Need a bit of advise on starting my own website

[Hermes14]

I have been reading up on starting a new website & a few things are puzzling me.
As far as I understand you first need to register a domain name & then get your website.
Why is it so important to register a domain name?
If I register a Domain name as say S.A. Handguns & then choose a web host of say spacebar.
My web address would then most probably be www.sahandguns.spacebar.co.za
Spacebar wouldn’t let someone else use www.sahandguns.spacebar.co.za because it is already taken but they could go to ABC hosts & have a web address of sahandguns.abchosts.co.za
Secondly what would be the best way to protect my website from hackers

[workshop]

Spacebars domain name is spacebar.co.za
Yours would be sahandguns.co.za
It would also work as www.sahandguns.spacebar.co.za if you host it on their account
But your domain name and email addresses would be sahandguns.co.za
I suppose someone else could register sahandguns.com or sahandguns.net and get sahandguns.abchosts.co.za
But it would be pointless.

someone could also register sa-handguns.co.za or handgunsa.co.za or...or....
But don't worry about it
You are your site and it will be as useful as the amount of effort you put into marketing it

To keep hackers at bay your developer needs to know what they are doing
This is one of the reasons I use Wordpress. They are constantly upgrading, plugging and patching.

[Dave A]

As far as I understand you first need to register a domain name & then get your website.

That's fine in theory, but when you register the website with Uniforum the domain needs to point to a server that's expecting the domain.

If you're starting out, I'd suggest the first step is to identify the domain name you want to register (check that it is available), then find a webhosting service and get them to set up a hosting account, and only then can you register the domain.

If you are starting down the road of getting your first website up with your own co.za domain name, then I would seriously consider something like the basic offering at domains.co.za

[Hermes14]

Thanks guys, I am so glad I found this site.
I have spent the weekend going through all the old threads & there is an encyclopaedia of information in here.

So far I have applied to register a company name from http://www.registercompany.co.za/ and am waiting for feedback.

If I buy one of the packages from domain.co.za do I still have to register with uniform if I want my domain name to be registered to me?

[Dave A]

If I buy one of the packages from domain.co.za do I still have to register with uniform if I want my domain name to be registered to me?

That's what interested me in that particular offering as you can now avoid dealing with Uniforum yourself while still dealing with an automated near-instant process. Almost all local webhosting services will do domain registrations for you, but up until very recently it's always been a "manual" process - some human had to set up the web hosting, and then make an application to Uniforum, and then process a payment. It's the first time I'm aware of that we have a registration and transfer service for co.za domains that is totally automated and as easy to use as well known international domain registration services such as Godaddy, Whois etc.

Doing a domain registration at Uniforum directly is cheap, but not particularly user friendly and intuitive. It requires a reasonable level of technical knowledge and precision that is not normally present when someone is trying to set up a domain for the first time.

[Hermes14]

If you told me you were surfing the internet 10 years ago, I would have thought you were riding a new form of wave.
I am no guru but since then I have come a long way.
I won’t call myself a master but I do a fair bit of VBA in excel & access.
I bought a book on html & css two weeks ago & have written my web page in a text document I just need to test it out still
I don't want to register a domain until SA Company Registrations lets me know what my company name can be.

Jovana started a nice thread but seems to have fallen flat after the first day

http://www.theforumsa.co.za/forums/showthread.php/11432-30-Day-Challenge-To-Get-Your-Business-Online?highlight=Web+Hosting

[nipole]

Hermes you can test your code by saving the file as .htm or .html on your computer.

[Upstairs]

Go Joomla. Your css and HTML knowledge will help you to modify your template. If you want to do just your own website why go and learn all the coding?

[Hermes14]

Go Joomla. Your css and HTML knowledge will help you to modify your template. If you want to do just your own website why go and learn all the coding?

I was under the impression you needed html & css to design a web page.

[workshop]

You need design skills to build a web page. Html and css are nice to have but not essential. But to build a web site all you need is common sense. Joomla gets a little complicated for the average layman. Rather start with Wordpress. It's dead esay to use and incredibly powerful.

[IanF]

I was told that mybroadband.co.za frontend is wordpress. That is one of the biggest websites in SA. I looked at it that is true.

[polpak]

write and validate free of charge

Self found most useful the pages at http://www.w3.org/


Whether professional or amateur, their pages help you write. test, validate the
range of pages, styles and content, or just keep an eye on changes.

http://www.w3.org/community/webed/wiki/HTML

http://validator.w3.org/

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

http://www.w3.org/2009/cheatsheet/

The w3 Site Map :

http://www.w3.org/Consortium/siteindex.html#technologies

Some things not defined by the W3C specifications, HTML5 so also look elsewhere.

http://html5test.com/

Writing pages a bit more involved these days.

Also did not consider MS-W, as believe most in business busy trying to remain afloat, save their budgets, and
are discovering the benefits with open source, particularly when free, options.


BTW always are times when some money spent with experts saves a lot more.

[Mitos]

Good advice by everyone....you can practice on your own local home server by installing "Xampp or Wamp" s/w.
Server simulation for HTML, CSS, Joomla, WP, PHP or any other web development S/W.

[Wiz]

I was under the impression you needed html & css to design a web page.

You can even opt for WordPress. There are lots of eCommerce themes which you can easily choose and modify with hell lots of plugins available for customization.
If you choose a cpanel hosting then you don't even need to have a html or css knowledge. I would definately urge you to try out wordpress you won't regret it.

One click install and many other awesome features.

[polpak]

IF only starting learn how to write a web page, wish NOT be connected,
then start with a plain text editor (Notepad, gedit) and your browser.



Less help, while you know is your own mistake, also
watch your pages change when you refresh/reload them.

BTW current plain text editors now with helper apps to look for errors, make different parts easier to recognize.


There is an entire world of help out there :-)
with documents and packages you can download and try,
until you find one suits yourself.


Example, where can collect some help :

http://it-ebooks.info/tag/html/

Do NOT forget help here:

http://www.theforumsa.co.za/articles/list.php/category/33-CMS

IF with reasonable connection try the HTML Tutorial - (HTML5 Compliant)
at http://www.w3schools.com/html/

See down bottom of page the: Top 10 Tutorials