I am sure I am making this much harder than it is, but the more I read, the more confused I get. Basically, all I want to do is register a domain name, then create a website. I am perfectly happy with the idea of virtual hosting and letting another company's servers host my site, but all the different options just have me baffled. My questions are:

1. Is it better to register the domain and have it hosted elsewhere, or register the domain with the company that would host it?

2. If I do register a domain, how do I prove I "own" it? Do you get a document of some kind? If someone claims they own it, how do I refute their claims?

3. Some places such as networksolutions seem to either add extra charges for Email-boxes and/or the number of webpages you want to have. I have no idea how to answer these questions -- this website doesn't even exist yet. Obviously I would want to start small, with maybe 5 separate Email addresses, and maybe 5 different webpages. What happens if I want to add a few more webpages? Suppose the website grows to a few dozen pages?

4. I want to be able to do my own coding, and move revised webpages and/or code to my site anytime I want. Is this something that would be under my control or do I have to use the host's tools? In other words, I want to build my own HTML, PHP, and MySQL, and I don't want to use M$ FrontPage.

5. Any recommendations and or step-by-step guides you can recommend?

I know a lot about programming and Oracle databases, but when it comes to wanting to acquire a dot com address and then put together a tiny website, I am lost. Any recommendations/advice are welcome. Thanks -- J.W.

First off, let me state clearly that I'm not a representative of any ISP. My company is new, so I'm just a few steps ahead of you as it is. That said, the answers, as I understand them:

1. Is it better to register the domain and have it hosted elsewhere, or register the domain with the company that would host it?

It shouldn't matter. Most of the time, having your name registered with the hosting company will be cheaper, as they get something akin to "bulk discounts".

2. If I do register a domain, how do I prove I "own" it? Do you get a document of some kind? If someone claims they own it, how do I refute their claims?

Your name is registered publically with the registior that your company uses. This may be evident pretty soon, as some internet spam spiders simply crawl the registration records. You may or may not get an "official" document, but at the very least you'll get an email confirming it. Print it out. Between that and your cashed check, it would be nearly impossible to dispute that fact from the host's side. It wouldn't hurt to print out terms of service and other such information at the same time, to protect your rights in the future. You should be able to transfer your domain to any host you choose.

3. Some places such as networksolutions seem to either add extra charges for Email-boxes and/or the number of webpages you want to have. I have no idea how to answer these questions -- this website doesn't even exist yet. Obviously I would want to start small, with maybe 5 separate Email addresses, and maybe 5 different webpages. What happens if I want to add a few more webpages? Suppose the website grows to a few dozen pages?

They charge per webpage, or per site? Most decent hosts allocate a fixed amount of disk space, a fixed amount of traffic (bandwidth), and other ammenities. What you do with that space doesn't matter to them (within their guidelines--offensive/illegal sites aren't welcome most places). If you have a few kB per page, you might have hundreds of pages. If your pages/items are in the megabyte range, you might only get a couple pages with the cheaper offerings. Extra sites, on the other hand, are more, but then you're talking about multiplying your capacity.

4. I want to be able to do my own coding, and move revised webpages and/or code to my site anytime I want. Is this something that would be under my control or do I have to use the host's tools? In other words, I want to build my own HTML, PHP, and MySQL, and I don't want to use M$ FrontPage.

You want a host that matches your needs. This includes NOT needing FrontPage usage, as that only adds to the cost of your service. A good host will only make you pay for what you use. As far as moving/editing pages, if you're paying for something, you should be able to do what you need to with it, when you need to do it. A lot of "free" web hosts demand you use their tools, but few (if any) paid ones do. The fact is, using a host without those tools is probably cheaper, because you're not sharing the cost of someone else's lack of knowledge. The important item, IMHO, is the ability to upload via FTP. If you aren't allowed that, then there's a gimmick somewhere along the line, and I'd avoid a host like that, because FTP upload is totally hands off from the host's point of view. Virtually all good hosts offer HTML, PHP, and MYSQL. Those are the three musketeers of web site production these days.

5. Any recommendations and or step-by-step guides you can recommend?

Not really. Everybody wants a piece of this or that, and has their interest in your decision one way or another. The best thing to do is check out every host and related article you can, and in the meantime, make your site the best it can be until you find a preferred host.

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scott_R - Thanks for the info. I haven't actually tried to either register a domain or building a website yet, but I do want to have a clear understanding of what things look like before I take the plunge. Thanks again -- J.W.

Hey J.W,

Scott did an awesome job of describing all this so I'm just going to add some baseless opinions:

1. Most registrars do a great job of being a registrar and little else... It depends, most hosting companies do registration as a sideline. Heck, through I think its called Opensrs, you can be a registrar. I recommend pretty much any and all of them MINUS register.com, aka networksolutions. They had the monopoly years ago and still behave as if they still have it.

2. The WHOIS record, try it: whois linuxquestions.org will give you Jeremy's full name , whoever is listed as owner on that is the one icann goes to in a record of dispute. Ownership is also relative in this regard, think of it as a lease of a house. Legally its considered "Unique property" so its hard to assign a dollar value to, like land or a trademark.

3. Aight, the nitty-gritty. Out of all the hosting solutions out there, there's a bunch of ways to go:

Virtual Account: You're domain/webspace for multiple domains lives on a box with a bunch of other virtual accounts... you've got a quota, say 1Gb or something for space, a limit of a certain number of pop email boxes they'll host for you, those will have quotas, usually something massive since you're paying for it, 100Mb or so, and you can usually salad bar pay your way into making these limits bigger. They usually do the DNS record too as a freebie or a nickel and dime setup charge. Since they host a lot of the box you have less control over what PHP they use, or what or whether you get mysql access, and what version of that, etc... pays to shop around, and you can get these as low as like $20 a month.

Dedicated Managed Server: The opposite end of the spectrum. A machine, all to you, that the company admins, that you can request upgrades of whatever you want whenever you want. The company I work for specializes in this, ballpark $200. Usually the mail is on a cetralized mail server, but with these kind of accounts they'll run 100 addresses for you without breaking a sweat.

Dedicated Unmanaged Server: A great way to go... You can get these for about $60-100, they install Fedora Core 1 or FreeBSD or whatever on it, give you the root password and 1 IP address, a limit of about 100Gb a month of transfer (which is ALOT for just a hobby server), and then charge you $10 a shot per time you need the thing rebooted. You run your own mail, mysql, web, https, etc... all your control.

Colo: Your machine, you go to the data center, you've got a keycard, usually 24-7 access, you get to do everything, runs about $100 at the least, you usually get to put a lock on the cabinet its in... for the paranoid.

I colo, but unmanaged would be what I would do if I didn't have an uber-cheap colo deal.

Curious about anything else?

Cheers,

Finegan

Thanks for the followup info, finegan. This info definitely helps. I'm looking at building a website more for learning purposes and/or my own curiosity than for anything else, and as I said the documentation at some of the registration sites I visited ended up creating more confusion than understanding.

In any event, thanks to you and scott_R I consider myself to have a much better handle on it now. If/when I can build a website that doesn't suck, I'll post back here (although it probably won't be for a couple of months)

Thanks again for taking the time to reply -- J.W.