Tech: Web hosting advice

Subject: Tech: Web hosting advice
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Mar 19 - 10:45 AM

Hi all. Mrs G volunteers at a local community library. Their IT resource has stopped supporting them and I have stepped in to see if I can pick up an ongoing project to migrate their web page to something more manageable. The existing one is http://sccls.org.uk/

They want to add a few things and include a link to a DB or spreadsheet with things like the volunteer rotas.

I am reasonably computer literate (UNIX support and admin for 30+ years) and am pretty aware of how these things work but do not have any real experience of performing the tasks required. The way I see it I need to:

1. Transfer their domain name if required
2. Find someone to host the web page
3. Migrate the web page
4. Provide a route to maintain the web page

What I do not know is whether to use someone who hosts the web page and domain. Whether to keep those 2 separate. What I would need to do migrate. Who to use.

Any advice or information would be appreciated

Subject: RE: Tech: Web hosting advice
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 27 Mar 19 - 12:18 PM

Well, fwiw, all I have these days is really just a dumping ground for odds and ends (although email is in regular use with the web host) but I do have a preference for keeping the domain host separate to the web host. It stems from a time when I had all in one and the web host did an overnight flit. It was a long struggle to regain control of the domain(s?) to be able to restart.

We have 3 domains (folkinfo.org, jonbanjo.com and one for my parents). I think theirs is with 123.reg and mine are with GoDaddy, neither of whom I’d expect to go anywhere. Their DNS entries are set up to point to the DNS servers at the Web host (a legacy Red Fox account. They are now part of M24Seven) everything else is managed via a control panel there.

There is not much web space with my web host and there may be better deals (and my account is not available to new customers) but bear in mind most of this dates from a time I was hosting folkinfo (closed 2012) from home (DNS set from the web host system) and probably even the Annexe from the web host. It (now 99% email) has been reliable for years and I’ve not felt like investigating possible changes it’s been a long while since I did any transferring from host to host.

Not saying any of this is right or the best way of course, it’s just how things are here.

Subject: RE: Tech: Web hosting advice
From: Pamela R
Date: 27 Mar 19 - 11:22 PM

I'm by no means a web guru, but I have maintained and hosted several nonprofit organizations' websites since 2003 using icdsoft, including registering and parking domain names, hosting the content, tracking traffic, domain email accounts, etc, all for a very reasonable cost. I find it to be a robust and pretty full-featured service, though I haven't tapped into half of its capabilities. Obviously it's been around a while, and I've gotten fantastic personal responses from customer service on rare occasions when things came up. No complaints so far.

Subject: RE: Tech: Web hosting advice
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Mar 19 - 04:09 AM

Hi Dave - I used to create and maintain my own web sites with html, css, etc., but found it too time-consuming. Looking round at the various website creation businesses, I tested them all and found the easiest one to use was (for me) Weebly. So I set up my new web pages, transferred my domain to the new site and was off and running.

You can have a basic weebly site - weebly branded for free, for as long as you want. If you don't have a domain name, you get the one of your choice with a ".weebly.com" ending. When you transfer the domain name, that stops, so my "www.willflyguitar.weebly.com" became https://www.willflyguitar.com/ after the transfer.

The basic plan can be upgraded to various degrees, with correspondingly increasing fees. I use the "Pro" package which costs me $12 a month over a 1-year contract and allows me to put up audio and video, but the "Starter" package is $8 a month over a 1-year contract, and all packages are cheaper if you opt for 2+ year contracts. I do a number of village websites, so I'm aware of all the possible combinations. Space is unlimited.

The process of getting started is:

(a) choose a theme - which can be easily edited
(b) create the blank pages in your menu
(c) drag your web page components - image, text, gallery, slideshow, contact form, etc., on to a blank page
(d) populate the individual components.

Hope that's useful.
==================

(PS: I'm having logistical problems creating videos at the moment, but I haven't forgotten you!)

Subject: RE: Tech: Web hosting advice
From: GUEST,Mr Red in Bundorun (so I am)
Date: 30 Mar 19 - 05:10 AM

FWIW you can use waitrose.com for up to 50Mb free. But web space is all you get. My waitrose space still exists, but it entirely HTML with auto re- directs now. I toyed with Weebly and apart from the adverts found it OK, if frustratingly limited if if you wanted anything vaguely sophisticated.
For db & things like rotas there are various Goggle/Yapoo/Micro$oft email features like calendar & contacts etc available. The advantage of those is that access is available from anywhere & all the difficult stuff done for you. And there are methods to publish from there, afaik

Best of luck. Post here or PM if you want us to eyeball the results/temp efforts.

Subject: RE: Tech: Web hosting advice
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Mar 19 - 02:53 PM

Weebly has lots of add-ons which allow you to get past the basic structures - some are free, some cost a little money. The website indicated by Dave is well within Weebly's capabilities.

Weebly may not be as slick as other packages, but it's very easy to create and maintain.

Subject: RE: Tech: Web hosting advice
From: treewind
Date: 30 Mar 19 - 03:52 PM

PM Sent. I may be able to help in various ways.

Anahata, Treewind Hosting