Question regarding web hosting services

**videoman1994** · February 17th, 2012, 10:51 AM

I am planning on running a website where me and a couple of my friends and their friends can hang out and talk about video games and our common interest.

However, I am not that good with knowing the best service provider. I could always google this, but I feel it is better to ask people who may have used them before.

All in all, to get the point, which service provider do you feel is the best option to go with? I have delt with webs.com and I have loved their services, however I am not sure if that is the best choice.

Also I want to keep the service free, I may buy a premium in the future.

**Nude_Lewd_Man** · February 17th, 2012, 11:20 AM

I used to use Free Web Hosting with PHP, MySQL and cPanel, No Ads for my schtuffs, before I went and got (three) domains hosted with one.com - they do a free service...just don't expect the speed to be that great..

Depending on exactly what you're trying to do, you could possibly host your own "server" too...

**RicheemxX** · February 17th, 2012, 02:14 PM

When you say hang out and chat do you mean a forum like here, a real time chat setup, message boards or what? What kind of functionality do you need? How many friends are you looking at?

Are you going to actually buy and register a domain name or just use a subdomain/free type setup all the way around?

Th reason I'm asking is because you could use something like pro-boards (or another freebie) for a basic message board setup. If you need realtime chatting you could setup and IRC client

**Tegan** · February 28th, 2012, 09:10 PM

If you are serious about having your own website, then you will want to register a domain for a year for about 10 bucks. Then get a hosting account, which can be as low as 5 bucks a month (the typical cost for a single website to be hosted nowadays) thats less than 20 cents a day. Usually the hosting company will give you some email addresses, databases, and a control panel to manage it all.

**RicheemxX** · February 28th, 2012, 10:27 PM

Tegan how does any of your post make sense to what the OP is asking. He specifically says he wants to keep it free, why would you suggest adding hosting at $5/mo, and on top of that why would you make the suggestion but not actually suggest a good service as he's asking??

Nudes suggestion actually looks pretty nice for a free host. That is a lot more storage and transfers than the webs site. I know you said free but if you were actually looking to buy a domain some places give you free hosting for at least a year that isn't too bad.

**Nude_Lewd_Man** · February 29th, 2012, 03:32 AM

Originally Posted by Tegan

If you are serious about having your own website, then you will want to register a domain for a year for about 10 bucks. Then get a hosting account, which can be as low as 5 bucks a month (the typical cost for a single website to be hosted nowadays) thats less than 20 cents a day. Usually the hosting company will give you some email addresses, databases, and a control panel to manage it all.

Not only liking Rich's reply above....but I think you're confusing the site hosting and the domain 'host'...

Generally, when you buy a domain name, that is where you'd get the option for your e-dress/es as they're the ones with your credentials and anything else that is needed - otherwise you can host your own server (which is what I do) and run your own mail server system on it....

/offtopic