Re: SME / Ortofon (OT Web Hosting)

[NickG]

You need more than the host page, thats the problem, you need a full host where you can upload the entire site. As Richard says 1&1 is good, I use them for the lurcher site. Did you get the PM?

[Darren D]

Hi Nick,

Yes got the PM thanks, was just trying to think things through before I answered. I'm trying to work out what the advantage is. I know there must be one for you to suggest it.

But of course I'm clueless on this matter.

You know me Nick, the penny will drop at some point just around the time when you've exhausted yourself trying to explain what is to others a simple, clear as daylight, or is it bell? tinsy winsy little detail.

It doesn't help that I have so much else pressing at the mo.

Those who have studied interest rates, personal allowances and the vast field relating to tax laws for the self employed would no doubt have sympathy. (Non HiFi related)

But there you go, the only other option is the dole que, which at times looks attractive I have to say.

[NickG]

The problem is the google robot that searches will start at www.slatedeck.com read the index page and stop there, as it won;t follow the redirect. If the site was like thi s(I hope you don;t mind me stealing the content for the demo) then the google robot can crawl the entire site

http://www.slatedeck.lurcher.org

Note how all the links are referencing the same site.

[Darren D]

Now that is scary...!!!

I mean, someone (not you of course) could steal a site, edit the contact and payment details and rake it in. OK, it's not that easy as you would have to steal bank acc as well. But even so.........

I get your point Nick, and I now can see how valid it is.

So, do I gather one would still use the host page in order to keep the .com address?

[Darren D]

Originally Posted by NickG

The problem is the google robot that searches will start at www.slatedeck.com read the index page and stop there, as it won;t follow the redirect. If the site was like thi s(I hope you don;t mind me stealing the content for the demo) then the google robot can crawl the entire site

http://www.slatedeck.lurcher.org

Note how all the links are referencing the same site.

That explains the results I get with Google, mostly tiscali web addresses.
OK, we/I need to change this.

[NickG]

I mean, someone (not you of course) could steal a site, edit the contact and payment details and rake it in. OK

Not if it was a secure site, and the certificate was valid. Thats why you have to pay for SSL certs from someone like thawte, and why they run checks to make sure you are who you say you are and are valid.

So, do I gather one would still use the host page in order to keep the .com address?

No, thats exactly what you don't do. Whoever hosts your DNS records, just replaces the A record for www.slatedeck.com for the IP address of the host that runs your site.

All I did in our DNS to make that site appear was add the record to make the name resolve, and then add a virtual host entry on the server.

[petercom]

Good grief, this is turning into a lesson on SEO and web hosting!

Darren, can I suggest that we continue this by e-mail?

For the rest of you I would recommend the following:

Web hosting. This is not as good as it appears on many sites. 1&1, Hostgator and other such 'webhosts' use shared server hosting where your domain files are put on a server along with hundreds or thousands of others. What they hope is that the traffic to all these domains will be limited - they may have one or two domains with heavy traffic but the average demand on the server will be low.

There are plenty of horror stories from companies who have used this type of hosting and come unstuck as soon as traffic increases. We were one of them, as those of you who have lived with our server problems over the past year will know!

These types of hosting are OK as long as your traffic is relatively low and you don't demand fast server response at all times. As our traffic, especially to this forum, is now fairly heavy we switched to Register1.net to use a Virtual Domain Server. You have all seen the benefits. I have personally found Register1 to be extremely efficient.

Now can we get back to the HI-FI please?