Setting up a website.

Brethitmanhart

Hey,
I'm currently planning on setting up a website.
I'm looking for a .com domain and hosting.
I wont need much hosting tbh, as the site is a band website and will have
a couple of pages about the band, a page with songs (songs Only about 15mb altogether) and some pictures.

So I don't need anything demanding.
I'm wondering what is the cheapest .com website and hosting I could get?

My brother claims that a while back he saw a .com domain and hosting for 5 years at 40euro...that seems very cheap...is this true?

Any help on cheapest option would be greatly appreciated as most places I've check have been much much more that 40 for 5 years (more than double this).

Time Magazine

If you're going to have people downloading (or streaming) your songs, your primary concern is bandwidth rather than space. How many times a month do you think your songs are going to be downloaded? It stacks up quickly. Say 30 a day = 900 a month, by 4mb a pop = 3.6gb bandwidth.

You should be able to do it very cheaply though, maybe not as low as €40 for 5 years. Certainly get it for €40 for each of the 5 years, though.

Brethitmanhart

Thanks for the reply.
Bandwidth wise I'd say half the figure you said...then rounding that up makes 2gb.....although might not even need that much (as I've options of putting only song clips(not full) up for streaming and/or redirecting to other sites (myspace etc.) if the bandwidth is looking to go over....or maybe lower the quality of songs. (from 128kb/s to 96kb/s) etc.

So bandwidth I'd even settle for 1gb to start off with and see how things go...I know there will be months when a new song is put up that there will be alot more streaming.

I'd also settle for a .net domain incase anyone has a much better offer on that (as .com does not have my 1st preference domain and .net does)....but honestly I don't think it will make a difference as .net and .com seem to be the same price where I've checked and I'd probably still prefer .com.


So any recommendations would be cool.

broker2008

If they are an Irish band would you not go for .ie as well as .net ?

zod

use google http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions_spe.html

€6/domain
200 free email addresses
Free hosting on google pages with 100MB limit
unlimited bandwidth afaik
Takes 5 minutes to setup

Brethitmanhart

Really?
That google thing seems class, I had a quick look and I saw the way they'll let you do your email and host that and stuff...but will they host the site yeah?

Seems class!
Thanks

To the other poster:
Well we are an irish band but .ie costs way more.....

wheres me jumpa

Your target market should impact your choice of host also, i.e. if your target market is Irish, your site should be hosted in Ireland.

Brethitmanhart

What reasons are there for that?
Because all the sites visitors would be from Ireland?
I mean I'm all with buying irish and everything but if google is free and is adequate I don't really mind where their servers are.

wheres me jumpa

Search engine results are regionalised. So hosting in Ireland is a factor. I dont know much about the Google service so cant comment on it but if your focus is cheap hosting then it seems a good option for you.

mneylon

The other factor is support.

Google may offer plenty of free / cheap services, but even when you are paying them it's nigh on impossible to get any reasonable level of service

zod

Brethitmanhart wrote: »

but will they host the site yeah?

Seems class!
Thanks

yes the site is hosted .. u have to change the url in the site admin section to www.mydomain.com

the email is gmail so is brilliant
the hosting is free but
1. no ftp access
2. you can upload html files but you cannot set one of these uploaded files as the home page - you have to use one of their template pages

Brethitmanhart

That is good considering the price of it, but the template page thing is a bit of a bug alright, I suppose I can't really be picky considering what they are offering.
I'll still look at all the hosting packages I can, anything around the 10-20euro per year including domain is fine, I'd like to have full control of the website (all pages etc).

Thanks again.

I didn't know search results were regionalised that way, it's a handy piece of information.

AARRRGH

wheres me jumpa wrote: »

So hosting in Ireland is a factor.

Yeah, I think if it's a .com you want it hosted in Ireland. If it's a .ie you can host it anywhere.

I've been making websites for years and I learnt a long time ago that it's worth your while spending the little bit extra for reliability and support. It's very annoying being with an unreliable and unresponsive host.

WeeDiddly

Well usually web designers wouldn't use the paid services of Google for the simple reason that when the job is done, the web designer is finished what he/she was paid to do and if something goes wrong, the client is left between a rock and a hard place as they cannot contact their host for support, and if they contact the web designer again, they have to pay more.

If you want to go with cheap and reliable hosting outside Ireland, i would personally recommend www.Bluehost.com, because their services suit you well, and offer room for expansion, for €70 a year + a .com/.net/.org TLD(domain name) for free. Also, their support is generally excellent. But I would then recommend you go to to Blacknight or Register365 and get a .ie domain name which is about €30.

Otherwise, you could host your site in Ireland. The two main hosts are Blacknight.ie and Register365.com, although there are a fleet of other ones knocking about the place. If you use an Irish host, you can also sign up for .com domains as well.

It would also be a good idea that you should sign up for all .com/.net/.ie, it just makes sure nobody else can sign up for a domain that you may want in the future. To be listed in Google as an irish group, you must have either a .ie domain or your website be hosted on irish servers, you don't need both.

Good Luck with the journey of choosing a web host!
Nev

Webmonkey

As well http://www.servage.net/ are also excellent. Being with them for 2 years now and I havn't seen any down time so far and their support is second to none. You get a reply within literely 5 minutes everytime.
But that is only if you want to host outside of Ireland, inside then go with Blacknight or Hosting365 as mentioned above.