How long have you been running Cumulus?

[RayProudfoot]

Chaps,

I would strongly recommend you buy your domain name separately from any web hosting deal. This was advice I read several years ago though I can't source it.

Some web hosting deals may link the domain name with it so you could lose it if you decide to change hosting. I bought my name from http://www.123-reg.co.uk/. As far as web hosting companies go there is a decent selection for a few pounds per month. It all depends on your requirements.

Finally, this discussion might be better in a separate thread.

[MickinMoulden]

Today is day 1300. Began 1st December 2009.

Began 1st December 2010. The day after my birthday. Happy Birthday to ME!

[brookr]

Well the first steps are to get yourself a domain name and a hosting company.
The domain name can usually be bought at the same time as you buy the hosting service and is usually something like http://www.farsleyweather.co.uk (if it is available i.e. nobody else is using the name).
The hosting service is the web based company who has server space you can buy space from in order to host your web site.

Any recommendations of a hosting company. I've seen a few at various prices

[gluepack]

I hate recommending because it invariably comes back to haunt you but I have been with bravenet.com for many years, as a free user until the middle of last year and, since then, with my own domain as a paid user.

I haven't had to rely on their support all that much but, when I have had to, it has been excellent. They also appear to have many, many web apps available and I have hardly touched the tip of the iceberg (e.g. despite having used SQL and derivatives offline over a period of many years, I only started using MySQL there a couple of days ago when I implemented the Who's Online code).

As you allude to, there are many out there and it is probably like so many things, you invariably have to struggle to compare apples to oranges.

Having said that, I haven't really looked at many others. I went with them originally because it was free. I used their site-builder (although I think it was under a different name then) which, unfortunately, ties you down a bit, if you want to move shop, and probably contributed to why I stuck to them when I went fee, as opposed to free.

[gluepack]

I hate recommending because it invariably comes back to haunt you

Lol, see what I mean?
My domain was due to expire, prior to that I received emails saying it was a recurring transaction $8.95. So, I did nothing.
The day before it expired I got one telling me I had to renew (at $12.95).
Concerned, I logged on to renew and that failed.
I contacted them and, amongst other things was told
"...you will continue to receive the $8.95 price on your next automatic renewal. If you renew manually, you will need to renew at the new price."
Assuming that meant that the recurring transaction was going through, I did nothing.
Today, I am offline.

Oh well, they reacted pretty quickly to my complaint