Area 10 [archive] - BUILD YOUR OWN WEBSITE PART EIGHT

We joined "Force 9" (UK only) primarily because two people involved at the beginning of our Internet access were both already signed up: Martin Lockey (who built our first web pages), and Kevin Nash (who paid for our Internet access, domain name, etc.).

When we first signed up with Force 9, they gave all clients a 5Mb home page; a few weeks later, they had upgraded this to 15Mb. Later Martin Smith at Force 9 gave Project HappyChild a 40Mb home page - and as from 1^st November 1998 we were given "unlimited" home page space. Thank you Force 9!

In the UK (as in a number of countries worldwide) there are now a great many "free" providers, many of whom offer a monthly-charge access as well, depending on what additional facilities you need. It's important to select the Internet Service Provider [ISP] which is right for your own needs - and to have evaluated what your requirements are likely to be if you're building a website, to avoid having to change the website address later if you have to change servers.

A primary factor to consider is what size your eventual website will be - with over 800 pages actually on line as at October 1999, our website is around 40Mb. In which context it's important to remember that if you "create a page" on the Internet (and have to move it somewhere else, later) you should always, wherever possible, leave a "re-direct" so that anyone who has bookmarked your page can find where it's moved to. Similarly if that page has found its way onto the Search Engines, so that you don't lose traffic later from people who found the original page address.

This is another reason for selecting the right ISP initially, to ensure that if possible you are going to "stay in the same place on the Internet" so that you don't have to "move servers" and lose all the visitors who might have found your original pages on the Search Engines and discover you no longer have a presence at the initial ISP. Selecting a "domain name" initially can reduce this problem to some degree (i.e. if you move server your domain name goes with you so theoretically your visitors will still find you) but moving a domain name from one ISP to another can, I'm told, be a fairly complex and time-consuming procedure.

If you're planning a domain name, check with your planned ISP exactly what they charge for setting this up for you (this can vary considerably from one server to another).

Our ISP Force 9 allows its subscribers "unlimited e-mail addresses" - which, for us, is a valuable asset. We offer over 100 different e-mail addresses from different sections of our website [details of how to set up multiple mailboxes and autoresponders in Parts 9 and 11 of this series] and this is very useful for anyone planning a fairly inter-active website (particularly if you're a school, charity or company where every student or executive needs an individual e-mail address).

It's worth checking with your proposed ISP what they offer in the way of e-mail address facility (this can vary considerably from one to another). Ask what they charge for technical support (because you may encounter a few problems in setting up your access initially unless you're a computer boffin) - some servers offer "national rate" calls whilst others charge "premium rates" like 50p/minute (UK). It's an important factor to consider.

If you're planning to build a website (either now or at some time in the future) it's important to try to identify the right ISP initially, to establish a "permanent Internet address". You can probably "add a domain name" later if you need to (this "fits like a glove" over your existing address, so both the original address and your domain name address lead to the same place on the Internet) and you will probably be able to upgrade from a "free-access" facility to a "pay-per-month" facility as your need for additional facilities (like CGI scripts, website statistics, etc.) grows.

One final item to check is that your proposed ISP offers "local rate" calls! You should be able to access Internet addresses anywhere in the world at the same "cheap rate" (which you may be able to reduce still further by using special deals available from your telephone provider). Ask your ISP "how near the Internet backbone" it is [Internet access quality can vary depending on how "major" a server you're with, and how far away from the primary route-ing it stands] - and if you're considering "ISDN" or "Home Highway" find out exactly how the costing works (someone did mention that whilst information travels quickly, "in packets", each of these travels separately and incurs a separate "call charge" ..... )

There are, as you'll see, a great many factors to take into consideration. It's worth contacting a few ISPs so you can compare all the relevant charges, facilities, and capacity to upgrade, and also evaluating how these factors dovetail with the services and charges of your telephone service provider.

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