Setting up a website

[Grahame Rob]

Hi all, forgive me if this is a question has been asked before but here it goes. I have a WH1090 that I had running a couple of years ago uploading the data to Wunderground before my computer died which my wife blamed because it was on 24-7. I have my station set up again and now I want to set up a website as many of the people on here have.

I know I will need a computer that will be on all the time, which I will buy a cheap one off ebay but I havnt got a clue on what I need to do to set up a site. I have looked on this forum and in the Wiki section but as I am hopeless with computers I dont know were to start. Please could someone explain in "thicko" language what I need to do and in what order to do it.

I will be aiming to start doing this around Christmas and I would like to have my domain name and host before Christmas so from 1st of Jan I can be up and running.

Thanks in advance
Grahame

[steve]

I'm not really sure what sort of help it is you're looking for, but for the Cumulus part of it, assuming you just want the 'standard' web site, set up is very easy. Instructions are in the help under 'creating a web site', and in the wiki: http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/Website_setup

[senbrea]

If you are looking for a cheap computer to act as a full-on server, you should seriously consider a Dell "Optiplex". I bought mine on eBay some months ago and it cost £50. Quite basic but excellent value and very reliable. Setting up the website is very easy.

[William Grimsley]

Hi Grahame,

For your website, I would do what Steve said and start a Cumulus site.

For your PC, I would buy a high spec PC with at least air cooling and if possible water cooling so that it doesn't overheat and crash/blow up like you said had happened to your old PC, if you really want to avoid it crashing I would switch it off overnight or some time during the day so it can cool down but otherwise it should handle ok. The question is: How much are you willing to invest in your PC? If you go with my option I would say you need about £1000 for the PC and cooling to go with it.

Hope this helps...

Will

[RayProudfoot]

Gents,

I bought a Samsung NC10 netbook back in spring 2009 to run Cumulus and apart from very short downtimes to install XP updates and defrags it has performed flawlessly for over 3.5 years. And it runs 24/7 using very little elelctricity. So Grahame, if you haven't bought a PC already seriously consider a netbook with the low powered Atom processor. I paid £300 but you will be able to buy them cheaper now.

I would also recommend the following:-

Choose a domain name and buy it from a company idependent of your web hosting company. That way, you own it for life and it isn't tied to your web host. If you live in anytown consider http://www.anytownweather.co.uk. Short and to the point. I bought my domain name from http://www.123-reg.co.uk.

Next, choose a web hosting company. A few here have used the free Australian service glovine. If you want to pay a modest free this one looks okay. http://orchardhosting.com/shared-hosting

Once those three are setup you're ready to install Cumulus and share your weather with the world. Good luck!

[Grahame Rob]

Thanks for the replies people. I was looking at getting a Dell Optiplex to run the weather station as they are cheap on ebay and we use them at work and never turn them off and dont have many problems. I like the look of orchardhosting.com. Would the £2.50 a month package be ok to run a weather site from or would I need more space.

[RayProudfoot]

Grahame (or is it Rob?),

If you're happy with the power consumption of a Optiplex then fine. But you really don't need all that power for Cumulus.

The £2.50/month option gives you 40Gb data usage. If I tell you that my site runs on less than 4Gb that should reassure you. But add a webcam and hosted images and it can shoot up. But for a standard Cumuus website it's more than enough. You can always upgrade should you have a need to.

[Grahame Rob]

Thanks Ray iv took your advice and bought a domain name from 123-reg and set up a £2.50 a month account with Orchard hosting. Now I am waiting for 123 to transfer the domain over which could take 48 hours. My weather station is connected to my daughters computer which is on 24-7 and updating to Wunderground so all is well at the moment. I have been looking at the wiki and searched the forum etc to see how I go on with making a website and boy am I confused.com

I will be asking loads of questions over the next......however long it takes me to work it out ( you have been warned)

Grahame

[PaulMy]

What I did when I had my domain and web server all in place was to print out the website help information in Cumulus, followed each step and ticked it off as each step was completed, and before I knew it there was my Cumulus standard pages website - great joy, just that easy. But the difficulty and questions came as I started to add on and experiement... but that is what a good hobby should be. Steve has done a great job in providing the standard templates and help info, and very knowledgeable people here to give you a hand when you get stuck.

Paul

[Grahame Rob]

Right guys my domain name has been transfered so now the fun begins......I have read the help guide on setting up a website and the wiki but its a bit to tech for me (Thicko) so my next question is where do I put the files weatherstyle.css, wz_jsgraphics etc in the control panel? I know this will be simple to most but I havnt got a clue. this is a screen shot from my control panel

[steve]

where do I put the files weatherstyle.css, wz_jsgraphics etc in the control panel?

You don't put the files in your control panel, you put them onto the server, using ftp. I've found a tutorial which should work with your hosting, here:

http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingsta ... load.shtml

You need to copy the contents of the webfiles folder from Cumulus into your public_html folder; just select them all and drag them over in Filezilla; it's just like copying files on your PC.

[Grahame Rob]

Cheers Steve that helped me alot but all I can get my page to do is list the the folders. This is the site http://www.pileofwood.co.uk any ideas?
ps. The site got its name from the shed that my weather station will be run from, I built it this year after I asked on a local building site if I could have the stack of 18mm plywood that was going to go in the skip. "What you doing with that PILE OF WOOD"

[RayProudfoot]

Hi Grahame,

I see you've made progress in the last 30 mins. You also need to add weatherstyle.css to that root folder to give your Cumulus pages the standard 'look'.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey!

[Grahame Rob]

Thanks Ray. Now it looks ok but im missing loads of gauges and its showing the data at 21:45 and wont update......?

[RayProudfoot]

Hi Grahame,

A few comments about your web pages.

1) Your lat / lon places you in the North Sea. You need to refine those numbers so people know where your station is (within reasonable limits).

2) You've included the word 'weather' in your location name. No need as it's also included on your web pages.

3) Enter your town and county in Location:Description in the Settings page. It hen follows 'Welcome to...'.

4) I think you're missing the dbimages folder as no gauge images are showing on the gauge link. Similar problems on 'Trends' link but not sure what is missing.

Almost there!