Lesson 1. Getting Yourself a Domain Name & Web Host

There are 3 things you have to buy to get to work the Web: 1) an ISP, 2) a domain name, and 3) a Web host.

1. ISP (Internet Service Provider): this is your connection to the Web from your computer (your "build machine"). The three usual connections are cable, DSL and dial-up (ex: Comcast, Qwest, Netzero.com)
2. Domain Name (URL, or "Universal Resource Locator), this will be the registered Web address for your site, for example — myKulSite.com. These are available from a Domain Name Registrar either directly or through a host.
3. Web Host: This is the company that maintains the server computer on which your site files are available to the world. The host provides security for your site, and server-side applications of all sorts.

Unlesss you want to spend a lot of time and trouble on it, you want to find a Web host that will also register your domain name. You can make your own choices, but this lesson will assume you'll get both from the same vendor.

Remember: your site must have a registered domain name and professional hosting on a live server for you to pass this class!

How to Select a Web Host

The following sections are meant to help you learn how to find a Web host you'll be happy with.

Comparison of Web Hosts Used Last Term. These are the selections made by students in ePortfolio for Web Hosting that had entered a choice on the class site. You can sort of get an idea of how many students made what choice, and begin to guess how they made the choices they did. The hosts are ranked by the number of students selecting. This offers a place to start for selecting service. So what should go into your choice?

• Choose by Features: The first thing you want to know about a Web host is whether it can technically handle the data you'll put up on its servers. Also, does it have a good selecton of features you feel you'll need eventually? As you can see from the table, BlueHost and HostMonster offered the greatest features, with GoDaddy and 1&1 offering a midrange, but probably plenty good enough to handle most sites. Register4Less adn Livin4 are dangerously on the edge in terms of how large the files those students can put on the server, and in the small number of files that users can download per month. Do you have large files on your site, such as photos? Overage means extra billings.
• Choose by Price: Your budget is your budget. Features are great, but if you don't have the dough, what can you do? The two least featured hosts area clearly price leaders. One might expect this, since to some extent you get what you pay for. If price is the breaking point, a smart student might look for a midrange price with midrange features: 1&1 seems to offer the most for the middle money, and GoDaddy is not a bad choice at all. Bluehost and, to a lesser extent, HostMonster, are a little ritzy if you're strapped for cash.
• Choose by Ease of Use & Customer Service: This isn't as obvious a point to shop for, but it can be important, especially if you're a neophyte. Look at the design of the host's site: are things easy to find? To some extent, the organization of the enterprise mirrors the organization of the site. When you are thinking of making a purchase, ask about how easy it is to get customoer support; do they accept phone calls?
• Talk to Your Friends. Don't overlook this! If you and several buddies all have the same host, you can compare notes and tutor each other. Being able to compare notes as you build your sites is a big plus and overcomes some of the ranking issues that my lists below might bring up. In the list above, for example, 6 students chose GoDaddy, which is a perfectly good host (in my experience) but didn't come up roses in my quick-and-dirty analysis below. Those six were able to help each other out.

Look at Reviews & Compare: Web hosts are actively and enthusiastically ranked on the Web. Find these reviews and compare. Google "Best Web Hosts". But be careful: I wouldn't trust any one of them. I assume that some of them have paid placements. Look at several, as I've done below, and see which hosts come up again and again in polls.

Here is how to make a comparison. These lists are accurate on 12/16/2007 — you should make your own on the day, as things change all the time. Read each review list carefully, and try to choose ones that differ in design and type—this will help ensure that you're getting different perspectives. Compare the lists — in this table, I've found first 9 "Top 10" lists that came up in a search (OK, 2 have less than 10 — 7 was a minimum). They are arranged here in no real order using Excel. Count up the placements each receives and tabulate.

Example: here are the scores from my list. As you can see, I've noted how many lists each host made (top score: 9/9, nine lists out of nine) if they made at least 2. Then I've given points for each place earned from 1 -10 in reverse (1st place, 10pts; 10th place, 1pt), which gave a total number of points. These numbers should be considered very soft, with an error of at least 20+-! The top seven hosts on this list I would consider at about a par for my purposes, and if I were shopping today, I'd give each of them a good, long look. The other hosts on the list are probably pretty good, and no doubt there are some that didn't make these lists that made others. That's why you should do your own investigating.

Compare features and prices of the top hosts on your list. Choose your host using these methods, and you won't go far wrong. This site, for example, is hosted on BlueHost, and it was selected 3 years ago using just this method (and I'm happy to see it's still well-placed in consumer comparisons).