Personal website

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 Philip 29 Jul 2017
It's been a while since I had my own website, uni days 15 years ago when we had our own space.

Without getting ripped off, how do I easiest get a domain, a pop email that can forward to my existing Gmail, some space to upload my weather data from a raspberry pi. I could also host my blog.

I know I can Google it, but I'm looking for a recommendation on a provider. My blog is currently on blogger, and I could get a free Weebly to host my weather, but I have a particular domain in mind for email purposes and once I pay for that I might as well put it altogether.
 Jack B 29 Jul 2017
In reply to Philip:

Fairly recently I experimented with freehostia.com. They have a free package which included a few whatever.freehostia.com domain names, a modest amount of storage space (enough for a website and a good few images, but not really audio or video), a few email addresses, and some form of database access. There were no adverts. It worked. I never had to contact customer support, but I imagine you'd get what you paid for if you did.

There are quite a few similar offers around the place. I daresay they are all very similar, and who's offering the best deal will vary month to month. If I was looking again, I'd just google for a comparison review - just make sure you can use your own domain, and they have a weebly installer - those are the features they might not have.

Or, if your internet connection can take it, use a dynamic DNS provider to point at the pi itself, and host the website on there.
 jk25002 30 Jul 2017
In reply to Philip:
You can host websites on github or dropbox. I've used github for a couple of websites. Buy a domain name with email forwarding and point it at that.

Downside with github is you'll only get static pages (ie. no audience interaction). You could easily put a script on the Raspberry Pi to automatically push new weather data to github.

The benefit of github/dropbox, is that it's a completely blank space, and you need not be constrained by templates or forced to have adverts.

w.r.t. domain names, I've bought through Hover.com, which seem easy/straightforward, although I've noticed the price increasing a fair bit year on year. Also my bank suspends my card each year when it notices a payment to a US company, but that's the bank's fault...
Post edited at 09:20
OP Philip 30 Jul 2017
In reply to jrck2:

Thanks.

I might get the domain now and just use it with Blogger. I can push the weather data online somewhere and maybe include it in a static page on Blogger. Unlike WordPress they seem to let you buy your own site and use it with a free blogging account.
 MtnGeekUK 30 Jul 2017
In reply to Philip:

I've always found 123-reg.co.uk pretty solid and competitive.

(I don't work for them - this is my own experience of trying a few out!)
 Big Ger 31 Jul 2017
In reply to Philip:
Do UK internet providers no longer give you "X GB" amount of webspace with your package?
Post edited at 00:48
 Tom F Harding 31 Jul 2017
In reply to Philip:

I use Squarespace - it has a nice blog system and does all social media and analytics without too much trouble. Not sure about integrating external weather data as I just use mine as a business and portfolio site. It's pretty reasonable but a word of warning if you want a xxx@xxx.com (xxx your site!) you need to pay a bit extra each month as it goes through Gmail. You can have a look round with a free trial period and you don't need to pay in advance.
In reply to Philip:

I use UK2.net. I've got a pretty decent VPS with them.

I've found a lot of the cheap as chips hosting is very slow.
In reply to Philip:

> I might get the domain now and just use it with Blogger. I can push the weather data online somewhere and maybe include it in a static page on Blogger. Unlike WordPress they seem to let you buy your own site and use it with a free blogging account.

With wordpress.org, as opposed to wordpress.com, you host your own website/blog. Highly recommended.

 Starky 31 Jul 2017
In reply to Philip:
If you're working with a Raspberry Pi then it sounds like you might have some time and technical knowledge. It could be worth setting up a VPS to give you flexibility.

When you sign up with Amazon AWS you get a free year of EC2 hosting on their t2.micro instances and plenty of disk space. Spin up a Linux VM, follow a few tutorials and you'll be good to go. After the first year you can switch to a t2.nano instance which will cost about $60 per year if you pay on-demand.

I also use 123-reg for domains and Google Suite to handle emails in Gmail.

Edit: A t2.nano instance is only $41.04/year if you pay up-front for a year and $27.72/year if you pay up-front for 3 years.
Post edited at 10:52
OP Philip 31 Jul 2017
In reply to Starky:

I have all of expertise to build and run a linux server but none of the time. Hence needing an honest and reliable provider.

I have been trying to simplify my IT life - all my linux machines are obsolete, my family run from android or chromebooks, my work are unaware of my IT skills (having learnt from my previous role where despite being a director I was also fixing the router if it went wrong).

The Raspberry Pi is going to be my little secret. Hidden away in my electrical cupboard I can remote in and play. I'm more interested in the hacking together of sensors than messing around with LAMP, Wordpress or any other software issues.

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