Website creation questions

Hello everyone, I'm going to create a forum-based website, and I'd like to know the basics and how-to's if I could.

I know how to run a Vbulletin/phpbb forum, and I might buy a domain soon.

My questions:
-What's the best hosting service?
-What do I need to purchase exactly? A domain? A host? What's the difference?
-What does MYSQL mean? How is that related to a database?
-What programming languages should I learn?

I've googled the basic basic basics, but I was struck to find a world I never knew exsisted, this stuff is huuuuuuuge. I was wondering what kind of computer technology courses would be wise to take before running a website.

Also, another thing, I'd really appreciate it if any professional can add my msn and explain things a bit further, who knows, you might even become a moderator on my new site .

[email protected], thanks everyone & I hope my questions weren't too newby.

 

Honestly, if you don't know what MySQL is, you shouldn't be making a forum. >_>

And if you don't know the difference between a host and a domain, you should not be making a website.

 

Let me outline the basics of running a site:

Host-Files are stored here and sent to the users computer. A computer that is on 24/7 and always on the internet.

Domain-http://younamehere.yourending here, Basically, what is typed in to the URL bar

MySQL- The database program. Similar to MS Access, but built for the web, it stores all of your user information.

Technically speaking, you do not need any programming language for just forums. vBulletin is completely programmed.

I would recommend some HTML/PHP for an actual website.

What hosting service is the best? That is up to you. I would read lots of reviews. For a site just starting out you wouldn't need more then 500MB storage and 10GB transfer, probably not even more the 5GB transfer.

A word to hosting- You have your storage space--the amount of files you can store there. You also have bandwidth--which is the amount of data transferred. Everytime a file is transferred, it uses some bandwidth, so it is not advised to have a download site like RapidShare.

Any more questions, feel free to PM me

 

How is that answer useful? Were you here to simply spam and show me how much better you are at technology than i am? You're better. What do you want now? I'm obviously a new guy at this stuff and I want to learn. I know for sure that you were once where I am. So please if you have nothing good to say don't spam, being a moderator you should know this.

EDIT: I've looked further into it yesterday, I now know the basics behind MYSQL, domains, hosts, and the basic rules around them. A couple of fellas from Sythe even helped me around with making a little website, thanks fratal and Wath-Downin .

 

Calm down, I agree with him.

You need to learn about these things for at least a few months beforehand, otherwise you won't understand shit from shit. Leastways, you SHOULD do that if you want to be good at administration. If your database breaks for whatever reason, and you haven't got any experience with MySQL under your belt, be prepared to fork out a lot of money to someone like me to fix it (I'm not kidding, every hired programmer likes to charge lots of money for simple jobs).

 

;_; I was only implying you should have actually looked into it before posting.

 

Before starting a website, you should do considerable experiments and toying around with all of things listed in your questions in order to better understand them. Even so, here are my answers...

Start with free web hosting, one of www.50webs.com, www.byethost.com, or www.hosting.eu.pn.

You can purchase a domain but don't worry about it till you get all the workings of a basic website and figure out how to expand on it. You can get free subdomains/shorter URLs through services like www.freedomain.co.nr, www.dot.tk, www.co.cc.

MySQL is a database system and you won't need to know about programming for it to make a website however you will need to know how to perform basic configurations of it if you hope to setup a forum. The hosts I listed all include MySQL and some may even allow you to setup a forum in a few simple clicks with easy install scripts in their control panel.

You should use www.w3schools.com as your reference for learning website programming basics. I would recommend following through the HTML, XHTML, and PHP tutorials first (trying the examples yourself on your host's server) and testing yourself using their mini quizzes afterwards.

 

if you take a preliminary web design course that should walk you through all the questions your having plus its an extra high school credit to bring up the gpa

 

-What's the best hosting service?
For a basic website would be go-daddy
-What do I need to purchase exactly? A domain? A host? What's the difference?
ul need to buy both domain and a host so ur website can go up.
-What does MYSQL mean? How is that related to a database?
im not sure tho i think it stores files like a vote it stores them so u dont have to count ( NOT 100% on this )
-What programming languages should I learn?

html<< ul need to learn this

 

This thread has not been posted in for a month. Please don't grave-dig.

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