Hosts
I always prefer to do business locally when I can. My host is Thinkhost.com and their main office is in Portland.
My Registrar Dotster.com is based in Vancouver, they bought out my original registrar, domain.com
Here's two web sites that rank hosts and list what they have to offer
http://www.top-10-web-hosting.com/ and the top 10 web hosts reviewed at http://www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com/usg
What your Host Should Offer
FTP Access
Using a Web upload form is slow and cumbersome.
Adequate disk storage space for your web site
If you have a small web site 1 giga-byte might be reasonable. If you get to choose start at 5 gigs usually the next step is ulimited.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is how much data flows across a network over a set period of time. Your web site band width should be at least 250 x the size of your web site. Many web sites offer unlimited for a few dollars more.
SSH access
Allows direct secure access to your web pages and folder on the server. Good for testing CGI scripts.
Control panel
Hosting control panels help's you to maintain your website efficiently by giving you access to administrative commands like permissions and dot-files.
PHP
Server-side scripting.
Database
Set up database pages for collecting information or selling products
Email accounts
Lets you have an email address that uses your site's domain name.Domain Names
Providers
Your Provider is the company that provides you the physical access to connect to the internet, companies like Comcast,
QWest, Verizon, Clear.com or a dialup service provide you with a modem or a wirless card and the information necessary to connect to the internet
Providers may or may not be your Host. Your Host is the company from which you rent server space for your web site.
For example I use Comcast as a provider and host,
http://home.comcast.net/~garrystasiuk/
but I also use --thinkhost.com as my main host.
My URL or Domain name at Thinkhost.com is uofgts.com
If your provider provides free domain names, they'll look like this
http://gts-prof.angelfire.com/
or
http://home.comcast.net/~garrystasiuk/
if you want to own your own Domain Name, like uofgts.com, you need to "purchase" and register it.
You don't have to purchase your domain name from your Host and it is preferable" that you don't...
It is much easier to move your domain name to a new host if you own it independently from your current host with no "strings" attached.
Domain Name Registrars
domain.com
and
dotster.com
are local Vancouver registar/hosting companies, you can choose to Register your domain name with domain.com. and then use dotster.com or godaddy.com as your host or visa versa!
To find a reputable registry company Check out these web sites
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/domain-registration/
http://www.webpagepublicity.com/software-reviews.html
http://www.domainsbot.com/rate-registrar.aspx
To find out if the URL you want us available do your "whois" search from the company you want to be your Registrar
What you need to tell your Domain Registrar
The primary and secondary address of your Host's Domain Name Server (DNS)
Primary DNS:
ns1.yourhost'sdomainname.com
Secondary DNS:
ns2.yourhost'sdomainname.com
Check out these web sites for a listing of "free" Web Site Hosts
http://www.free-webhosts.com/
http://www.0hosts.com/
http://www.thefreecountry.com/webhosting/free-web-hosts-with-no-advertisements.shtml
To find your own local host ---use google and search for Portland/ Vancouver Web Hosting companies, by the way domain.com also is a hosting company.
Information from your Provider/host that you NEED to know, whether you have your own domain name or you use a "free" one provided by your/host-providers
They will either send you an e-mail or you'll find the information at their web site or in the Control panel when you login to maintain your site. The Control Panel is sometimes referred to as th C Panel.
Basic info you need from your host
e-mail set up info
POP3 Server: pop3.yourdomain.com
or Mail Server: Mail.yourdomain.com
SMTP Server: smtp.yourdomain.com
Web site info
Username: username@yourdomainname.com (usually your e-mail address)
Password: password
ftp address
ftp: ftp.hostsdomainname.com
Port number (default is port 21)
sFTP Port number (default is port 22)
If COMCAST is your Provider/host
the ftp address is:
ftp.upload.comcast.net
If Quest is the Provider/host
the ftp address is:
ftp.users.qwest.net
or
Every host provides free templates and a really really basic "web builder"
try them out...
Transferring a Domain Name
The first step in transferring a domain is to find a new reputable domain registration company.
At that company you will fill out a form that initiates the transfer to them (your new domain registration company.)
There may be a small fee at this stage...
What happens next is that your new registration company will issue
an authorization key that will be emailed to the administrative contact that is
registered with the domain name you want transferred.
That company may just be a front, even if you have private "whois" registration.
When and if the "key" is returned from the old company, you can then go back to the new registrar, and finish filling out your new registration form.
That will finalize the transfer. The cost is typically a one-year renewal
fee at the new registrar's rate.
However, there can be several strings attached to the transfer process.
First, you'll want to find out from the current company that holds the domain name
if you actually own the domain name.
You may have to "purchase the domain name (again!)
Sometimes a hosting service will have some sort of "free domain, URL" offer. When you sign up for hosting, more than likely in the fine print they will state they retain ownership of the domain, and will not let you move it. But, if you press hard enough you can get them to change the Domain Name Sservers to point to your new Host.
Another common restriction is that domains cannot be
transferred if they have been registered or transferred in the past 60
days.
But the easiest way to discover any attached "strings" would be to contact your current domain name registrar and ask.