Need advice on setting up a website and email accounts.

[hike2kolob]

I need to register for an internet domain name for a business. I want to have a simple website and be able to have email accounts (with the domain name) for use in MS Outlook.

I did this before (about 5 years ago) using webhost4life or some similar service.

Is there a better way? Does anyone have recommendations?

[Sombeech]

try www.godaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com), they can host it for you too with some email options. If you're just getting started with the web design, I'm a fan of Wordpress or Joomla. But GoDaddy is saying they'll throw the webste in with the domain purchase, so who knows.

GoDaddy will do a decent job for you starting out, depending on what your bandwidth requirements are, it's just nice to have your hosting and domain registration in one place. Unless your needs are a little bit bigger, then you'll be wanting to get some specifics on hosting companies. Bluehost is local.

[ibenick]

My two cents: Don't use Bluehost or GoDaddy. I hosted with Bluehost for about two years and then one day my site is offline. I call them and they say they had detected that I had files uploaded that they deemed to be file storage, not active website content, so despite their advertisements of "unlimited storage" there is fine print that says it is against their ToS to store files. No notification, nothing, my account was permanently shut down. Before them I used GODaddy and they were okay but they spam the hell out of you (email and snail mail) and something about them just bothered me. Maybe those god awful advertisements? I use Steadfast.net now for hosting and registration and love it. For mail you can setup a custom GMail interface much like Bogley has done, I did it for free but I think they have a better version that you pay a bit for. It sure is better than most hosting company's web access email interfaces. Bottom line, with hosting companies you get what you pay for.

[theking648]

what beech said...for a business set it up with joomla. there is a bit of a learning curve but spend some time and you'll get the hang of it (joomla site http://utahcarandtruck.net)

setting up an email with a domain is easy as long as your host allows it... look for imap and smtp availability. most will say "IMAP/POP3 Email Accounts : unlimited"
mine are (dave@silvercg.com, dave@alpinecave.com) but you can set up a "catchall" email so it doesn't matter what is entered in front of the @ it will all get sent to one account.

the difficulty lvl will depend on what type of site you're building and the features going into it..

I wish you luck,
Dave.

[R]

My two cents: Don't use Bluehost or GoDaddy. I hosted with Bluehost for about two years and then one day my site is offline. I call them and they say they had detected that I had files uploaded that they deemed to be file storage, not active website content, so despite their advertisements of "unlimited storage" there is fine print that says it is against their ToS to store files. No notification, nothing, my account was permanently shut down. Before them I used GODaddy and they were okay but they spam the hell out of you (email and snail mail) and something about them just bothered me. Maybe those god awful advertisements? I use Steadfast.net now for hosting and registration and love it. For mail you can setup a custom GMail interface much like Bogley has done, I did it for free but I think they have a better version that you pay a bit for. It sure is better than most hosting company's web access email interfaces. Bottom line, with hosting companies you get what you pay for.
This is true for most web hosting companies. If they let you park tons of files, it would ruin their offsite storage business.

I use ipower.com and I like them a lot.

[Jaxx]

I have had good luck setting up a template website with web.com. It was super easy to do and they gave you a bunch of emails with it.

[accadacca]

Hostmonster.com, which is basically bluehost (sorry) has been good for my peeps doing smaller side projects. They have a nice CP, as do others. Not what bogley is running on btw. ipowerweb has made a bunch of changes in the last year or so to try and keep their customers. They struggled for several years and didn't keep me, but they are headed in the right direction. I might use them in the future (small stuff), perhaps. Bogley ran on ipower 5+ years ago, but outgrew it in 6 months.

All of these hosts have mail as well, which if your using through Outlook any will do. I would NOT use godaddy for anything except domains. I am currently using them for hosting (for a client) simply beacuse he already had his domain there and it was convenient. I have been very disappointed with their hosting and general systems. You need a GPS unit just to navigate their site and backend. Yuck. Bogley has been on 5 servers I believe...hell. :roll:

Yep, you get what you pay for and it really depends on traffic and how many bells & whistles you need. Media Temple is a little higher end, but fits the bill for a few friends of mine.

[accadacca]

Oh yeah (as mentioned) wordpress is the only way to fly for a simple website. Hostmonster has a one click install within their CP to get it going...

[hike2kolob]

Thanks for the responses. You guys rock. I am sorting through them.

My needs for a Website are very low. I just need a contact page essentially.

My needs for email are very high, must be able to handle very large pdf document attachments (often greater than 20 megs). Also, I somehow need to synch with my iPhone (my gmail and another exchange server account currently synch).

[accadacca]

In that case I would use google apps, so you'll be on Gmail and all other google services for your company. They have an exchange setup that I use for my wife (iPhone). Very slick for small businesses. It is basically just like Microsoft Exchange with email, calendar, contact, yadda, yadda, yadda. However, its google (much cooler then Micro): http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

[accadacca]

BTW, good time for a plug. If anybody wants a @bogley.com email address, calendar, contacts, etc, etc, etc (all with over the air sync to mobile) for free send me a PM. I got a free google apps account for bogley when they were in beta. mail.bogley.com

[Sombeech]

I'm running a couple of sites with WordPress:
http://www.justinmcfarland.com/
http://blog.weber.k12.ut.us/jumcfarland/
You definitely don't need to have the blog feel either, just set up a static home page.

With your email thing and sending 20MB+ files, that may not be a problem for you, but it would definitely be hard for all of your clients to accept that large of file. Like accadacca said, go with Google Docs and just share the link. It's all about online collaboration now instead of "delivering" all of those copies from person to person.

[hike2kolob]

I am back to report on what I ended up doing.

Webhost: I went with inmotionhosting.com. I found out that there are billions of hosting sites. This host had a reasonable fee. The internet domain was free. Most importantly, it received consitently good reviews on reveiw aggregator websites. Their internal website software creation tool is not good, but there are better tools out there as you all suggested. The control panel is easy to use, even for a novice like me. I don't think this host is for beginners like me, but should have all the functionality when I need it.

Google Apps (email): I signed up for Google Apps premier ($50 per year per user) to get my email running through Gmail. I intended to fully sync my google apps (email, calendar, contacts) with my Outlook, but my Outlook service pak is level 2 and I needed level 3 to be compatible with the Google Outlook Sync. I had much trouble updating to Outlook sp3. I also read some reviews that the sync does not really work that well. So, I ditched the sync and just added my domain name email account to Outlook using IMAP, hosted by Gmail through Google Apps. Running my email through Gmail instead of my domain host made it much easier to push that email to my iphone. So, in the end, for $50 a year, my email is pushed (sort of, my iphone mimics pushing by checking for updates on Gmail frequently) to my phone. Google Apps has some other possibilities, but for now email is all I need.

Thanks for the recommendations.

[Iceaxe]

I use ipower.com and I like them a lot.

x2

The best part about ipower was that as my website grew they grew with me.

[Cave Dawg]

GoDaddy is what I use and they are very user friendly.

ON-ON!
Steve "Cave
Dawg" Carr