Hello fello Web-Masters. Looking for web-site advice.

[Trigger_tre 1]

Though this is probably directed at Dirk (only because I know that he knows the necessities for operating a website) anyone with advice or comments are welcome to reply.

I have recently volunteered to bring my church into the technology age by building them a website. I have built several web pages but it was based on college servers mostly thus I really didnt have to fool with server components and such. I am comfortable with Coding so thats not the concern.

My concern and/or question is what type of materials I would need for setting this up.

I have a AMD 64 3500+ with 2gb memory and would like to convert it to a server. (so I have an excuse to buy myself a new dual core :thumb

What I need is a LIST of goodies I need and some costs associated with startup and maintenance.

-trigger

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[defcon pilot 0]

Ah, yes. A technovangelist, eh?

Well, all I can say is: Urk. I'm not sure if I can give you any advice (I'm only an ameteur) and also, I'm not for using the Internet for such things. No offense. But, if you ever consider getting a Mac, then they come with iWeb... A handy tool for making fast websites. I like it. Drag-and-drop. I'm using it to make my homepage.

Of course, I don't think that many people buy Macs to be used as servers... Or buy them at all.

[Trigger_tre 1]

defcon pilot:

Well the actually building of web pages is not really a problem. I already know a fairly good bit on how to properly code things.

I was just curious on how I would setup up my pc as a server (if its possible) also what kinda money this would amount to and monthly costs associated with having someone host the website.

-trigger

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[onlyplace4 603]

I run a number of sites and it's actually cheaper to have your site hosted than to attempt to host it yourself. In a good number of cases you can get free triels with hosts before they start charging you.

I use HostGator, and then only their second to bottom package, and that costs me the princely sum of just $9.95 US every month, and the first month was free. I chose this host as they run a good and current version of PHP which I code my sites in. You also get a CPanel, unlimited domains and sub-domains, MySQL, CGI, PHP, Perl, and so on and so forth. I've never known theire servers to go down either, so would recommend them to anyone. For $9.95 a month I also get 5Gb of disc space and a monthly bandwidth of 75Gb. Take a look at http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml.

If you intend to code your site(s) in PHP you will need an Apache server on your home machine. Xampp is about the best. I think SourceForge has it as it's an Open Source project.

Hope that helps. If you have any other questions pleae feel free to holler

[Ma8thew 77]

For a start I would recomend installing linux or a BSD as well as Apache on it. Windows IIS server costs way too much! For a server: you'll probably want a decent sized hard drive and a fast network card. I assume you have a sufficiantly larg pipe?

[Trigger_tre 1]

thanks for the advice so far guys. I guess I have a little research I need to start doing.

onlyplace4: I am intringed by your advice and it seems to be a much simpler approach than having to build my own server.

You mentioned using PHP. I am more comfortable with HTML code so would I still be able to build my website in basic HTML code or would I have to use PHP.

Also you mentioned 75gb of monthly bandwidth. I was curious if you new what this would calculate to be. Basically how many users would be able to serf daily for a month and still stay within the 75gb limits.

I know some of these quetions are picky but I like to be thorough in my knowledge base before I journey down a road less traveled.

Thanks again,

-trigger

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[onlyplace4 603]

You are perfectly OK using just HTML. In fact, even with PHP you still need one heck of a lot of HTML. Just that I use PHP myself as it gives me the flexibility I require in my sites. HTML and JavaScript can do many of the things I do with PHP, so I wouldn't worry about it unduly. The advantage of PHP comes really when you are accessing and querying a database such as MySQL. If you don't need that, then you probably don't need PHP.

As to the bandwidth question, consider that an average page is about 65K, though some of this overhead is reduced on subsequent visits thanks to browser caching. 75 Gb therefore equates to about 1.2 million page views. Of course this is lessened if you offer downloads etc., and you must remember that your ftp and email quotas will come out of this too. However, I run nine sites from the one account and I have yet to come anywhere near the monthly limit. Of course, if you are doing the next SimTrop, 75Gb won't be nearly enough!

If you need any further info please feel free to PM or email me.

Mike

[defcon pilot 0]

Well, a friend of mine once recommended me to m-ka.net. You'll have to check out their packages.

[Trigger_tre 1]

onlyplace4:

Thank you and the others for the advice thus far. Considering I am more comfortable with HTML code I was planning on typing each web page in NotePad or WordPad with HTML code then possibly just convert it to a .htm file. I would of course index the home page and just give various other names for the sub-pages.

It would be possible to do it this way with the 9.95 package from HostGator, right? Also I am not really sure if I would need the MySQL (not really sure its function), I guess I need much more research.

-trigger

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[onlyplace4 603]

Just save the file from Notepad as a .html file and you're up and away You certainly would be able to do this with most hosting packages, not just the HostGator one (had to say that as they are not payng me commission to promote them lol). If you are going to do a lot of pages for the site then I woud suggest you get yourself a dedicated HTML editor. I use Homesite, but this is not a cheap package, and I am sure you can find an open source editor somewhere that is FREE! One of my favourite words that ... FREE! MySQL is only realy necessary if you have to hold data in a database, and even then you can do it a myriad of other ways. Take a look at my Fonts site. None of the info on that site is stored in any form of database, but it works as if it was

If you get stuck on any aspect of this project feel free to drop me a PM and I'll be only too happy to try and help.

Mike

[Trigger_tre 1]

You have a very nice website. Its a nice break-away from the typical heading/photo/logo at top, left side quick links style most website use. Plus its not overly flashy with too many bright colors alot of sales sites use.

I am sketching some rough drafts on homepage design and a web page tree so I can get an idea of how many I would be building.

If you dont mind I will definently take you up on your offer to help me if I hit a stump along the way.

Also a little side question? If I were to purchase the package by tomorrow (03-24-06) how long would the process take before I could log in run a test page?

-trigger

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[nooneatall 6]

Hmm... seems that you may be sold on the hosting package for its simplicity... but I'll offer my advice anyways.

I personally have a server at home, and host several sites. It doesn't take much, I have a Sempron 2500+ with 512MB RAM and a 120GB SATA with a residential cable-internet connection. This runs blazingly fast with Apache and Windows XP (Though I'm considering installing Apache again and upgrading my internet connection when I start hosting a few commercial sites, but that would be ideally).

I don't know exactly where your skills lie regarding computers, but installing Apache and configuring it, configuring your router (if you have one), are basically all you need to do to set-up a webserver and are easily done + many helpful tutorials availible online.

The only disadvantage of your own server is, firstly, if there is extremely high traffic that caps your bandwidth (we're talking about... millions, or many hundred-thousands of pageviews a month, for a single website for a [small?] parish would be unlikely), and, secondly, the irritatingly loud fans if you sleep two metres away from the server .

If you need any help, too, feel free to send me a PM. Hopefully this is somehow helpful.

--noone

[onlyplace4 603]

When I purchased my package I was able to FTP to the site within about 30 minutes.

Good luck with your project Trigger ... I'm happy to help in anyway I can