Ok, I know this is off topic, but I know there are a lot of tech savvy guys here, and I trust you all better than anyone else I know. For over 10 years I’ve had a free Geocities website. I use it for my personal website, for hosting pics for eBay auctions, and my Pork Links Busse Kin link page. Yahoo is closing down their free Geocities hosting, so in a couple weeks my page will be gone. So, I will need a new host.

I have decided rather than get another free host; I want a paid host that I can have a custom domain name for. I want to own the domain name so I can transfer hosts if needed and keep ownership of the name. Besides the current uses for my page I listed above, I want to create an online store to sell items. I have a PayPal business account, so I can use their shopping cart system for a store. I’m looking for a host that’s affordable, reliable, with good customer service. I’m overwhelmed by the choices, and didn’t know if anyone had any suggestions.

Yahoo/Geocities emailed me their current offer, which is $4.99 a month (billed yearly) for the first year, but then after that it’s $9.99 a month. I think that’s not too bad for the first year, but too expensive after that. I looked at other sites, but I’ve seen conflicting reviews about their service, so I don’t know who is good and affordable.

Another site I was looking at is justhost.com. They are $4.95 a month (billed yearly) or $3.95 a month for a 2 year term. (Payable every 2 years - $94.80)

Does anyone have any suggestions? Both the sites above the price is for “unlimited” web space and transfer, with a lot of asterisks and limitations. I don’t know if there are any other sites that are better than these. I have my pages backed up on my computer, and I want to get a new page set up before my other one goes down. Thanks for any help you can offer.

I would check out Go Daddy. https://www.godaddy.com/

Andy - you might check with WhichDawg. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

godaddy.com seems to be a good bet. Also consider cramming it into the format of a blog (blogspot.com is a free way to do it).

I would stay free and go with Google sites:
http://sites.google.com

I checked there, but their plan was limited to 10 GB space, and 300 GB transfer. It was $4.99/month for 3 months or $4.74/month for 12 months. So, it’s about the same price as the other two, but with limits. Also, IIRC David Brown had his site hosted there and he had problems and switched.


Will do.


I looked there, but I’d really like a more professional custom domain name.

My hard learned lesson? You can get packages with lots of space, lots of transfer, lots of reliability and at a good price. Now pick 3 of the 4.

How much space do you currently use and how much are you currently transferring in the run of a month?

Well, right now it says I'm using 19 MB of storage.

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Best coaching of all

Dan

I looked there, but I’d really like a more professional custom domain name. [/quote]

Use dyndns to register your domain name, and point the DNS resolution to your free google site.
http://www.dyndns.com/services/webredirect/

I like Little Oak, a smaller company with very good customer service. Chris is the main man there.
http://www.littleoak.net/

Chris can help you with registering a domain name and make sure it is in your name, then make sure that it is renewed correctly each year. The prices are excellent for the quality of service you get.

Ok…I’ve never done this before, so I’m a bit overwhelmed. I can do HTML, but that’s about it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> If I did that, would it show my custom domain name in the address bar, or redirect and show the free Google site? Because I want it to say my custom domain name in the address bar. If it will only show my custom domain name in the address bar, that sounds like it might work, assuming I don’t go over the filespace / traffic limit.

I looked at the dyndns page, and I’m not sure what option I would use. Would it just be the one that says domain registration? I think so, but I wanted to make sure. I saw other options, like dynamic dns, custom dns, etc.