The Birth of a Website

[BrianG]

LOL, I just got an email from 1and1 today saying I had malware on one of my pages, and said I had 24 hours to respond before they would suspend my account. Well, I can understand a company not wanting legitimate malicious code on their servers, but this is hardly malicious. I sent them an email back but they have yet to respond.

Other than that, 1and1 has been really good to me. I'm sure there are lots of others out there, it's just a matter of finding one with the price, features, webspace, and bandwidth to meet your needs. For small personal sites, 10GB space and 100GB bandwidth will most likely be more than you'll ever need for storing webpages, pictures, and some home videos. If you want to hold tons of videos, you might want something bigger. For any site requiring a database (storefronts, forums, etc), you'll want more space and bandwidth. Most sites also allow you to upgrade packages should the need arise - just make sure you are aware of any potential fees.

Microsoft Word, FrontPage, and other WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors do work, but creates extremely ugly code, and support for CSS is kinda clunky. There are better software titles out there meant specifically for HTML editing and have the same type of easy interface. Do a Google search and you'll get tons of stuff for free. The better stuff costs money, but it's a start. Do try different things until you find one that is easy and works for you.

To transfer your files to the server you can use command line FTP, but that's kinda clunky. GUI FTP programs are easier to use. WS_FTP works very well. A simple drag-n-drop interface makes it act much like Windows Explorer.