Cost of website

[HappyFace]

If I were to set up a small website for my familys use would I have to pay for the website name and a monthly cost. Or are there some places rhat do it for free. I am looking at about 5 pages.

[Ethel]

Who is your ISP? Many give a certain amount of free webspace.

I'm with Telewest Blueyonder and get up to 30Mb free, or �4 a month for 100Mb.

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

As Ethel says, almost every ISP comes with some free webspace.

If, for the sake of example, your ISP is called Some Internet Firm, and your log-in is 'happyface', the web address would probably be something like www.someinternetfirm.com/users/happyface. If you only want your family to use it, that might be fine. (They'll only have to type it in once and then save it to their bookmarks). If, however, you want your own distinctive web address, you'll have to buy a domain name, such as www.happyface.co.uk. ( Although I've referred to 'buying' a domain name, in reality you actually 'rent' it. It will cost a few pounds for, typically, two year's use). You can have your site actually located, for free, at www.someinternetfirm.com/users/happyface, with vistors to www.happyface.co.uk automatically being re-directed to your site.

If your ISP doesn't offer free webspace (or you can't work out how to use it), there are various alternatives. If you Google 'free web space', you'll find loads of firms which offer you exactly that. The only problem with most of them, though, is that they'll find some way of including advertising on your site. (e.g. with pop-ups or ads which float over your site). For some people that's not a problem but you should be aware that a few of these firms carry advertising for 'adult' websites.

[Buenchico]

Another alternative is to use the wonderful Webtribe service. Note that you'll only be able to do this if you live in the UK and have (or can use) dial-up access to the internet. (i.e. if you're currently on broadband, you'd need to switch to dial-up just for the time it takes to upload your site). Webtribe offers unlimited free webspace (both for personal and business users) with no advertising. The only provision is that you have to connect to their server, at local call-rates, through dial-up access while you upload the site. This works out at roughly �1 on your phone bill for every 10Mb uploaded. Your web address would be something like www.webtribe.net/~happyface. (Once again, you could buy a domain name and have internet traffic routed through it but you probably wouldn't need to do so).

I've used Webtribe for lots of different websites. (Often temporary things, like providing information for members of various committees). At present, I've got a very simple but fairly large (25Mb) site, containing about 500 photographs from the school I used to teach at. It cost me about �2.50 on my phone bill to upload it and there are no ongoing charges. ( www.webtribe.net/~yewlandspast ).

I'll happily tell you how to use Webtribe. (For a simple 5 page family website, your total expenditure would be less than �1, with no ongoing costs). There will be no point to this, however, if you're either outside the UK or if you can't use dial-up internet access. So, if you need instructions, just post (here) again and I'll provide them.

Chris

[aviator]

redstation.com
you can pay for your own domain name and get a years free hosting, only a couple of quid for a .co.uk name. after the first free year its more money to host but have a look.

Or just go to a free provider like domaindlx.com, you wont be able to have a totally dedicated address but its totally free, no charges at all and you could always just email the link to your family and they bookmark it. you get something like >>> a.domaindlx.com/happyface as your address

[HappyFace]

Thanks so far for the replies, especially Chris. I am with NTL and they provide 55mb free. I dont need a domain name as there will only be 4 or so people accessing it, and as you suggest they can save it to their favourites. I have an idea of what I want the website to look like. What I want is...... basically my mum has a holiday home and all the family use it from time to time. What I want is a Homepage (with a picture in the background of the home) and also 5 buttons called Homepage, Calendar, Rules, Contacts & Links. The Calendar will link to an excel spreadsheet with who is there and when. The contacts will be a page of contact mobile numbers and email addresse for the family. Rules with simply list mum's home rules. Links will link to various websites of interest local to the holiday home. Homepage will direct you back to the front page. Next question is how do I put the site together? Is there a website explaining it in stoopid man terms? Cheers Chris

[aviator]

If you have microsoft frontpage then you can put it together with that, it means you dont have to use much code.
Have a look at this site
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutorials/getting_s tarted/
Theres a starter guide on there, should help to get you started.