Most reliable web hosting company for a begineer

[kolleamm]

I would like to start learning PHP and more advanced web development concepts, however I would need a website first. I was thinking of using iPage but there are some bad reviews. Can anybody recommend a good cheap web hosting company?

 

[mfb]

Suggesting individual web hosters could be seen as advertisement. There are various websites listing web hosters and comparing them. There are many free options that should offer more than enough for the first steps.

http://www.whtop.com/top.10-alexa-ranking/country-at
http://www.prchecker.info/top-10-web-hosting.php
http://www.freehosting-list.de/webspace
...

Useful features:
- PHP (obviously)
- FTP
- if you like that: some web interface to manage files
- if you like that: good support for various website software packages (wordpress and similar tools)
- SQL databases
- a reasonable amount of space and traffic. With HTML and PHP you'll never use what they give out for free, if you also want to host many images or videos it gets more interesting
- maybe email features
- for more advanced things: SSH access

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

For cheap hosting I usually went with hostgator.com

 

[QuantumQuest]

I would like to start learning PHP and more advanced web development concepts, however I would need a website first.

Although it is surely good to have your own website, this is in no way mandatory in order to learn/practice web development. I would recommend to download and work on an Apache, PHP, MySQL web stack. The one that I tinker with is WampServer on a Windows machine. There are other good alternative WAMPs too. If you work on Linux, you can find one such stack through your package manager. This way you will work and learn on your own machine and you can apply/practice many advanced concepts as well.

On the other hand, if you want to create a website, then as mfb points out you can do your own (re)search on the net, but be aware that there are many options and you have to be careful about the relationship between features/support by the web host and costs involved (sometimes some of which are implied or hidden). You can surely find some good choices and in my opinion as Greg Bernhardt suggests, check hostgator.com.

 

[kolleamm]

Although it is surely good to have your own website, this is in no way mandatory in order to learn/practice web development. I would recommend to download and work on an Apache, PHP, MySQL web stack. The one that I tinker with is WampServer on a Windows machine. There are other good alternative WAMPs too. If you work on Linux, you can find one such stack through your package manager. This way you will work and learn on your own machine and you can apply/practice many advanced concepts as well.

On the other hand, if you want to create a website, then as mfb points out you can do your own (re)search on the net, but be aware that there are many options and you have to be careful about the relationship between features/support by the web host and costs involved (sometimes some of which are implied or hidden). You can surely find some good choices and in my opinion as Greg Bernhardt suggests, check hostgator.com.

In some of the tutorials on YouTube they say servers on your own computer is too much of a headache, for example if you wanted to send an email it wouldn't work without a lot of coding whereas a web hosting website would make things easier and save you time.

 

[QuantumQuest]

for example if you wanted to send an email it wouldn't work without a lot of coding whereas a web hosting website would make things easier and save you time.

Yes, there are such cases but I think that a web stack in general, can get you far enough in your development in every aspect. This is (still) the preferred way for learning, as you can tinker with a lot of things at absolutely no cost and learn almost everything you need to, from the comfort and security of your own machine. But again, if going live is your preferred way, there is no problem either.

 

[jack action]

for example if you wanted to send an email it wouldn't work without a lot of coding

Not true, there are tool's for that. I use Test Mail Server Tool. You click on the icon and it automatically listen to your server for mail sent. I use WampServer as well. Everything is free and offer full access of the server's parameters (which will not be the case with shared hosting).

The worst is really simulating a secure connection (because you cannot have a Certificate Authority backing up your local server, obviously) and subdomains can be tough to set up too. But that is more advance.

On the other hand, the advantage of web host will be that it will force you to deal with a web hosting control panel (like cPanel or Plesk). That is, if you don't have enough learning about HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, ...

 

[kolleamm]

Thanks for the information everyone, I will probably do the server on my computer instead of paying for a domain. Just seems like a waste of money at this point although it will definately be necessary in the future.

 

[jtbell]

For the learning stages, it's definitely better to set up a server on your own computer. There's lots of information available on how to do this. Depending on which OS you're using, Google for "WAMP server", "LAMP server" or "MAMP server" for Windows, Linux or MacOS respectively.

I keep a complete copy of my website on my Mac, and do all editing there before uploading new pages to my web host.

When/if you want to go "public", another place to look for advice about web-hosting is the forum webhostingtalk.com. One thing I quickly learned there was to avoid companies that have been bought up by Endurance International Group (EIG). During the past several years, they've bought many smaller web-hosting companies, consolidated their operations (letting the previous employees go), and degraded their customer service. But they hide the consolidation by maintaining the separate brands and websites so they still look like independent companies. The forum I mentioned is full of complaints about EIG companies. Unfortunately, Hostgator is one of them, since last year. So are other well-known brands like iPage and Bluehost.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

For the learning stages, it's definitely better to set up a server on your own computer.

For someone with more limited computing experience and who just wants to get a jump start on some web programming I'd actually disagree. With using a web host you don't need to setup or config the server. That can be a big hurdle for most beginners. With using a web host it's basically upload and go.

 

[jtbell]

With using a web host you don't need to setup or config the server.

That's a good point. I was spoiled by using MacOS which comes with Apache already installed. At the time I started (several MacOS versions ago), I could start Apache simply by turning on "Web Sharing" in System Preferences. (Now you have to open the Terminal and do 'apachectl start' at the command line.) Then I just dropped my HTML files into my Sites folder and I could access them in a browser at localhost/~jtbell/ . I think to enable PHP I had to edit one of the Apache config files and un-comment one or two directives.

It also helped that I had helped run my college's student/faculty/staff web server for several years, so I was somewhat acquainted with Apache administration already...

 

[kolleamm]

I downloaded wamp. I created a folder called project1 and made a simple index.php file with the contents

<?php
echo "Hello";
?>

For some reason it doesn't work, and localhost is missing from the address. I looked for a solution on Google but they seem fairly complex.

 

[Routaran]

I downloaded wamp. I created a folder called project1 and made a simple index.php file with the contents

<?php
echo "Hello";
?>

For some reason it doesn't work, and localhost is missing from the address. I looked for a solution on Google but they seem fairly complex.

try http://127.0.0.1/ instead

for http://project1/ to work you need to have a hosts entry saying project1 points to your own system.

 

[QuantumQuest]

For some reason it doesn't work, and localhost is missing from the address. I looked for a solution on Google but they seem fairly complex.

Did the installation run successfully i.e do all Wamp Server services run properly when you start it? Clicking on the Wamp Server icon in the system tray, you can start/stop services, put Wamp Server online/offline and see the various components of the stack (I have Wamp Server 2.4 but there are no significant differences in current version 2.5). Now, you must click "Put Online" (or something similar in the current version), so the system will get up and running. Then, go to "http://localhost" and you'll see the page of Wamp Server. If you don't see this page on this address then probably you need to configure Apache listening port. Windows has port 80 occupied in many cases (the most usual being by IIS), so you have to go to Apache "httpd.conf" file. You will find it by clicking WAMP server icon and then Apache > httpd.conf.Open it with an editor (for instance with Notepad) and scroll down until you find the line "Listen 80". Change this to "Listen 8080". (There is nothing special about port 8080 it is just an example. You just want to find an unoccupied port.). Save the file and restart Wamp Server. (By the way if you want to take a look for registered port numbers look at IANA.)

 

[kolleamm]

Did the installation run successfully i.e do all Wamp Server services run properly when you start it? Clicking on the Wamp Server icon in the system tray, you can start/stop services, put Wamp Server online/offline and see the various components of the stack (I have Wamp Server 2.4 but there are no significant differences in current version 2.5). Now, you must click "Put Online" (or something similar in the current version, so the system will get up and running. Then, go to "http://localhost" and you'll see the page of Wamp Server. If you don't see this page on this address then probably you need to configure Apache listening port. Windows has port 80 occupied in many cases (the most usual being by IIS), so you have to go to Apache "httpd.conf" file. You will find it by clicking WAMP server icon and then Apache > httpd.conf.Open it with an editor (for instance with Notepad) and scroll down until you find the line "Listen 80". Change this to "Listen 8080". (There is nothing special about port 8080 it is just an example. You just want to find an unoccupied port.). Save the file and restart Wamp Server. (By the way if you want to take a look for registered port numbers look at IANA.)

The localhost page shows up without any problem, only when I click project1 I get the "page cannot be displayed"

 

[Routaran]

The localhost page shows up without any problem, only when I click project1 I get the "page cannot be displayed"

where exactly is the index.php that you made file located? is it in the same folder as the index.html file?

 

[kolleamm]

where exactly is the index.php that you made file located? is it in the same folder as the index.html file?

C:\wamp64\www\project1

That is the folder of the index.php file

 

[QuantumQuest]

The localhost page shows up without any problem, only when I click project1 I get the "page cannot be displayed"

In the attached image I see that the address reads "http://project1 ". If you put "http://localhost" does the Wamp Server welcome page show up? Then, if you click on "Project1" under "Projects" on this page, (and this includes your php file) does it work? Alternatively, give the full address "http://localhost/project1/index.php".

 

[kolleamm]

In the attached image I see that the address reads "http://project1 ". If you put "http://localhost" does the Wamp Server welcome page show up? Then, if you click on "Project1" under "Projects" on this page, (and this includes your php file) does it work?

http://localhost/ takes me to the welcome page, and then when I click project1 it takes me to http://project1/ after loading for a few seconds and saying "Waiting for local host" in the tab

 

[QuantumQuest]

http://localhost/ takes me to the welcome page, and then when I click project1 it takes me to http://project1/ after loading for a few seconds and saying "Waiting for local host" in the tab

When you saved your file did you put the extension ".php"? Also did you save as not text file?

 

[kolleamm]

Yeah but it still didn't work.

 

[kolleamm]

Apparently manually putting in the address works.

 

[jack action]

I downloaded wamp. I created a folder called project1 and made a simple index.php file with the contents

<?php
echo "Hello";
?>

For some reason it doesn't work, and localhost is missing from the address. I looked for a solution on Google but they seem fairly complex.

I think I found your problem. It is a new concept with WampServer 2.5 (I use 2.1) to encourage creating a Virtual Host for each of your projects. There is also a quick solution (setting $suppress_localhost = false; in 'wamp/www/index.php'). Both solutions are described here.

 

[Routaran]

Apparently manually putting in the address works.

Yeah, the problem is that your webroot index for some reason is linking to http://project1/
meaning it's looking for a computer called project1. There is no computer called project1. You have a folder called project1 under your webroot
so to navigate correctly to your website you have to type in

http://localhost/project1/index.php
or
http://127.0.0.1/project1/index.php

I do not know why your default index.html file generated that link as I've never used wamp

 

[QuantumQuest]

Apparently manually putting in the address works.

If this works then there can be no other problem than some kind of configuration needed on the server. I was not aware of the issue that jack action mentions, but having checked it now I think he is right.

 

[jtbell]

I suggest you start with an index.html file, not an index.php file, so as not to mix Apache issues with PHP issues. Something like this:

<html lang="en-US">

<head>
<title>My First Page</title>
</head>

<body>
<h1>Hello, World!</h1>
<p>This is my first web page.</p>
</body>

</html>

When you try to access the URL http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1/ in your browser, your Apache server should look first for a file named index.html in a specific folder, the document root. [I originally wrote more stuff here thinking you didn't know where the document root is, but now I see you did find it.] It may or may not look for an index.php depending on how the server is configured. I suspect your server is not configured to look for index.php by default, because you wrote that it works if you explicitly put index.php in the URL.

Look in your server config file (on my system it's called httpd.conf, might be different on yours) for a DirectoryIndex directive. On my system it looks like this:

#
# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory
# is requested.
#
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
</IfModule>

This says, "if the URL ends in a slash, look in that directory for a file named index.html. If it exists, serve it. If there is no index.html, look for a file named index.php instead."

 

[kevnjohn]

Well, I'm using Godaddy but currently looking to shift my websites.