Webhosting/domain Questions
 

I want to set up my own domain.

I want to have about 100MG webspace.

I want to be able to FTP into it to upload stuff.

I want to be able to add a shopping cart.

No banner ads.

I realize that domain name and hosting can be two different things.

How do I go about setting this up, and from your experience who are the best companies to do this with, for as little money as possible.

Figured I'd ask the experts instead of trial and error. Why reinvent the wheel?

http://www.lunarpages.com

They offer a lot of different stuff along with their space, including the things you're looking for. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but they can make you look like one.

I think a lot of people like dreamhost, so check them out as well.

Yeah, I've had my domain at Dreamhost for several years. I've been happy with it. Their basic plan will do everything you want except the shopping cart.

I would suggest signing up for your domain through damn near anybody except Verisign. (I personally have used joker.com and godaddy.com.) Whoever you pick as your web host will probably offer to register your domain for you. Their price for the registration may or may not be competitive, so shop around. If they tell you they can't host a domain unless you register it through them they're pulling a fast one.

If you register with one place and host with another, you will need to update your registration information so people will know where to look for your server. This is usually an easy process, and your web host will usually have a set of instructions already written up to explain your settings.

And whatever you do, make a note of when your domain registration expires and make sure you renew it!!

http://www.123ezhost.com/

Had them for a year now, no downtime (that I could see) and $20 for a year of hosting.

-500mb
-5 GB of bandwidth
-Shopping carts, pretty much any web applications
-Unlimited FTP accounts
-Unlimited email accounts

Well, for $32 I get a year + domain registration, versus lunarpages at $100 a year. We'll see how it works out.. Wish me luck!

(My company is selling off and I'm tired of moving and changing all my webages from one domain to another, so I figured $32 a year is worth not be aggravated by having to change everything over constantly. And I wont have to use 7 different email addresses because I only get 10M webspace per email address. Hell, one page alone runs 5 Megs with pictures and everything.)