Buying webspace and associated email addresses.

For various reasons I would like to register a domain name and buy a modicum of webspace together with a couple or three email addresses associated with the domain. So I could have space for content at www.mydomain.whatever and email addresses [email protected]. Should be simple I thought,

I've had a look at two providers - GoDaddy and Ionos - but I'm finding it difficult to understand what they're actually offering and at what price. For example, Ionos ask me for my preferred domain name (it takes them a whole page to ask this question - I'm told "Need a website? You own this!". "Knit up the perfect website in a flash. No experience needed." ) FFS. I don't want to knit anything and realise that I 'own' the domain name for the duration of my my contract, that's the deal isn't it? I just want a DNS registered website with some defined storage space and some linked email addresses with defined storage space. Not "all you need". Pretty much the the same with GoDaddy - it seems hard to know exactly what you're buying.

Can anyone recommend a 'package' which would meet my needs?

Robin.

I can't recommend any particular package, though when I was in a similar position I used, and still use, one.com, as they were reasonably priced at the time.
My mistake was to choose one of their own domain suffixes, specifically ".one", so all my various email addresses are of the form [email protected]
They work fine and are reliable, but not all website auto validation algorithms will accept "~.one" as a valid email address, which caused me some problems.
I'd now choose something more conventional as in "~.co.uk" or "~.com" etc
I was originally planning on a "~.eu" but it's a good job I decided against that one.

Bill

I think I have basically what you are looking for, small web site hosted on a server with email addresses, loads more than I would need! Domain name re registers every couple of years I think at about £15 each time and it now costs me about £12 a month for the site and emails. When I started it was less than a fiver a month but that was a long time back. Site is not updated to the latest security standards so I doubt anyone visits it any more, been thinking of packing it in to be honest, but I might get excited about it again one day and update it. Search fasthosts, that’s who it’s with. I only started it to find out how it all worked years back, I am not particularly IT savvy so it was a struggle getting it working, would probably really struggle now to update it!

Paul.

I've had my own domain for better than 20 years parked at EasyDNS. No problem at all till recently. Be aware that gmail is now rigorously enforcing security/authentication measures that may prevent you from sending to gmail addresses (those are the ubiquitous ones).

See here for details. Make sure that wherever you park your domain they will assist you.

(I should add that I was sending via my ISP address using my domain credentials - as I have done for 20 years - but only recently has gmail implemented bolshy authentication measures)

Edited By Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 15/07/2022 01:42:27

I'm not clear on exactly what you want. If it’s just your own 'name' and some email addresses, then that is simple enough . But if you want to actually have a website, then much depends on that website's purpose - a simple blog of your hobby builds has different needs compared to a small sales area. And i you are going to allow users to upload data or comments then a whole new layer of security concerns comes in.
Back when I was into this stuff, I used 'heart Internet' which offer a variety of options .

pgk

Have you checked your ISP, some offer web hosting and email addresses. I am with Zen and can highly recommend them as an ISP and they offer what appears to be a good hosting package.

Have a look at Hostinger, they have good reviews.

But all this does all depend on your knowledge and needs.

Look at Freeola.com And their linked getdotted.com to see if they suit your needs (good service and very helpful).

Freeola

Edited By V8Eng on 15/07/2022 08:20:20

I use Ionos (1&1) for both my domain name registrar and as a web host. Journeyman's Workshop has been running without any hosting problems for quite a few years now. I have a few domains registered through Ionos including 'journeymans-workshop.uk' they handle renewals automatically without any hassle.

You need to get through the advertising blurb to choose a suitable hosting package *** this page *** lists the available packages. Unless you need anything complicated the basic £5 per year package is probably OK, that will give you one domain name and an SSL certificate included in the price. The SSL certificate is pretty much a necessity these days to enable running an HTTPS site otherwise you wont get a good Google ranking.

The basic package includes plenty of storage space and gives you up to 10 databases if you want to run Wordpress. The domain is only included for the first year and thereafter will need renewing separately, renewal cost will depend on type ie .com is pricey but .co.uk is cheaper.

Hope that helped a bit

John

Edit: Change link

Edited By Journeyman on 15/07/2022 09:00:09

The web address has been fairly well covered I think - you effectively rent it and can move it anywhere. You have to choose from what is available - robingraham.com will have gone.

Where you go next is depends on how you want to build your website.

If you want to get stand-alone software like WebEasy or something you then need webspace to upload it to and direct your web address to it. You rent this space from someone like Ionos etc. You use what is called FTP upload software to upload your built website.

The "make a website in 5 minutes" thing is usually using a provider's web building software and this is uploaded within their app into the provider's webspace and has a web address unique to them. This will work OK and you can usually attach your own web address to it instead of theirs. The whole lot stays within the provider's space and you use their web building software to amend it. Ionos etc. also provide this.

Hope this helps.

Sorry journeyman - we were responding at the same time. Great website anyway.

Edited By Anthony Kendall on 15/07/2022 08:56:06

I have my email and website with my ISP, but I now feel trapped with them because of the hassle of changing everything at the same time, just something to be aware of and not something I would do again unless they are not linked contracts.

Baldric.

When I did this a million years ago I used somewhere like freeparking and owned the domain outright in a separate location

Then you simply point it at your web pages. wherever they may be

Finding a good website builder for people with no coding skills is a minefield. Many have limitations, some such as Webeasy can't scale pages to fit phones and ipads so end up not getting indexed,

Undoubtedly the best free uncomplicated website builder is provided by Google. See mine here: My Google website you can connect your own domain to it but I haven't bothered to do that as it's just a hobby website.

I'm retired now but I have 2 domains and keep my old websites hosted with Tshost.com for 14 years, always reliable and a rapid response if you have a problem.

My .co.uk website hosting has remained at £14.99 a year since 2008 although newcomers won't get that price now as the cheapest is 100GB space @ £3.99 a month with free domain name Tshost

+1 for Freeola.com When I had my own website with them I never had a problem. Easy to set up etc. When I reliquished the website I retained all the associated emails for a small monthly fee. I only changed from Freeola when I had FTTP installed.

regards

Godaddy and many others are aimed at tweenies for instant satisfaction using templates and their own software. This makes it very difficult and often impossible to do your own thing if you have any previous website creation experience for the past. Creating sensible file structures and lightweighe pages are out - massive javascript overheads are in. You are also locked to their software.
Wordpress adds cost and locks you to their software although in theory you can move to other wordpress supporting providers. It too is wrapped up in itself to make it impossible to maintain outside their package. eg all photos are numbered and filed in their structure, not a simple filing system.
Your current ISP probably gives you quite a few emails if you want them, as derivatives of you main one. Those provided with a web package will be locking you in. There are email only services to keep that separate for some portability.

Beware special offers. Our club used 1&1 now Ionos and they provided an unsolicited 'trial' of extra features we didn't want or use. At the end of the trial they sneakily almost doubled the price and changed the direct debit to 6 months so you wouldn't notice if not on the ball.

I use (and have used for almost 20 years) a small outfit in Scotland - Calico (www.cali.co.uk). £30/year +VAT for the domain +1Gb mail + 50Mb web space. The mail system uses catchall so [email protected] gets delivered to me and my mail client sorts the different addresses so I can have all the mail addresses I want.

They do more sophisticated packages as well.

I can remember only a couple f outages in the 20 years and they were quickly fixed.

GoDaddy doubled the price in the second year. Moved the domain name to Weebly, no problems.

I've used simplewebhosting.co.uk for about fifteen years now for our club website (not model engineering), not had any issues.

Rob

I'm fairly sure Robin would have found Ionos do offer what he needs had he persisted. Their offerings are typical, and I doubt other suppliers are any simpler. I fear setting up a website is a shade or two more complicated than Robin expects; the problem is understanding enough to get going. (Story of my life!)

The Ionos start page is very simple; it asks prospective customers to enter their chosen domain name and checks to see if it's already been allocated. If it is, alternatives are offered. For example 'robingraham.co.uk' is gone, but 'robingraham,org' is available.

This page shouldn't be enough to trigger a FFS reaction!

I don't want to knit anything

Knitting is just Ionos trying to be friendly. Websites don't appear by magic. The builder uses tools to organise structure and content as necessary to achieve a design. Can be very simple or very complicated. Knitting's not a bad analogy - needles and wool are used to implement a pattern resulting in a garment that fits the customer. I recommend Robin does a bit more planning: what's the data, if more than one page, how will pages be organised, deciding look and feel, and identifying the tools needed to build the site.

and realise that I 'own' the domain name for the duration of my my contract, that's the deal isn't it?

No, that's not the deal! Ionos don't issue domain names; they find one and register it on your behalf. It's allocated to you, usually for a year, and you can renew independently. Not part of the Ionos contract. It allows websites to move to another provider without changing the website's address, which upsets users. Also allows businesses to protect brand names by registering all the domain names that might conceivably point to them. It's a good thing. ISPs who provide web-hosting often issue domain names that belong to them, which makes it harder to move to another host.

Ionos offer several different packages, covering small and simple up to big and complicated.

• The simple range includes a web-development tool: probably the best option for a beginner because the tool provides standard patterns for the customer to follow. It knows what ordinary folk want; helps them populate their site by box filling; and hides most of the complexity behind the scenes. Going live is often a single button press. Volume of data and traffic, and the number of features available can be upgraded by buying the next package up. Downside, lack of flexibility, basic performance and availability, and proprietary lock-in. Some of the cheaper providers, not Ionos, fund your website by using it to publish their adverts! But well suited to anyone needing a straightforward low-value website that can be developed with the sort of skill levels needed to drive a word-processor. Based Robin using the word 'modicum', I guess the first and cheapest package in this group does more than he needs, apart from email - one.
• The hosting range doesn't include web-development tooling. Instead, the customer develops the website off-line, using whatever tools he wants, builds and tests in private, and only uploads when ready. Ionos don't support development. They provide 99.9% availability (by mirroring websites at two different locations), storage space (starting at 100Gb), RAM (starting at 6Gb) and 1 virtual CPU. There is no quota limit on network traffic, but the developer has to understand platform limitations - 6Gb RAM and 1CPU, will limit the number of concurrent users and the complexity of what they do. In short, this option is 'better' but the developer has to be more technically savvy. Quite a good option because it's usable by anyone with basic developer skills but supports more advanced stuff if needed later. Three email included.

Although Ionos web hosting services come with limited email capability, full volume email can be added. Ionos sell email as a standalone service, supporting anything from single users to large businesses - it just costs more.

I focus only on Ionos because Robin mentioned them. They're fairly typical. Other providers available, so compare prices. Beware - they're all fond of offering super-cheap start-up deals that get pricey after 'n' months!

Dave

Thanks for replies - all very helpful. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about what I'm looking for - I'd spent an hour or more trying to negotiate my way though 'advertising blurb' before posting so my brain was fried. And my temper short.

Thank you John (Journeyman) for the direct link to the Ionos page listing their packages - I gave up before finding it. That was what I wanted.

It'll take me a while to work through all the suggestions / links, but at the mo Fasthosts is looking good. I'll follow up other suggestions though. I'm looking for something pretty basic - I don't need website building tools at this stage, I'm OK with coding in HTML/Java and have pages which I've already developed and can run locally in my browser. If (and it's a big 'if' ) I get more ambitious I'm sure there is third party development software out there. I don't want to get locked into development tools provided by the hosting company, and I have no serious commercial ambitions.

Dave (SOD) - I wrote the above before reading your post. Thanks for your characteristically informative and clearly written contribution. It wasn't the Ionos start page that provoked the FFS reaction - I got through that OK and the domain name I wanted was available, I suppose I just got crabby - I wanted the bottom line and it seemed a hard trek to get there. Having backtracked I was only a click away from the page Jouneyman linked to, but had run out of steam. You're right, I should have persisted!

Ionos' opening page's 'Power your project with scalable hosting' sort of set the tone. For me that's not friendly. It's patronising . As is the knitting analogy. Perhaps that put me in a bad mood!

I wrote 'own' in inverted commas for a reason - I understand that I am buying something more akin to a lease than a freehold.

To give some background, in my working life I used to teach C/Unix programming inter alia and made web pages to allow students to access course materials. I had the luxury of a powerful computer with a static IP address in my office so I could use Apache to give me a "personal" website - [mycomputer].[uni].ac.uk . What I'm trying to do is replicate that in a home environment - it's more to do with understanding the way the commercial web hosting world works than the nuts and bolts of building webpages.

Thanks again to all for advice, the mist is beginning to clear.

Robin

[edited to get rid of unwanted  winkicon]

[and again and again to remove angle brackets which don't seem to be allowed]

Edited By Robin Graham on 17/07/2022 01:04:07

Edited By Robin Graham on 17/07/2022 01:10:34

Edited By Robin Graham on 17/07/2022 01:12:59

Edited By Robin Graham on 17/07/2022 01:22:24

Edited By Robin Graham on 17/07/2022 01:26:20

In that case my advice to go for the Ionos simple option is wrong. With your background and experience, the Ionos standard hosting package is more suitable. Same with other providers - you want a flexible techy option rather than an easy to use editor that hides features useful to a power-user.

Maybe my suggestion of hosting at home is closer still? For experimental work a dynamic address might be good enough because they don't change very often these days (a generalisation!) Most ISPs will provide a static IP address if needed, in which case your work set-up could be replicated. One warning, running a web-site on a workplace Intranet is safe because Intranets are usually carefully insulated from the wild and woolly internet with separate Firewalls and more run by the IT Department. If you roll a website at home, pay close attention to security because you're on your own! A friend with an insignificant home website was amazed at the attention it got - constantly and aggressively probed from all round the world.

Dave