Website 101

OK, I am completely clueless when it comes to building and hosting a website. I notice that most of you do your own so I hope I coming to to the right place.

I know I want a real website. Not a geocities, myspace, flickr kind of thing. A real website with a real email addy, domain name, etc. I'm not in business really, at least in the typical sense, so online proofing and print ordering aren't a priority. But I would like an password protected area for a couple galleries that I can change out. I want something sleek, unique, and classy looking. No gimmicky flash intro's or anything like that.

I also want it to be simple enough to use for me to be able to change out gallery photos or update info without having to have a masters degree in another program; or call up someone every couple weeks and have them do it for me. Also I live in the technology dead zone outside of Houston, no high speed access at home. (Have I ever mentioned how much I hate dial-up and how overpriced satellite is?) I do have a laptop that I can get wi-fi on. So if it's possible to do updates offline and then change the pages when I get to a connetion that's possible even if it's inconvenient.

So website guru's. What's my best options? How do I get started on them? And how much does it really cost?

Thanks Ryan. Any suggestions on hosting sites.

I've used HostGator, but had a really bad experience with them.  It was a freak occurrence with their hardware, and they handled it fairly well from the customer service side, but it was enough to make me leave.  I was looking to move from shared hosting to a VPS anyway though.  

I've been with iPower on one of their Windows plans, but left when I wanted to switch to Linux.

HostCheap was the first host that I paid for, and they are awful.  Of course you could probably guess that by their name.

I had a VPS with VPSColo.com for a while.  The service was great when I first signed up, but they got bought out shortly after that and service went down the drain.  Plus, I was pretty much capped out on the VPS so I was looking to move anyway.

I've got a dedicated server with SoftLayer now.  Seems to be a pretty good price for what I'm getting, although it's way more than you would need for a single site.  

A lot of my ProofBuddy clients are hosting with GoDaddy and it seems to work fairly well.  Their control panel is fairly easy to use and I've heard that their customer service is good, although I've never contacted them personally.  

I would stay away from Yahoo Small Business hosting.  They seem to be a good deal, but there's a lot of squirrely stuff with their hosting.  It seems every time I've dealt with an account on one of their servers something new and strange has come up.  

What it amounts to is that most people are happy with their current host and unhappy with any they've had in the past. 

And a little more since Bob posted between...

I've transferred domains away from them and never had an issue.  Well, you've got to go through about 5 pages of ads for other services, but I've gotten pretty good at knowing where to click.  And my name and contact info is in all 4 contact fields.  Their info isn't anywhere.  You do have to jump through hoops to transfer, but they're hoops designed to make sure you are who you say you are. 

Maybe it's different if you host with them and have them handle your domain, in which case ignore what I said above. 

You do make a good point about who owns the domain though.  I wouldn't ever take a hosting company up on an offer of a free domain with hosting because they probably will have their name all over the domain to keep you from moving easily.

what is the basic cost of all of this?

I wanted to get a phpbb board up and get involved in backend computer stuff to learn but gradually get into it so I got a quote from someone that it would cost me $2100 for them to set it up, maintain it, host it, etc...

I felt that was a rip off and instantly made me want to get in the business.

GoDaddy also has their templates that you can get started with and modify later, it's called Website Tonight, I think.  I didn't personally go this route, but it is an option to get you started quickly.  A lot of their specials will include an account so it's not expensive to use the templates.

Travis

What I meant by that was I'm not that computer illiterate and could figure out how to do some of the stuff myself.  Not bashing or boasting, just felt used. 

It was for the domain setup, hosting, and must have been purchase, install, and maintenace of the site.  At the time I looked into it I was seeing the same costs as you stated and wonder were the other part of the quote was coming from cause I wasn't seeing more than $500 tops.  For the price I was quoted I could have purchase all the programs and domains/hosting myself.

Thank you for your answers, I'll go back in hide mode now.

There are always going to be people taking advantage of those that don't know the technology.  Not saying that's what's happening with the $2,100 quote since we don't really know what it involved.

Susie's right too.  Building a website from scratch is surprisingly time consuming. 

Don't do that.  Stay out and play

I personally can't see a situation where that's a good idea.  Hosting is getting so cheap these days that even the electricity cost to run a server in your closet is probably as much as it would be to just sign up with a hosting company.  Plus hosting it at your house opens up all sorts of security issues. 

Sorry.  Little bit of a rant subject for me

Not at all.  The tag line I usually use is "come discuss all things photographic."  That certainly includes family pictures.