Do I need a new host for a domain name?

ranarama · 12 Mar 2006 at 21:59

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.

ranarama · 12 Mar 2006 at 22:13

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 .

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

.

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.

ranarama · 12 Mar 2006 at 22:55

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

ranarama · 12 Mar 2006 at 23:40

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.