New to webhosting: any advice???

[Joe The Homophobe]

You guys have any advice when it comes to webhosting? im new to this i want to register some domain names and get a website running. I need a plan that lets me pay month to month and can cancel at anytime (simce im new I can't make any long term deals im just experimenting), a site that lets me host a forum if I want that in the future, thinking of using http://www.phpbb.com (forum software), and a host that hides the identity of the owner if someone does a lookup.

what do you guys suggest and any other advice? i been reading tons to get the best deal possible and not make any mistakes but some advices from people here would be good since im new to this and i don't how want to sign up for something that might not have the essential features that someother site has.

 

[chickenlegs03]

i've had great experience with www.godaddy.com

i've registered 2 sites with it so far

very easy to use, cheap, excellent quality, and 24hr service

you can also choose an option to hide owner name etc

 

[Joe The Homophobe]

what are the url of your sites? (if you don't mind posting them) so i can check them out.

 

[chickenlegs03]

sure

one of them is www.ncsuasme.org

the design of that one, well...I designed them a really nice adobe template and everything but they wanted something more html-friendly and changed it quite a bit. i'm a bit disappointed with how it looks now, and with the work i put into it before. i no longer admin this site at all.

the other is www.alyweb.com

i just registered this a few weeks ago. the site (all flash) is completely done, but we need the guy's music to make it complete. if you check it thursday this coming week, it will be a lot nicer. right now it's just an under construction page. (i designed and am currently administering this one...i do a lot of flash/webdesign freelance)

i paid a total of $64 for the latter hosting/domain name plus search engine registration, business registration, and etc. features. pretty darn cheap imo.

 

[Joe The Homophobe]

are those ads that godaddy includes? (wondering if godaddy hosting is ad free). BTW do you know if its possible to register the domain at godaddy.com to use the privacy feature, but use another host to actually host the site? Im wondering if it would still be anonymous if I use another site for hosting but I register the domain anonymously through godaddy.com

I checked other sites and I get a lot more stuff, it seems that godaddy is great and cheap but they charge extra for a lot of stuff you get free at other sites.

 

[chickenlegs03]

are those ads that godaddy includes? (wondering if godaddy hosting is ad free). BTW do you know if its possible to register the domain at godaddy.com to use the privacy feature, but use another host to actually host the site? Im wondering if it would still be anonymous if I use another site for hosting but I register the domain anonymously through godaddy.com

I checked other sites and I get a lot more stuff, it seems that godaddy is great and cheap but they charge extra for a lot of stuff you get free at other sites.

those are ads they put up to make money. godaddy hosting is absolutely ad-free.

i think it would be possible to *privately* register the domain with godaddy and get hosting with someone else. of course, it would be best to check with their customer service before you buy it.

eh...as far as the paying extra, it doesn't seem much to me. what other sites have you found? one of the reasons I've stuck with godaddy is because I don't really know of any other sites that are so user-friendly. I'm curious because I'll be getting another domain and hosting soon for my portfolio and it would be cool to compare with others.

Thanks, and I hope I've been able to help

 

[Docs]

Joe, if you're just testing out a website, pm me. I'll host it free.

http://docsster.com if you want to see for yourself.
Shadowed by my laptop server, but I won't issue that ip out here.

=)