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View Full Version : A lot of questions pertaining to starting a fully custom website from scratch.



kenmorechalfant
12 Dec 2010, 09:49 AM
Hello. I am learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc... I've been programming here and there for a couple of years in VB, C#, etc... So, so far, website building, like the actual coding, doesn't seem too complex.

I want to create a website, but I really have no knowledge when it comes to obtaining a domain name or web hosting or how much hosting I need. I've read at least a couple of times that godaddy is cheap and fairly reliable. I've also read that bluehost is reliable... And it seems a bit more professional.

So basically I'm going to run down my impression of how this stuff works and I'm looking for feedback.

You buy a domain name. Like, what your website is going to be called: www.website.com.

Then you pay for web hosting, which is basically just a server somewhere that they maintain for you. Then you can upload your web pages (html, css, javascript) to the web host. Then somehow you link that to your domain name...?

And then that's your website?

GoDaddy's "economy" web hosting gets you 10gb of space. And 10, 1gb MySQL databases. I haven't used MySQL but I understand the concept. And I mean, HTML files and what not are tiny... So how much space do you really need?

Basically, my site idea is a math help website. I want anyone to be able to come and post a math problem, and then allow anyone else to comment, explaining how to solve it. I don't think you would really need to store users or anything. Just the problems, a problem number for tracking, and an e-mail to notify them of a reply.

Thanks for any input.

Cancerkitty
13 Dec 2010, 08:38 AM
You've got it right. You buy the domain and hosting. If you buy then through the same provider, they're probably already linked. If not, the hosting company will give you Domain Name Servers to point your domain to. Easy peasy.

The space you get with the account isn't going to get eaten up with HTML files, but images, flash, databases, etc. 10gb is more than enough to get started, but I would recommend a plan that allows you to easily upgrade when the time comes.

While I've never used them directly, I've had clients use GoDaddy and I haven't been terribly impressed with their service. BlueHost is probably a better choice.