
CallerID Name = Domain
A system called the DNS, Domain Resources Directory, keeps track of all IP addresses and the domains associated with them. When you type www.core77.com (domain) into your browser and hit enter, the DNS tells your browser the phone number (IP address) - http://209.208.179.226
You can purchase your domain name separate from your hosting but most good hosting services will do this free of charge as part of buying their hosting packages. I think it’s easier to let them take care of it. The two best hosting companies that I’ve come across are:
www.mediatemple.com
www.aplus.net
For around $9.95/mth you will get 2Gb of space, several hundred email addresses, web email, and the ability to run PHP applications and MySQL databases. Look at the details and there is a ton of stuff. I think they both guarantee 99.9% uptime, have 24/7 customer service, and have web based control panels that let you manage everything without needing to get extra software.
Hopefully this helps.
Thanks mmjohns!
The big hosting providers are one-stop-shops for both Domain registration and Website hosting.
Here are two:
(click on Hosting)
(click on Hosting)
Make sure the package you choose includes FTP access–this is how you upload your website files to the hosting provider.
Use a product like Macromedia Dreamweaver to create your site, manage its file-structure and upload it to your hosting provider via FTP.
I noticed on Media Temple they have two options 2GB and 5GB:
2GB (ss) Professional 30GB Rollover Bandwidth
5GB (ss) Advanced 75GB Rollover Bandwidth
How much space does a typical portfolio take up? I noticed you mentioned that I should use Macromedia Dreamweaver to create my site. Thats great and all, but I would like to create it with Flash. Does Flash use the same set-up process as Dreamweaver, FTP?
What does FTP stand for?
What is the Rollover Bandwidth? Extra space? I am new to all this.
Once I submit the file can I make changes to the site here and there?
I’ve been using Aplus.net and their UNIX hosting for several years now and have never had a problem. I think the plan is called Solo XR.
2GB should be more than enough for a web portfolio. Save all of your portfolio images out of photoshop using the “save for web” option. This will save you a lot on file size and help your flash movies run faster.
The rollover bandwidth refers to the amount of information people can download from your site during a single pay period. This is mostly to keep people from abusing the hosting services. Sometimes people will open an account and post illegal videos or music files and then the server gets constant connections as people try to get the freebies. Get enough leechers and you can hit your bandwidth quota really quick. If you’re just doing a simple portfolio you’ll never come close and they will credit your unused bandwidth to the next pay cycle.
FTP - File Transfer Protocol, is the internet communication standard for the transfer of any encoded computer file. To get your completed files online you will need an FTP program to connect your computer to the server. A few good programs are CuteFTP and WSFTP. Some browsers have this built in but it doesn’t work for all servers. You basically just type ftp://www.core77.com instead of http://www.core77.com. HTTP - in case you are wondering means Hypertext Transfer Protocol, it is the internet standard for the transfer of of HTML pages.
And finally, even if you want to do your website in flash, you are going to need to put the flash object within an HTML page. I believe Flash can do this on its own if you select the right export option, but for more control its better to do this yourself. Dreamweaver will let you create the page in HTML and set all of the options like background color, fonts, etc. Then all you have to do is click the “Insert Flash Here” button and it will insert the needed code to call up the flash object. People generally just make a simple table and insert the flash movie within a table cell, you can then control whether it is centered on screen or whatever.
Am I getting paid for this?
mmjohns,
Thanks you’ve been a great help informing me what all this means! I appreciate all information. I am still learning Flash so it will be a while before I get a site up. I do know Dreamweaver, I learned that while in school. I would just like to build the site in Flash. I have seen some great things with Flash which excite me. I would like to do this for others, if I can. I’ll sure as hell try!
Thanks again!
My bad, sorry. I haven’t checked this in a week or so. Sounds like some of the other guys helped you out though.
Good show 
i use media temple- and have a 2g
they are great-an the service is great too- the 24 hr phone service is helpful.
uno
Mm