OT: Web hosting services?

Sandy, I'm really happy with start logic. Great service, easy to use and I'm happy with the price. They get good ratings all the way around with the ratings people usually too. Thanks for the heads up on earthlink. I don't even use those mail accounts any more, but it's good to know. I just gave up on the earthlink side all together and do the newsgroups thru google now. Not as friendly, but at least I can get in. ;-)

Jan RCTQ Coffee Diva

obvious)

In all fairness, Jan, this isn't Earthlink's fault. In fact, I really wish I had Earthlink back; it's Embarq that's messing me up. :S

First off, having your own domain name and web hosting are two different things. Some companies offer both, some offer one or the other.

I have two domains through mydomain.com. Pricing is very reasonable, service is good, but the user interface is not the most intuitive. :(

I have webhosting at yahoo. No problems, price is okay (could be better).

Okay, Kathy, it seems that I still have lots to learn. Let's see if I understand. Web hosting is the service that actually allows you to use space on their servers for your own site, right? And domain names are the things we usually associate with ISPs that give us our addresses?

I'm off to check out mydomain.com. I looked at startlogic yesterday, and it looks pretty good, too.

Exactly! So the domain name is the stuff after the "@" sign. There's a couple of advantages and disadvantages to having your own domain name.

One advantage is that even if you change ISPs (or web hosts), you don't need to have everyone update their address books. My e-mail address of Kathy_A AT KayneyQuilting DOT com always works, no matter how often I switch things around. Same for my website:

works, no matter where I have it hosted. And for my other domain (kayneypaints.com), it's more professional if my employees can send e-mails from that domain, and it's easier for them to remember. Down sides? It does cost about $15 a year. And if the spammers pick up your domain, you'll need to decide if you want to deal with tons of spam, or just dump all e-mails that don't have your e-mail address exactly right. And you need to remember to renew it every so often (I keep a reminder in my PDA), because if you're late in renewing, someone else can jump in and snag your domain. :(

It's these advantages I've been thinking about! But thanks for pointing out the disadvantages; I hadn't stopped to think about the spam thing.

Thank heavens for PDAs! I was thinking about using mine the same way, if I do get a domain. One problem right now is trying to think of a name that isn't already in use. The biggest one, of course, is deciding which hosting service to use. I found a site that compares and rates a lot of them, and something called IX is rated at the top. It looks pretty good, too, except that when I called it was the old story of support being in some far-away place with an incomprehensible accent. :S I'm still looking. ;)

Kathy - am I right to hear you pay $15/yr for your web hosting? I am looking for some space somewhere - a small space since I have nothing to sell, just show. If that is true, let me know who hosts your websites, please??????

Thank you hun.

No, I pay $15 a year for the domain. I pay $5 a month for Yahoo/Geocities to host my website -- if you don't mind them plastering banner ads on your site, you can get it for free.

NAYY.

Sandy,

has been wonderful to me... have many websites thru them.

Kellie

Thanks, Kellie! That one has been recommended already, and it's high on my "consideration" list at the moment. It's good to have more than one recommendation for the same thing! :)