Re: Choosing a Web Host

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Re: Choosing a Web Host

From Gabriella on 6 April '00
replying to Re: Choosing a Web Host posted by Patrick Rogers

Hi Patrick. Thank you for your lengthy response. Just to get you thinking on the right track, my idea for a site is really just a venue for a hobby of mine (jewelry making). Recently I've been looking at BigStep.com, where you can build a store/site for free (with shopping carts, I believe) and merchant accounts cost $14.95/mo through the end of this month. Have you heard anything about them?

I haven't gone live, but I've played around with building a webpage (done at their site). This is pretty slow, as I don't have DSL. I have also looked at sites of other BigStep users and they don't seem to load either very slowly or very quickly. How can I tell how fast someone's servers are -- just by using them?

Thanks again!

Regards,

Gabriella

I'm trying to do exactly the same thing as you. Don't go too cheap, it's not worth it. I was using Hurricane Electric (http://www.he.net), and couldn't find an adequate shopping cart for cheap enough to run on their servers, so I jumped ship and went to a host called adgrafix (http://www.adgrafix.com). What a mistake! Their servers are unbelievably slow. I still haven't gone live, and my index page can take 1-2 minutes to load on a normal day! On HE's servers they took 10-15 seconds tops, on BAD days!
>
>With HE you can get quite a nice set-up for $9.95 a month, and there are some decent shopping carts for $200-$300 (Don't get shareware, it's too buggy to put your name on it). Although, the one I recommend is Make-a-Store (http://www.make-a-store.com.) Their cart cost $1,000, but it's a one time fee, and it's worth the investment. If I hadn't blown so much trying to get this other shopping cart to work, and had gone straight to Make-a-Store, I would have been live months ago.
>
>But don't just listen to me. Write out what requirements you need, and rate a bunch of the shopping carts out there. If you don't mind delving into the technical aspect of it, you can also take a look at Dansie Cart. (I think it's http://www.dansie.com, but I'm not sure)
>
>Good Luck!
>
>>I'd like to build a website, more specifically a web storefront. I already have a domain name and am trying to figure out what to do about webhosting. Since I am just starting out, and not wanting to invest a lot of money, at this point, I noticed that there are some free webhosts out there. You probably know that their users build their sites online using their software/program. My muli-question is: do those sites work, would it be a big mistake to go this route, where can I find our more about this?
>>
>>This site is great, but as you can tell, I'm far from ready for it!
>>
>>Thanks for your time.
>>
>>Gabriella

Re: Choosing a Web Host - Patrick Rogers - 07/04/00

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>Hi Patrick. Thank you for your lengthy response. Just to get you thinking on the right track, my idea for a site is really just a venue for a hobby of mine (jewelry making). Recently I've been looking at BigStep.com, where you can build a store/site for free (with shopping carts, I believe) and merchant accounts cost $14.95/mo through the end of this month. Have you heard anything about them? > >I haven't gone live, but I've played around with building a webpage (done at their site). This is pretty slow, as I don't have DSL. I have also looked at sites of other BigStep users and they don't seem to load either very slowly or very quickly. How can I tell how fast someone's servers are -- just by using them? > >Thanks again! > >Regards, > >Gabriella > > >I'm trying to do exactly the same thing as you. Don't go too cheap, it's not worth it. I was using Hurricane Electric (http://www.he.net), and couldn't find an adequate shopping cart for cheap enough to run on their servers, so I jumped ship and went to a host called adgrafix (http://www.adgrafix.com). What a mistake! Their servers are unbelievably slow. I still haven't gone live, and my index page can take 1-2 minutes to load on a normal day! On HE's servers they took 10-15 seconds tops, on BAD days! >> >>With HE you can get quite a nice set-up for $9.95 a month, and there are some decent shopping carts for $200-$300 (Don't get shareware, it's too buggy to put your name on it). Although, the one I recommend is Make-a-Store (http://www.make-a-store.com.) Their cart cost $1,000, but it's a one time fee, and it's worth the investment. If I hadn't blown so much trying to get this other shopping cart to work, and had gone straight to Make-a-Store, I would have been live months ago. >> >>But don't just listen to me. Write out what requirements you need, and rate a bunch of the shopping carts out there. If you don't mind delving into the technical aspect of it, you can also take a look at Dansie Cart. (I think it's http://www.dansie.com, but I'm not sure) >> >>Good Luck! >> >>>I'd like to build a website, more specifically a web storefront. I already have a domain name and am trying to figure out what to do about webhosting. Since I am just starting out, and not wanting to invest a lot of money, at this point, I noticed that there are some free webhosts out there. You probably know that their users build their sites online using their software/program. My muli-question is: do those sites work, would it be a big mistake to go this route, where can I find our more about this? >>> >>>This site is great, but as you can tell, I'm far from ready for it! >>> >>>Thanks for your time. >>> >>>Gabriella