A colleague at my current employer had cause to ask about this site yesterday. I promised him I’d write up my notes about my hosting provider, software solution and so on. I then thought it’d actually make a useful posting to make in case anybody else is interested. There are various items to consider, specifically:
Domain name
I registered leyton.org some years ago with Network Solutions. They do quite a good deal for domains over longer periods of time, and the web-interface is rather good.
That said, an ISP often offers this service when signing up with them for their hosting, and you might prefer that (I’ve used XCalibre’s service for my other domains).
But leyton.org is managed separately, and I like it that way. I don’t have to rely on my ISP if I choose to move to release the domain, which can cause serious problems. This is exactly what happened with active ISP, and my previous employers domains. They wouldn’t release them for strange internal reasons. Active ISP are, therefore, a company to avoid at all costs in my view. In a word, stick with the big boys, or a company you can trust for the actual domain registration, as that’s the most important item you’ll buy.
Hosting provider (ISP)
I host with xcalibre, based up here in Scotland. They were recommended to me by a couple of friends some time ago, and I’ve had no problems with the service. In fact, I’m very happy to recommend them. For about �45/year for a basic entry level package, it’s very competitive for the storage and bandwidth it provides.
I’ve moved up a notch, given the amount of traffic that comes via this site these days, but I’m still paying less than �100/year.
The hosting provider gives you your actual presence on the internet, and the control panel interface at Xcalibre make setting up e-mail addresses, POP3 mailboxes and ftp accounts a doddle.
Template Software
I’m using Movable Type to manage leyton.org, using templates pretty much everywhere to manage even apparently static pages (such as the the about me page). I’ve recently had cause to use wordpress at labtastic, but haven’t been enamoured. You also need a mySQL DB behind the scenes, which comes as an extra with some hosting providers (at least on their entry level packages).
Setting up Movable Type isn’t exactly a walk in the park, so a service such as Blogger might be a good alternative, and there are ways - I believe - to wrap up a blogger service within an established weblog. Can’t speak too much about that, as I’ve not done it, but might be one to explore.
Note that setting up your own weblog brings with it responsibilities too. It’s imperative that some form of anti-comment spam tool such as MT-Blacklist. I also installed mt-dsbl which has been simply stunning at blocking spam (it prevents posts from open web proxies). I’m not keen on Captcha’s all said.
What it’s all about
I didn’t register leyton.org with any particular aim other than it’s my name, and I wanted to use it for e-mail purposes. It’s sunk in, as colleagues at my old company still refer to me as “org”, and it’s easy to spell over the phone. Although less technically minded people have some difficulty with the .org part, not being familiar with this top level domain (.com and .co.uk are almost seen as the “only” domains for e-mail purposes).
However, I soon began to want a way of “giving something back”. I wanted to put answers into the googlesphere (which is the ultimate technical reference for any IT professional, even though they may not admit it!). The reward that comes from seeing hundreds of people each day visit leyton.org to find answers to solutions is worth the time and effort involved, and the occasional e-mail or comment from somebody thanking me, or adding a clarification, really is a reward in itself.
A lot of people use websites as a way to stay in touch with friends (as we did when we went travelling). Whilst not all that many of my family and friends read leyton.org on a regular basis, it’s something they know about, and for a lot of people a website can be an excellent way to stay in touch.
So all said and done, running a website is great fun. Whether you like or hate how leyton.org is setup, hopefully the above is something that might be useful to you if you’re considering something similar.
Do watch this space though: leyton.org will be having something of an aesthetic face-lift in the next month or so.
