Buying a Domain

Only the domain or do you want to build your own server?
com-domain or local one?

Pls give more info!

Where are you? US, UK, elsewhere?

anyway, buying the domain is purely that, you own the domain name www.yourname.com (provided you pay the re-registration fees)  The cost of this varies somewhat, but if you look about you can get a .com for about $70 in the US £50 in the UK or a .co.uk for £10.  

You then have to redirect it to some space somewhere.  If you don't mind carrying banners on the site, you can get it for free in many places, or you can pay for it and have complete control.  the price varies hugely though.

Go to http://www.webhostdir.com/
and have a look about there, they carry loads of info and point to lots of providers.

Cheers - MorFF

I'm in the US.

I need the site to have my own name, not somthing like www.angelfire.com/blah/blah/blah

Then I want to be able to post my web pages. I'm in the process of developing my web site (for commercial purpose)right now.

I need to know what to look for in a "server?" -- is that what I need?

www.yourname.com is just for reserving the name, right?

Hi,

the www.yourname.com thingy is just for getting the actual domain name. When you register your domain, you have to indicate at which web address the actual data is stored. That's your webspace. It can either be on someone else's webserver or on your own. The advantage of having your own is that you have total control, you can access the thing physically and not just via remote control, you can run any scripts/own apps/anything you like. However, it's bloody expensive since you'll need a permanent internet connection (might be OK since you live in the US). "Public" webservers are free but restrict what you can do, limited amount of space, possibility of intruding adverts. You need to decide !

Go to www.newcreations.net

They'll register your domain name (provided it isn't already registered) for 49$.  So go there and see if the name you're thinking of is available.

As for servers you need to think about what you'll need.  and that depends on what you business needs;

Is it purely to advertise your products or services and take eMail orders?  If so you're unlikely to need much space or anything fancy.  Like I said before, if you don't mind the banners, you can get that for free, eg www.wigloo.com where you can register for free and upload your pages thru their interface (no need to FTP and all that)

Is it to run an online shop?  If so, you need a provider with eCommerce capabilities, like a shopping basket etc.  This costs a bit more, (see newcreations mentioned previously)

Is it to take orders etc online, using credit cards etc.?  Then you'll need a secure server.

Do you need to do fancy stuff or do you have a lot of products?  You'll need a provider that allows and supports CGI/ASP and/or Databases.

Are you going to have a lot of traffic and need a good response?  You may wish to consider a dedicated server.

As with everything.  It depends what you want to do!!!

Cheers - MorFF

As MorFF stated it all depends on what you want to do... You can go top of the line, state of the art, or slim down.  It sounds like you are unsure about the basics of who, what, where, why etc... You will need to answer these and other questions before you can make a solid dicision. This is one area where a competent advisor can help, I would suggest contacting your local college, JrCo, or Tech School that offers computer training, and you can probably get a student who can walk you through the process of defing just what you want and need in a web site, and only after you know what you need, and want, and what is just window dressing, Then go shopping and compare features to your needs, and pocket book.  There is a wide variety out there, and if you are not careful, you can get taken.  One point that I would like to add, is that if you are regestering your own domain name, make sure that you retain the administrative rights to your domain. Otherwise, it might not be yours.

i need a simple explanation.

the website i'm building can't have anyone elses banners or anything like that. it has to be solely mine.

at most, the website will just show product info, maybe have a portion where people can fill comment forms, and maybe allow people to make a query on inventory status (direct link from site to my puter using ODBC). online ordering may be considered in the future.

what is offered out there for webspace? what features are available?

Give them a visit.
http://www.hostdepot.com/

they are a hosting company which host just about anything. They charge you $50/month and here is what you get
you will get SSL(secure Server), they can host your database,also offer hosting of SQL Server,ASP,CGI,Perl,your own domain name means your own dot com with not strings attached you in control. If you going to have a shopping store online they help you with a setup and implementation of cybercash a service that if you choose will do credit cart processing for you.
with that you get 50 megs of space to pay extra you can get more space.

As other mentioned getting your own server won't be cheap. You have to consider live connection to the itnernet which can cost here in the US for T1 5000/month plus servers aren't cheap either. You will also have to be techie about this. What happends if your Server goes down or something else happens would you be able to maintain this all ? If you don't know a lot on this i'd suggest someone else host it for you , no headings no punt intended.

Marine, you're spending WAYYY too much for a T-1... *grin*... but you're right, servers and the rest ain't cheap.

kiphughes ... Marine is right about web hosting companies. I use http://www.goldrush.com for a number of sites... The folks I work for use http://www.sacweb.com. Personally, I like the former more, if only because I can do pretty much whatever I want; I'm not locked into a particular technology (UNIX vs MS, or ASP vs ColdFusion), and goldrush is a lot cheaper. They also have a generator to keep their equipment (not just the servers) running 24/7. Perhaps the most important aspect, though, is that goldrush charges me for what I use and need, and nothing more.

If it were me, I'd visit (not email or call) every ISP to see what they'd charge for what I need to do. And then I'd bring them every bit of business I could... *grin*