milsoms.com blog

Having set up my web space, I needed to get the domain name to point at the space and this is done by changing the DNS records at the site that hosts the domain (that is, the domain name rather than the actual space for the web site).

You get the correct nameserver records from the web space provider (HostGator in my case)  and they look like this

NameServer1: ns237.websitewelcome.com
NameServer2: ns238.websitewelcome.com

Just type these into the appropriate boxes with the domain name host and it will tell everyone that your URL now points to the new web space. (there are lots of different nameservers all round that maintain a current database linking site names to web space IP addresses and it can take up to 48 hours for the new relationship to propagate everywhere).

I already owned the domain name milsoms.com and have recently started a hosting account with HostGator that allows me to host as many domains as I like for a low monthly charge.  I have used a lot of hosting companies before and they all seem to want to charge extra for every little feature or facility you need to have.

my experience so far, HostGator have got everything loaded into the basic account, including CGI, PHP, MySQL and loads of additional resources and scripts you can load using the amazing “Fantastico” facility - this lets you install things like WordPress (which I have used for this blog) with only a couple of clicks.  It also has various FAQ, Forum and Help Desk facilities which will no doubt come in handy as I develop this project.
You have full control over your domain space and can create an unlimited number of sub-domains as well as folders within the site, e.g. http://domains.milsoms.com

These are a good way of organising “mini sites” or separate chunks of content as the search engines can treat them as a separate site and you get more focused content.  Also, they can be accessed by a variety of URLs of someone gets the syntax wrong…

domains.milsoms.com
http://domains.milsoms.com
www.domains.milsoms.com
http://www.domains.milsoms.com

all work fine!

I was getting web space from UK2 but it was costing £50.00 per year plus extras for what I would consider essentials like CGI and email POP boxes - now that is all included for nothing (as I was paying the basic monthly charge for other sites as well).

Click here to find out more about HostGator yourself if you want to host multiple sites

have actually signed up for the hosting  reseller package so that I can provide hosting for other people as well.  At the moment I am just doing this for friends and family but there is a chance to make it a commercial part of the milsoms.com business and i will be following it up to see if I can get it working.
BTW - the Google spell checking is working really well!