CHAPTER 19. FIRST WEBSITE 200
You can expect to spend about $5 per month (as of 2013), in advance, with a
two-year contract, for pretty much unlimited web hosting. You don’t always
get more by paying more. It pays to compare what different companies offer.
Bluehost:http://www.bluehost.com/
Hostgator:http://www.hostgator.com/shared
Fatcow:http://www.fatcow.com/
For dedicated hosting, the shared hosting providers can sell you an upgrade
or you can find a place like Rackspace.
Rackspace:http://www.rackspace.com/
19.1.3 Be Cautious with Your Free Domain Name
Your web host will probably give you a free domain name. Take it. That
domain name will be the way you gain access to the control panel. The
control panel is how you will manage and add content to your website.
Be aware that the free domain name is one way webhosting providers stop
you from shopping around for better deals later. They would love to lock you
into a relationship. You should assume that if you ever change webhosting
providers, the free domain name will be lost. You will not be able to bring
it with you, or only after payment of a substantial extra fee.
Register your really cool domain name in some other way. It is risky to have
all your eggs in one basket, in case your webhost goes out of business, or
decides to change their terms of service in ways that you find to be abusive.
19.2 Passwords
You will have a lot of passwords. Your registrar will have a password. Your
webhost will have a password. If you use a turn-key solution like Wordpress,
you will have a password. You probably already have a ton of passwords.
Appendix 24 (page 232) has more discussion about passwords. If you have
never thought much about it, you owe it to yourself to do so now. But here
we will take a quick look at passwords.