Do I need a new host for a domain name?

ranarama

ranarama

ranarama

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I a complete noob to this website hosting stuff. I've got some webspace from my broadband provider (nildram) but that has the web address homepages.nildram.co.uk/~username

I want a website to put my photography on but don't want to use the nildram address. I'd rather have a www.myname.com type address.

Can I buy a web domain and link it to that webspace or am I better off just getting a new host? Eventually I want to have more space than nildram give me and possible use some sort of database to run the website which I can't do at the moment. That will all require a new host (and a lot more learning on my part) but for the time being I'm not sure what I should be doing.

All help is appreciated.
 
Most domain name registrars can provided a redirect to your Nildram space by way of an HTML frame enabling the new domain URL to remain in the address bar. This won't however help your search engine rankings.

If you want to use the domain directly you will need to purchase webspace. Check out www.ochostreview.co.uk :).
 
Adz said:
Most domain name registrars can provided a redirect to your Nildram space by way of an HTML frame enabling the new domain URL to remain in the address bar. This won't however help your search engine rankings.

If you want to use the domain directly you will need to purchase webspace. Check out www.ochostreview.co.uk :).
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Thanks. Had a look at the host reviews and just got more lost really. I found most of them seemed to offer much more than I actually need as it's not a commercial website I'm looking to run. Well maybe in the future if my photography gets a bit more reliable :o .

I thought I knew a lot about computers but I feel really lost in this area. I get the feeling everybody with their own websites just seems to know about it professionally so nobody's given a step by step guide for people like me.

Interesting point about the rankings. I'll bear that in mind when I decide what to do. :)
 
In today's market, you can pick up perfectly usable hosting for £10-£20/year.

You can either register your domain name via your hosting provider or via an independent registrar (arguably a safer thing to do). If taking the former option, everything will be handled for you. If you are going for the latter option, you will need to provide your registrar with the names of your host's authoritative nameservers which will be provided when you sign up.

You then upload your site using FTP. Internet Explorer can handle this or there are plenty of freeware packages available such as SmartFTP (www.smartftp.com).

I hope that helps. Let us know if you get stuck with anything.
 
Again thanks for the replies. I've had a look through the reviews and the tsohost lite package will probably suit me.

They don't look like they will register the domain name for you so is there anything I should be wary of?

I'm fine with uploading stuff to websites as I've been doing it using coreFTP to upload to my free webspace with nildram. Providing them with the authoritative nameserver looks OK as well as tsohost look like they give pretty clear instructions on what to do.

Thanks
 
I've been using Vidahost for hosting my photography site and they've been nothing but brilliant.

I'm pretty sure they do a service that will allow you to get just the domain but I'd reccomend getting a hosting package of some kind. They cost pittance, have huuuuuge bandwidth allowances and include a domain.
 
Signed up with register1 for the domain and tsohost for the hosting. Will post a link when it's all sorted for your discerning critiques :) . Might be a while though as I have one of the busiest weeks of the year ahead. Work for a bookies and Cheltenham starts on Tuesday. Always good fun but the work never ends.
 
use register1 here and have no problems, didn't the owner used to post on here? had a pink tvr if i remember right.
 
Sone said:
use register1 here and have no problems, didn't the owner used to post on here? had a pink tvr if i remember right.
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Eyedot.

Im with register1 for all of my domain names (Although they dont support european domains) and catalyst2 for hosting
 
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