web sites

[hedgerow pete]

ok here we go again, i am bored and sat at home doing nothing, as i have finished mending the hedron colider again, now we want to go into competition with google.

So the big fella sits in front of his computer at home , valves glowing nicely. we have been to the library and now also have 12 books on website design.

we have just typed into google the dreaded words " how to make a website for free" we like the word free, especialy as i have no job free is good.

and what has sprung up is loads and loads of website design sites that offer a free hosting service and there own sort of design programe that i go through clicking on windows and boxes etc. but from what i then gather after reading the terms and conditions, yes people realy do read them!!

is that after a while i will have to either buy upgrades or in some form or anther pay , so its not so free and the biggest problem is that they own the site not me so they can do what ever they want or like as it suits them, which is not good

so all my techno friends, where on the web do i go, to get website building thingys and a bucket of doobies to go with it, and once i have finished nailing it all together and making it the worlds greatest web site.

what do i do about anti hacking stuff and back ups or is that down to the hosting server?

if its not where do i get them from?

just basicly the whole website building for the mentaly insane and very board question realy.

 

[BKF Admin]

so all my techno friends, where on the web do i go, to get website building thingys and a bucket of doobies to go with it

You send me a pm and ask me for free hosting/software/backups ect on the forum server...

All you need to pay for is the domain( that way it belongs to you),about five quid for a couple of years.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

For my first website I used www.streamline.net
All you pay is the hosting fee (about £5 per month) and whatever it costs to buy the domain name you want. It was fairly easy to use and get set up but the problem with template websites is that they are generally not very user friendly and they are difficult to get them exactly as you want.

I now use www.smallisbeautifulwebdesign.co.uk. They do the whole lot for you, but it's not free

 

[nelletap]

Quite often your ISP has a space that you can use for free as part of their service to you - though the address may not be user friendly it can suit many. They often also have a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) type of editor - basically you arrange things and it creates the necessary code so that it should display that way for most viewers. You might like to find out about that first.
The changes come if you want a domain name, too. Domain names cost though quite modest (can be as low as £1.99 for 2 years). Sometimes when you renew them the cost of the domain name increases. There are packages of domain name and free hosting, again quite reasonable, and where they say free hosting my experience is that most do stay free though may have limits as to amount of space taken up or amount of visitors or even what can be used on the site.
Two hosts I have used are FreeHostia and another I need to check the *name of and they seem OK. *Easy Internet Solutions/Free virtual servers - I think they have merged since I started. I have had a site with them for years. They will normally back up their servers version of files for you.
I quite like the serif website packages because they are easy to get going with a basic site as you can choose colour schemes and basic images and they will populate all pages with the details that need to be repeated. Often you can get the version before the latest as a free download. I always keep my own back up of my website as well and if the ISP lost everything I would just upload again. You need an ftp client (I use filezilla which is free) to upload your website - basically you click on the files you want to upload from your version of the published website and press upload and they are replicated at the location you are given by your host/isp. using an ftp client recommended by your ISP is sensible for a novice as the settings will be laid out clearly for you to copy/adapt.
You kindly offered to send me some willow, so perhaps being a mentor / helper for you in this could be a way for me to say thank you?
Tricia
You can look at either of my websites www.quizpot.info or www.eduramble.org though I have not checked either for a while - I am not brilliant but I can produce an OK-ish website. In some ways you can use your webspace as a backup for files if they are not sensitive/they can't be stumbled upon by accident. For example this link http://www.quizpot.info/Hive_parts/index.html allows me to share this with other people but I don't think it would be found by accident as I have not included a link to it on the web.
Tricia

 

[hedgerow pete]

tricia, i think that was a brilliant message , unfortunutly my son is not here to translate it into hairy builder, but after studying my website books its starting to get clear ISH.

so what i need to do is

build the website,

buy the name from some one,

send it to someone that has a server

they stick it on the internet

i pay them a monthly fee to leave it on the internet

so who does the security and hacking stuff then?

 

[hedgerow pete]

i have just had a look at the eduramble site and its fairly close to what i want,

front page
three other pages flogging honey ect
contacts page.
how easy is it to link with paypal and whats the hidden costs for that, so i could sell on line too??

better stick some form of location map delivery area as well

so your looking at seven pages with it all on, inc a paypal link page or is it just link

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Pete - you'd want to choose a hosting site before going too far down the building road - not all sites can cope with all build methods.

Normally the bulk of security is looked after by the host, though you will need to put your own restrictions in place (who can edit, passwords etc)

If I were you though I'd snap up Marks very generous offer before he changes his mind

 

[MrB]

And after you have done all that you have the joy of SEO

 

[nelletap]

Sorry about the jargon - am willing to explain all and/or speak on teh phone if it helps!

Normally I find all I ever pay is the domain name fee because I don't expect a huge amount of traffic or want anything fancy.

The free virtual servers is one of many and usually they have a link to find domain names as you go through - for free virtual servers if you look towards the top of the page from the freehosting link you can insert your preferred name and they will show you the possibilities with an indication of what is available and its cost. You can move that domain to anywhere you like for hosting though it can take a few days. It is easier to get the domain from a host you think you will actually be able to afford to use rather than have to move it straight away.
There are loads of places to find your domain name - search for something like - buy domain name.
It doesn't hurt to play around with a website structure - either using a package or just by sketching on paper what you want. Whilst you are in the process of creating the site you save it as a file rather than a website and then when you are happy you 'publish' it first to a folder on the computer where you can look at it as if it were live and even send the whole folder to others - on disc or by email -whose opinions you value. Normally the site when 'published' to a folder can be hosted from that format by any reasonable host.
It pays to think a little about the navigation. Having a few basic clear topics makes sense, with possibly subtopics from a list that drops down from the main topic. A good tip is to think of your users especially if they may fall into categories.
Another good tip would be to look at sites which have a similar purpose, not to copy but to identify what you like or hate from each.
Most ISP's take the worry out of any sales aspects if you have an online shop - when you are looking for a host seek out one that says they offer online sales. the security will be down to them.
There are some obligations on a website creator to make their site 'accessible' - it must be visible on different platforms eg mac, pc, linux - easier than it sounds as basically most browsers cope with most code for websites well. However, if you have crucial information embedded in a picture which could then not be seen by the visually impaired, for example, you have to make sure they can have the same information as teh sighted person. Visually impaired users have browsers which read the text from websites.
Anyway, I'll pm you and then if you want to make a list of questions we can speak. I am sure there are others here as well who can give answers to anything I am less knowledgeable about!
Tricia

 

[Lozza]

If you don't want to write any code you can use a CMS (content management system). Have a look at joomla.org. This has loads of features build in and any that you can think of can be added with extensions.

I use 5quidHost.co.uk. They do a free plan to have a play around, which can automatically install joomla. With a few clicks you can get a basic site up and running. To see what can be done (with only a little effort) have a look at egbka.org.uk. The only cost is the hosting and domainname.

 

[hedgerow pete]

the hosting is going to admin as anyone who can put up and control us lot, knows what he is doing, top man, Mark

costs i was told between £5 to £10 a month is normaldepending on how much twiddling is expected from the hosts

all i need now is for admin to send me over the soft wear thingy my jig, stuff so i can see here and play.

a friend sent me over to the cnet site as ever on the hunt for free stuff, i love cnet its free, i love free,

( theres a lot of loving going on today, is it a computer thing!!)

i have found one massive muck up tho, i am the wrong side of the camera for a lot of the photos so i have to drag my son up to the farms and then the bee shed to get some pictures.

i need to set the website up to market four seperate products, bees and honey is only one part of the four.
but i dont think i need four seperate websites as the four are all me and the cross looking might work in my favour.

keep coming with all this fantastic great help as its starting to make sence to me slowly as i read these books.

pete

sorry LOVE PETE

 

[Mike a]

I'd really like to learn flash programming/design. Then may be create graphical and text programmes like mini RPG's and animation.

Any recommendations?

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Mike - I occasionally use this site for other tutorials,
http://www.w3schools.com/flash/flash_intro.asp
its pretty basic but will give you a flavour of what to do. Would suggest getting a decent book for the in depth stuff

 

[nelletap]

For Flash animation, Corel R.A.V.E which was part of Corel Draw for versions 10 to 12 has the benefits of making it really easy to create Flash animations. I do also have Flash itself, but it is that little bit more complex so takes much longer to start to get interesting / satisfying results. Not sure whether this might have been triggered if you looked at teh hive parts animated task to which I gave a link earlier in this thread. I used software called 'Fuse creator' to make that which means you can use a very visual approach and the code is created behind the scenes. It also allows lots of feedback and more complicated links - for example, I can put one interactive task and if the user has a low score on that, I can make the next task one thing but if they score more highly I can follow it with a more challenging interactive task. Also allows various ways to feedback and summarise how the user perfomed.
Tricia

 

[Headnavigator]

I'd go for Serif WebPlus Essentials. Not free, but you can cut some good deals. best bet is to have a look: http://www.serif.com/webplus/essentials
and phone their techie geeks and talk to them. Always available, I've found, and very good at talking you through any zigzags or weird things you want to do. Lots of templates but you can go completely outside them and do your own thing, or half'n'half.
I've done a few sites through different softwares/hostings and this is the one I'll stick with. And it gets you to YouTube, Paypal etc., its 'big brother' WebPlus x4 does the easiest Flash too. And you get a proper .com domain name.
HOWEVER: (and there's always a however) they'll spend forever sending you emails and even phoning to try and sell you other items of their software. You can junk the emails, the phone calls you have to be ever so politely firm with your 'No, and no more calls please' and you should be OK, at least for a while. But on the positive side their techie geeks are the best I've met. Good luck - don't forget to post the url when you're up and running so we can all enjoy!

 

[hedgerow pete]

ok people less of the techno chat,

flash comes in packets and we use it to clean the kitchen floor.
corel is underwater rocks and i dont dive any more as the wife insisted on it.
rave is loud music that kids listen to

and i am getting a headache.

 

[Hombre]

Then you definitely wouldn't like to hear about some GNU/Linux project names, they would deffo put your mind into a spin.

 

[hedgerow pete]

Ok we have another life crisis on the go. we have just changed the keyboard on the house computer and now my @ and " buttons are the wrong way round.

Where abouts with the very big hammer do i hit the said computer to swap them back again

 

[Jim Lavie]

Ok we have another life crisis on the go. we have just changed the keyboard on the house computer and now my @ and " buttons are the wrong way round.

Where abouts with the very big hammer do i hit the said computer to swap them back again

Hi Pete try, go to Control Panel, regional/languages, and check that you are correctly set for UK, I don't think there is a beeshed setting
regards Jim

 

[hedgerow pete]

well i have tried pushing buttons and clicking mices it because i think the lad who killed the computer on friday has every thing set as americian settings not blighty, i will now pop off and speak to my lovingly whilst still holding the big ammer