Website help

solo · 26 Oct 2010, 18:27

I have been having a horrible time lately with Microsoft live, their servers go down more often than fake Viagra.

The problem is I have a website with connected mail accounts. I need to move the whole lot to a new company and I do not know where to start.
I need to keep my url as well as email addresses.

Another good reason for changing is the website itself 'Live' is limited and does not give me many options besides their pathetic templates.

So anyone know how I go about this?

edit, I have tried their support and that does not help, they need you to go through a knowledge base first, then there is no live help nor do they answer your support emails, and if they do then they send it to your 'Live' email which is not working and the reason you need their help in the first place.

Word of advice: never use live.com they will disapoint you and take your money without flinching.

Gaieus · 26 Oct 2010, 19:49

Can you port your domain without no problems? If so, I would suggest some simple cms website. You will need a webspace with php and mysql and also (possibly) some admin management system with it.

OR you could go to existing hosts like blogspot and such (where you can also host the blog-like content under your domain).

solo · 26 Oct 2010, 19:55

Can you translate the above to English please?

I have no idea what you are saying, I have an almost zero understanding of wedsites.

How do I port?

What is a cms?

What is php and mysql?

Can I host a website with blogspot and keep my address as well as email addresses?

honoluludesktop · 26 Oct 2010, 20:05

Not an full on expert on this, but I have moved email, and web server in the past. Basically what I did was to go to a new provider, and asked them to help me.

ledisnomad · 26 Oct 2010, 20:11

I use ipowerweb.com for hosting my website and email. The service is very good, complete, and the few times I've needed tech support, they have been very helpful. I can't say I know how to do what you're asking, but I think honoluludesktop's advice is good if you don't want to do it yourself.

Gaieus · 26 Oct 2010, 20:21

@solo said:

How do I port?

It means that your domain is not tied to your webspace provider so you can take it with you. Once you rent a webspace, the should take care of it, don§'t worry.

@unknownuser said:

What is a cms?

Content Management System (so that you really do not need to care about coding if you do not want to).

@unknownuser said:

What is php and mysql?

php is a scripting language websites are often written in. Look at the address bar for instance and the file we are writing in is a *php file.
mysql is the database the cms stores what you write.
You need not care about these but make sure you end up somewhere, these services are included in the package.

@unknownuser said:

Can I host a website with blogspot and keep my address as well as email addresses?

Kind of. Your own domain for sure:
http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55373
However in order to be able to use your email address, you will need an email server somewhere and also some webspace so in this case I would not recommend Blogspot. That would be only cool if you had the site ( a static one) somewhere already and you wanted to add some blog to it but do not want to hassle with setting it up or you do not have php or mysql anyway.

So get a webspace provider (I cannot advise as I store in Hungary) and get started. If you do not want much hassle, I would recommend WordPress (we use that for the main site and TDC at the moment). You can set it up in like 3 minutes once you have everything ready. If you wish, I can help you. You can find ready made themes here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
(Not just what's on the main page - go to the filter and see what's hot).

solo · 26 Oct 2010, 20:30

Thanks for the info guys, I really appreciate this.

The thing that makes me mad is I'm extremely busy with a 139 render 12 animation project that requires all four machines and two of me (which would be nice if possible) and need the email to proof everything with client, I have been using Gmail due to MS not being stable (so unprofessional). So as soon as I get through this project I will allocate a whole week to learn, port/transfer to a stable host with more bells and whistles.

And will definitely be requiring your help where possible.

thanks again.

honoluludesktop · 26 Oct 2010, 20:53

Ouch, sounds like your biggest problem is with email. Not sure anything I can say will help you, but as you have another address, I guess you emailed all your clients, beginning with the currently active ones to use that address. Did you ask your current primary email service advisor to forward all messages to the new address. How do you manage your email, I use "Outlook", allowing me to access all of my mail automatically in one place regardless of which account has the email. I am also able to do mass mailing from that application.

pyroluna · 26 Oct 2010, 21:30

if you like the gmail interface, you can also use it with your own domain instead of ...@gmail.com. I have that at my work-e-mail...

Hieru · 26 Oct 2010, 22:07

I also think that Wordpress is the way to go. There are some hosts that offer one-click installation of Wordpress and then all you have to do is choose a template and find some plugins for creating an image gallery.

When I'm at my PC tomorrow I'll put together some links for potential hosts. Preumably you'd prefer a company based in the States?

Chris Fullmer · 26 Oct 2010, 23:44

I use http://www.powweb.com Great price, tons of space and bandwidth. Unlimited domains associated to one account (I own like 10 websites that all run off my 1 account). They have an easy click installer for wordpress, and lots of software. THey help set up payment stuff so you can take payments, on and on.

They are pretty good on support. I have not had any hosting problems for a long time. Biggest problem is that they are not great on speed. The wiki I ran almost became unseable because it just got bogged down when I was getting tens of thousands of hits a day.

honoluludesktop · 27 Oct 2010, 02:03

MS live intends to shut down, and offered to move me to WordPress, so I did. Wounder whats up? I read some pages on MSs strategy to partner with others. MS live has 30 million clients compared with 14 million at WordPress.

Gaieus · 27 Oct 2010, 10:04

There is one big difference (if I understand MS sites at all).

WP is a single, downloadable software package you can install anywhere independently from any "sites", hosts, whatever.

Surely for those who do not have their own domains and hosts, they provide a hosting package as well but still, you can go on your own. Until the development of the software is stopped (that I would doubt with one of the most popular ones), you get in no trouble (unless your host is down).

For this reason however (any company can be down temporarily), I would not take it unprofessional to have a secondary email address let it be a free email like gmail. (I am currently in the same boat with one of my domains and email addresses)

john.warburton · 27 Oct 2010, 11:58

I moved host twice in my on-line lifetime.

The first time was a disaster, but taught me a lot about the process!

The second time was, by contrast, a much smoother process.

The painless way seems to be to find a new host and set up a dummy domain there to get everything working.

Next, you have to go through the process of migrating your domain. Your new host should have full instructions on how to do this. There are restrictions - the transfer may not be immediately possible if you are close to the domain renewal date, for example. Some security measure to prevent the domain being hijacked, I think.

As soon as the transfer is complete, you can upload your website content and set up your mail boxes. There may be a period when your site and email are unavailable as it can take time for the new domain registration to be recognised across the Internet, but I did not find this to be an issue.

As a backup I use ContactOffice - a wonderful tool that allows me to manage multiple email accounts from a single login (and also manages to cicrcumvent webmail blocking that some companies implement.) There are various plans, including a free account, and you get another email address that can be your backup.

Hieru · 27 Oct 2010, 18:29

@chris fullmer said:

I use http://www.powweb.com

I was going to mention them as well. I've also heard good things about
bluehost.com & dreamhost.com, but I haven't used either as I prefer to stick to hosting companies run from my own country.

DzineTech · 28 Oct 2010, 10:15

As for CMS, take a look at Joomla. Its the CMS that the Thea website uses. Its easy to install and can be configured to your requirements via graphical templates, a multitude of plugins and a solid backend administration panel that allows you to edit your site from any PC.

pilou · 28 Oct 2010, 14:35

The Rolls of easy making Website is Weebly
Sure in normal basic way you have not a total control of the presentation as you must take at the beginning a template (you can make your own..) but what a speedy efficacity: in an hour you can make a very strong site whithout any effort!

And whithout any knowlege of building site!
So if you have yet made some sites in the past that will be candy thing

Of course all modern functions are inside, infinite blogs, Forum, E-business etc...

Yes it's even free!
You can have a Pro version if you want but...

toxicvoxel · 31 Oct 2010, 21:21

The problem is that once you have come to a decision to move you may be knee-deep in a dispute with your hosting provider who can often be fairly un-cooperative in these circumstances. This can make it tricky to get your existing domain released/transferred and get up and running elsewhere.

A strategy that will enable you to change hosts in a couple of hours would be to purchase your domain url through an entity un-associated with your hosting space provider.
You simply point your domain to the hosting space url of your current provider and you never have to struggle with getting the domain transferred. When things go wrong you can move your website content to a new provider and just point your domain to the new provider. You can do this in an hour or less with no downtime because re-pointing can be done in minutes from a control panel without losing any links or email addresses once you have your website re-loaded on a secondary server.

This is also a good set-up if you have to reload a new site design from time to time. You can upload the new site to an alternate web folder and just point the domain to it when it is ready to go. If your website is critical such a set-up will allow you to have a second dormant clone of your website hosted elsewhere to which you can point your domain if the primary hosting server fails.

The domain pointing company that I use to do this is http://www.123-reg.co.uk but there are probably others that will allow you to use the same strategy.
The control panel provided by their website also allows you to point domain email addresses to any others your may use.

d12dozr · 11 Nov 2010, 18:45

ArchDaily just posted this great article:
Tips for an Architect’s website
Excellent general tips, applicable to most people working in 3D as well as architects.