want to register domain and build website, but not pay monthly fee

[tsantsa]

ok, So i go to godaddy or any other registrar and register my domain for about $10 a year. that much is the easy part. what I want to do is setup a a site but not have to pay hosting fees. From what I understand, my options are to go to a free hosting service which would b probably very debilitating. Also, don't most of the free hosts make you put whatever they in the domain? ie sitename.geocities.com as opposed to sitename.com?

So my other alternative is to use free apps and build it myself on a home computer right? I wouldn't want to use my main pc for this even tho it has decent specs, so I would want to use an older pc that I have. I think its an amd 1800+. i know its not very fast, but for learning purposes, will it do? not to many people would have the address and i can't imagine i'd get very many scouts checking it out other than bots since im not going to link to it. BTW this is why i don't want to pay monthly fees is because im trying to learn how to do this but at least have my very own domain that i can transfer whenever i want...

im really new to website stuff so I just want to do some basic stuff and learn from there. or am i thinking too large for the moment?

[freebird73717]

You can register your domain name with godaddy or other registrars and host your site with a free hosting service. I have a site hosted with awardspace.com (200MB Disk Space , 5GB Monthly Traffic) for free and registered my domain name with 1&1.com. I don't know how godaddy is but 1&1 offers url redirecting with site masking (so you can mask the free url with the one you paid for). I would assume that godaddy has something similar. As long as your site is serving text only you should be okay with the free hosting. If you need more bandwith for your monthly traffic you would have to look at paying for hosting.

[lordsmurf]

http://www.afmu.com/free-web-hosting.php
Somebody here posted on this a few days ago.

Also see http://www.freewebhostingtalk.com/

Personally, I'd pay. You can get annual pre-paid accounts for little.
http://3essentials.com/windows-web-hosting.asp
http://3essentials.com/linux-web-hosting.asp
Only $18 per year for an account, and this is a good host.

It all depends on what you need.

Big sites need a VPS or dedicated setup.

[aedipuss]

unless you have a dedicated ip, you can't host a site, or at least not easily. most isp's won't allow it anyway, unless you sign up for a business account. you'd be in violation of the tos or aup and likely to get your net service canceled. the low cost godaddy hosting can be had for $5/month. i have 2 sites running there and they are always up and i've never had a problem with them, other than their crappy sign up pages. you'd think they could hire someone to write better code for them, it's barely usable as it stands.

[tsantsa]

Hey thanks guys. I'll look into the free hosting first. Should I decide to register an addy and use one of the free ones to learn and build, how easy is it to upgrade for more services. For instance awardspace has their free service then their essentials plan that offers more flexiblity. Is it just a simple email or call to upgrade?

I just want to avoid serious confusion if and when an upgrade needs to happen.

[zoobie]

As mentioned, Godaddy has free hosting...use this as your sandbox to test. When you're finished and have decided on what features you'd like, stop in www.webhostingtalk.com for several top-rated hosts.

[ahhaa]

It depends what you want to learn from the experience-

Using your old computer to host will prob'ly cost you more in electricity than any nominal hosting fee...

If you nose around at NetObjects, you can still get a free copy of Fusion Essentials the website building suite
http://www.netobjects.com/html/essentials.html

Be sure to download their User Guide pdf; it has all sorts of strategic info and tips for good web design

Fusion is actually fun to use and will make you look good too 8)

[stiltman]

http://www.afmu.com/free-web-hosting.php
Somebody here posted on this a few days ago.

That would be me
I highly recommend them.
I now have 5 domains hosted on their site.

By no means should you EVER consider CrapDaddy