Webmasters
 

Somehow I got volunteered into creating a website for some noobs. It's been 10 years since I wrote any HTML so need your advice on a few questions:

1) Where should I register their domain name?
2) Who has the best hosting service?
3) What is the best tool for making a simple, static web pages? (I used Dreamweaver back in the 90's)
4) They need a calendar function to display events. Any tools that have this ready-made?
5) They want to have email addresses for their domain so it needs a mail server or whatever you recommend, e.g. bert05gpw@ournewdomain.org, bert05gpw@jcreceives.org, etc)

Here's my biggest worry -- at some point these noobs will have to take over maintaining their web site so I need something EASY for them to handle. For instance, they are not able to edit the /etc/.rc file or twiddle bits in a hex editor -- they need EASY. Honestly, I don't expect the html to change to often. They will have a News, FAQ, Calendar, About Us, Pictures, and Volunteer sections. Nothing fancy.

What do you recommend?

1) godaddy (their upsells are annoying but they have good pricing if you find a coupon code... you could also look into enom, namecheap, or wherever you decide to host)

2) For dedicated servers, I have been with layeredtech.com for 5 years now... I also keep a shared server around with MediaTemple

3) Wordpress

4) Wordpress plugin

5) Your host can do this... you could also use gmail hosted

Most domain name registrars are equal, so long as you plan to keep the domain registered with them forever.

I host with Lunar Pages (<-- affiliate URL). It's always easy to get a hold of them on the phone and they are easy to work with. The servers are reliable and their control panel is "simple". Ofcourse, that's a relative term and chances are anything will be too hard for most non-computer-people.

If you want a site they can maintain (and with a calendar) then you should just set them up with a CMS package. Drupal, Joomla, even Wordpress.

I strongly recommend against gmail hosting your email. If you have a problem with Google, good luck getting them on the phone for help. Email is usually included with hosting (it is with Lunarpages).

Depends on what you are looking for and how much traffic.

Personally I use http://www.xlhost.com/ for my dedicated webserver with unlimited bandwith and http://www.singlehop.com/ for my dedicated gameservers. And I have cheap shared hosting servers on http://www.hostgator.com/ to use as my download/patch servers to save bandwith on my dedicated servers.

If you are wanting something that is easy for someone to update without going in and manually updating the page source I would recommend a CMS also. I use vbulletin with the VBAdvanced CMS and VBSEO (great search engine optimizer).

A setup like that doesn't appeal to the average person making a site to share a few pictures but if they are trying to start a business I would highly recommend it. The licenses for all the programs I mentioned would cost about $600.

You can visit my site and see what I was talking about here http://www.brazen-gaming.com I have calendar disabled and I have a custom reskin with a few hacks to VB to make my site look different than the standard VB site look.

Makes things nice and easy to update if you can use a forum and make posts you can update the website. No changes to source just make or update a post and be done. I originally used free php alternatives but it is SO much easier and I am glad I made the change. Also Vbulletin is always releasing patches to make sure your site is secure taking a lot of the hard work away from the inexperienced.

There's a datacenter in Irvine that does shared hosting, which should be what you need.

www.nextmill.net

All hosting packages have full email services, too.

I'm interning there right now :LOL: shameless plug.