Technology Site Launched

Please visit www.pelokee.com today!

One of the driving goals of this site is to act as an exchange of information by technology professionals. I have invited my network of trusted professionals to begin contributing and using this site in an effort to bring valuable expertise in many fields within technology, and whatever else they want to talk about.

Since I have spent a great deal of after-hours time testing and playing around with different personal website packages (cost has always been a huge consideration) I feel it appropriate to document what I’ve found that works well.

Core Hosting Packages

DotNetNuke – You can host this puppy on a home PC caliber machine. Install a Windows server OS with IIS, add SQL/SP3 and a few ASP / .Net updates, and you are hosting your own web site. This is by far my favorite way to do things. Please understand that I am NOT a web developer – never have been, and probably never will be. So I look for simple, easy, and effective. I find DNN sites the most effective because you can add QUALITY extras very easily. This site is an example of a DNN site. My main goal when starting Pelokee was to have a site that users could login into (security allows for better content control) and that provided a forum for the exchange of information. It did not take me long at all to get it up and running with these minimum requirements. Everything else you see is gravy.

Google Pages – The ability to start your own personal site is FREE with your GMail account. Don’t have a GMail account? E-mail me and I’ll send you an invite – [email protected] ) Anyway, Google gives you 100mb of space per GMail account to set up a web presence for yourself. It’s actually fantastic for what you pay for it. Definitely worth a try if you have an interest and you don’t know much about starting a website. Google handles all of the hard work. All you have to do is pick from templates of styles and colors and start adding content. What I like about the Google offering is that they allow you to add in what they call “Gadgets”. These are what separate this from basically translating a Word document to HTML for you – you can add a million different things like games, news feeds, photo galleries, weather feeds, etc.

Third-Party Hosting Companies

Not only do I understand that not everybody is equipped to set up their own Windows/SQL servers and host their website from home, but site performance is a huge reason why you’d want to pay someone to host your site for you. For as little as $4/month, you can copy your site elsewhere and take advantage of much larger network pipes, better storage options (than would be realistic on your home PC), system uptime, and most importantly – you don’t open your home PC up to hackers.

I will admit that I am not an authority on who the best are. There are a million of these companies out there. If you wanted to become a web hosting company, all you need are a few servers, a stable network line, and customers to pay you. Here are a few big ones that I have positive experiences with:

1 & 1 – This is who I currently use. Why? They were the cheapest I could find and they have ads in every magazine I read. A lot of ads as a matter of fact which I think means they are starting off with cheap pricing to build their customer base. And there is nothing wrong with that. 1 & 1’s product offerings compete with just about everyone else out there. They have packages that include your domain name registration. Most places make you pay extra for that and that just seems a little wrong in my book. If I’m paying you to host my site, you can give me some domain names. Check them out.

GoDaddy.com – They have commercials all over the place. Mostly they have scantily clad women to appeal to the geek population that would be most apt to use a web hosting service. I just looked and it looks like you have to pay extra for a domain name even if you use them for hosting. While that just doesn’t sit right with me, I think that’s the norm more than the exception. A friend of mine uses them and hasn’t complained too much.

Net2Atlanta – This is an example of a company that doesn’t nationally advertise and is quite capable of providing you the same service, if not better. You get more flexible options customized to your needs, which you aren’t getting from one of the big kahuna’s. I know the owner and actually did some research on becoming an ISP for this company before they decided to make it happen. Back in 1998. With US Robotics 56k MODEMS!