Help me! Arg! I'm web-tarded.

[mouthuvmine]

So I'm looking into getting a website going, and I'm looking at the different options available to me. So far, I like the looks of 1&1.com , but I was wondering if anyone with more experience would have a different opinion of it.
I'm looking at the HOME account


I'm not experienced AT ALL in web design or using any features listed. I know what some are, but never used any. I know RSS is associated with doing pod casts, for instance, and that interests me.

So other than that, are those useful features at that price?

[auriond]

Wow, that's a lot of space for that price. Looks good.

But more importantly, is the host reliable? A reliable host is ten times more worth the money than any number of features they can offer you, especially if you just need it for a simple homepage.

[FSi++]

OK, quick breakdown on what they're providing (for Home account)

Domain features
Included domains: 2
site names like http://thebestsite.com or something; you'll probably need only one, but what the hell
Subdomains: 100
Now this is useful: for example, if you have a forum, you can have your it at forum.yoursite.com etc. Or use separate subdomains for each of your projects.
Host external domains: 50
If you'll buy additional domains (besides the two included with hosting), you can hook them up your site account as well - like myproject1.com and myproject2.com being effectively the same page.
DNS management:
Useful feature if you want to have one of your domains to redirect to one of your existing sites (ie WordPress blog or something)

Core Features
Web Space: 120GB
How many data you can have on your site. 10GB is more than enough (unless there is some limit on file size, which isn't good).
Monthly transfer volume: 1200GB
How many data could your visitors download from/upload to your site before it goes down (or, even worse, before they start charging you additional money )
FTP accounts: 10
Useful if you want to collaborate with someone on your site. So this basically means up to 10 collaborators (anonymous access is different)
MySQL Databases: 25, up to 100MB
Depends on how big forum or Wiki you're planning to have; 100MB could be enough if you don't want to start a second wikipedia.
Note that different software could be installed in one database, so the limit on databases is not a big problem, unlike the limit on size.

E-Mail features
E-Mail accounts: 1200
Virtually unlimited, if you don't want to start an e-mail hosting site (and since GMail is still up, I won't advise you to anyway).
Mailbox space: 2GB
Probably enough.
E-mail Forwarding:
Probably will forward all e-mails sent to you@yoursite.com to your gmail (or hotmail or whatever) account.
Catch-all E-mail Addresses
That's an useful one: all emails sent to bogus addresses like whatthehell@yoursite.com could be forwarded to another account (like, you@yoursite.com).

Click'n'Build applications
Some software you could install on your site right away (like, forums, wikis, whatnot)

Communication
EasyRSS
Some sort of web-based RSS list generator? Basically, RSS is a file that contains all your site updates and could be collected and parsed by automatic collectors and parsers. It's also much easier to check one RSS feed than visiting the site.
Most content management software have this feature by default (if yours doesn't, screw it).
blog, chat, whatever
Seriously: do you need this?

Security features
Firewall protection
Useful against web worms and stuff.
Daily Backup of your Website
No comments, this is a must.
Secure Shell (SSH) Access
Now, Home accound doesn't support this, but I'd recommend it (especially if you're familiar with *nix - it makes updating stuff much simpler by using diff's).
Password-protected Directories
Of course, you need this - you may set passwords on directories (pretty straightforward, isn't it?). So this could make another barrier for hackers attempting to access your admin page, for example.

Hope this clears it a little.

[mouthuvmine]

FSI : Thanks alot. I was pretty clear on most of it, but your clarifications helped a lot. I think at the price I'm gonna go for it. I wanna use it to host my Development site and my recording studio site. Having 2 domains is useful here, right? Like it'd be just the 4.99 I'm already paying, but having 2 domains would allow my to host 2 sites on there with different .coms? I'd just have to watch my space and my monthly tranfers.

I think that's right anyway. :

[Venus]

I have some webspace with 1&1.de and at least there they start charging you additional money when you have exceeded your traffic limit and that's really expensive, so you might wanna make sure that it is actually enough for the kind of site you want to have...

[Buckethead]

I always use http://www.110mb.com/

It's free but you don't get a good domain name.

[Nikolas]

I will mention that while most companies will offer tons of stuff, I've had good and bad experiences.

I'm at www.hostfolio.com as recomended by Darth Manarb, and I'm nothing but happy with it. It seemed to be a bit low on what they were offering but they updated their offerings, and all is fine. My site is up 24/7 ALL THE TIME and they're responses to tickets and stuff, has been more than amazing (got a reply in 2 bloody minutes! 2!)

Most companies offer pretty much the same.

I'm a composer, so mp3s, and video are used pretty much, but I've never used more than 5 GB per month. I guess that if you end up being myspace, or whatever, you need 100s of servers, but for a personal site, why would you need more than 100 GB traffic per month?

The most important thing is to know that they will listen to you, and that your site will be up, on line.

Gregjazz (geoffkhan) is using www.bluehost.com with some HUGE offerings, and he's pretty much happy.

There's always a risk to what you get, but for 40-70$ a year, it is a tiny ammount, if you think about it, so even if you screw up at your first choice, just get the next one... It's not THAT huge money really! (money = 1-2 games , or dinner for 4 in the uk, and 1/15 of my monthly rent)