Buying a Domain

[tvirusx1]

I am currently using sub Domains as my Websites/Forums but I would like to have my own domain.
Of course I will buy a Forum Script (vBulletin), or get a free one (SMF).

Where could I buy my own Domain and is there anything I would have to know before I buy a Domain?
Would I also have to buy a server or will that be included in the price of the Domain?

I'm a total newbie at paid Domains so I don't know anything about buying Domains and stuff like that.

[Freddy]

I would get a domain at http://godaddy.com, they've got good prices and you can find a lot of discount coupons online: http://www.retailmenot.com/view/godaddy.com
You have to purchase a server separately. The domain is payed on a yearly basis at least, will be around $7-$10 for a .com domain, you can get a .info for about $1 at godaddy (note that the renewal of those .info domains costs more). The server is payed on at least a monthly basis, the price depends on the kind of server you pick. If you get shared hosting you can basically host a website, run php scripts, use databases, ... Reseller hosting allows you to do the same with the added ability that you can creates subhosting accounts which you could for example sell to other people. Then there's vps hosting, which gives you root access to a virtual server which you can install any operating system onto (linux unless you have a windows server), and you can install any piece of software onto it you like. If you for example want subversion repositories then you will probably need to get a vps as most if not all hosts don't allow it on  shared hosting, where as you can install it perfectly fine on a vps. Finally there's dedicated hosting, which you probably shouldn't get, it's the most expensive, basically gives you an entire server, not visualized. this site is hosted on a vps server.

If you get vps or dedicated hosting you should consider if you want it managed or unmanaged, unmanaged is the cheapest, but you have to install all software yourself and if it doesn't work you have to fix it (unless there's a problem with the server itself of course). Managed hosting is a lot more costy, but you can ask the hosting company to basically do everything for you, install software and stuff... Basically you pay extra for the service.

I only have experience with 2 hosting companies, I can recommend them though, they're pretty good, certainly Knownhost, they're both not the cheapest, but cheap hosts are often overselling which results in bad servers.
At knownhost you can get shared hosting, and managed vps/hybrid/dedi hosting.
Shared: http://knownhost.com/shared-hosting.html
VPS: http://knownhost.com/vps_packages.html
Hybrid: http://knownhost.com/hybrid_packages.html
Dedicated: http://knownhost.com/dedicated-servers.html

Then there's FsckVPS' unmanaged VPS hosting:
http://fsckvps.com/hosting/

I would started with simple shared hosting and move up as you need more processing power/memory/...

[tvirusx1]

Thanks for the massive info!
I somehow guessed that you have to buy/rent a server  ;D.
I think I will have to start off small. I have to buy a lot of things and it's not 100% that my website will be a success.

I'll firstly make a Sub-Domain Forum until I have around 350-400$ from Donations and/or Advertisements.
If I can get 350-400$ from Donation and/or Advertisements then I know the People like my site and they want me to improve it.

We will see in the future which one of the servers I will need, it all depends on how many users use my Forum.
Which type of Server do you have and whats the average amount of users which use your website/forum per day?

I don't want to buy everything now because if my website isn't a success then I make a big loss.
Good that you cleared things up for me, it would've be stupid if I buy a Domain but I have no Server ;D.
Posted on: January 03, 2010, 07:11:06 AMHey, is it possible to run a .exe file on a shared server?
My host is Knownhost.

[Freddy]

Hey, is it possible to run a .exe file on a shared server?
My host is Knownhost.

It's not possible to run any binary files on a shared hosting server... Also the server is probably running a Linux distro, you need a Windows server to run exe files, a VPS or Dedicated server. These Windows servers are usually quite expensive though... I would suggest that you try to do as much as possible in PHP... However, if you rly want to do this, you could get a windows server or rewrite the code for this program (assuming you wrote it), in java and run it on a linux vps/dedi.

[tvirusx1]

Thanks for the info!
It's just that I made a Bot in C++ and it's an .exe, it sends/receives packets to be able to do things in Dark Orbit.

I just thought that I would use that extra Brandwidth I don't use (I'll probably have 5-10GB leftover), to be able to bot 24/7 on the Server rather than leaving my Comp going over night...

Once I have a lot more Website users I will probably get VPS and if I know I'll have some Brandwidth left I will run it on the Server .

I'm not going to bother re-writing the code in Java, would probably take me as long as I worked on the C++ Bot itself (I understand some Java but I have no clue about Winsock in Java).
But good to know Java would work.

[ti.teg.tnod.I]

Thanks for the info!
It's just that I made a Bot in C++ and it's an .exe, it sends/receives packets to be able to do things in Dark Orbit.

I just thought that I would use that extra Brandwidth I don't use (I'll probably have 5-10GB leftover), to be able to bot 24/7 on the Server rather than leaving my Comp going over night...

Once I have a lot more Website users I will probably get VPS and if I know I'll have some Brandwidth left I will run it on the Server .

I'm not going to bother re-writing the code in Java, would probably take me as long as I worked on the C++ Bot itself (I understand some Java but I have no clue about Winsock in Java).
But good to know Java would work.

Couldn't you just write it in C++ for Linux?