Servers: Where are they? Which ones?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Going Nowhere? Web Development : One Thread

Walter,

Coincidentally, I was just thinking this general topic would be a good and fitting one for this software. I was in the process of checking the Lusenet list for a forum I know of (but don't have bookmarked), when I noticed your "Going Nowhere?" set-up (I see you've noticed the potential power of Phil Greenspun's software too). Checked it out, noticed there's no participation yet, so thought I'd pop a question in here (because I actually have one and wish there were 20 or 30 seasoned web publishers participating here). Here it is...

I just started putting together simple sites last January. Started out at Geocities, found the pop-up advertising annoying, discovered Angelfire (a "no-pop-up ads" option), and settled in there. I seem to be at a point now where I need to move to a "real" server, but have no clue as to what that world consists of, how it all actually works, what to look for (and watch out for), etc.

How does a person go about locating a reputable, high quality, reliable, reasonably priced place to park their pages? Or, better yet, can you (or others) recommend any?

Another good thing to know about along those lines would be the Internic (sp?) registration process for domain names, etc. (And on and on the question go!)

It would also be intersting to read other's ideas and experience on the best (most efficient) ways to learn more about web design, and their views on using programs like Front Page, Adobe Page Mill, etc., instead of battling the constant HTML learning curve (seems mostly up, interspersed with long periods of inertia induced stalling)...

Okay. Again. Great idea for an appropriate use of these forums. Hope more people get wind and show up...

Until later,

Bill

-- Bill (billdale@lakesnet.net), September 01, 1998

Answers

hi,

great to here from you and thanks for contributing. i'll share a few things that i know about servers and html and hopefully point you in a few worthwile directions.

choosing a server is like most things in that there is no one best server set up for everyone. you have to decide what your criteria is before choosing. some servers have strong database support (like aol's commercial set up primehost), others may have better prices for what you get (its hard to beat your community free net for value with no advertising), and still others might satisfy specialized desires (there are now servers that are run on macintoshes that present that as their big selling point).

some things to consider:

what is the main use of your site going to be?

what are the needs of your site?

what will your needs be in the future (in other words will your server still be good enough for you when you decide to present high memory files or turn to backing your site with a database, or you want to get rid of that ugly counter and start analyzing your own access logs,etc.)?

i reccomend that you come up with a site plan before you go shopping for servers and keep in mind that flexiblity that can allow you grow is very important. i am on a locally owned server and i love their personal touch (they have an upcoming user appreciation picnic coming up), but if i had known when i started their limitations i may have thought twice. for example, unless i have a commercial account i can not get access logs (lists of every hit you get with specific information) and i would like to eliminate counters from my page. also they run on microsoft software and have a lot of downtime because of maintenance. common knowledge is that unix based servers are the most stable. for a more indepth analysis of server software and hardware i reccommend reading Philip Greenspun's book "Databased backed Websites" (partially published on line at http://photo.net/).

Internic has its own FAQ, i'm sure, but i know my server might have some helpful information, so check out http://olywa.net/ services and FAQ sections.

as far as html, my hope is that cascading style sheets will become fully accepted soon and we can all live easier web development lives. start learning css and keep it mind for next year when it should become more standard. you can find more info links at http://olywa.net/wtem/css.html or http://olywa.net/wtem/wdlinks.html .

that is all for now, but i plan to add more specifics to this thread in the future.

thanks,

walter

-- walter (wtem@olywa.net), September 02, 1998.


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