Best Webhosting/Forums?

A buddy of mine (no really) wants to set up a website and forums. He has aspirations of starting his own mod, and to be nice I wanted to help him get set up. Unfortunately, neither he nor I know much of anything about how to get this done. I thought I'd tap you guys as a good resource in the hopes you can recommend some place to check out to get this done.

So any idea where to go to get a website with forums set up for a HL2 mod?

I think he's willing to pay around 20 USD a month, and he just needs enough bandwidth to get started. If the site gets shut down for exceeding bandwidth limitation, he says he'll just upgrade.

Additionally, he doesn't know anything about webdesign. Do you think I should tell him to just go out and find a webdesigner to do this for him, or are there good template sites that are customizable and easy to use?

Anyway, I'd appreciate any help.

Bandwidth -

Not really an issue for a new website, most hosting deals you buy
within the $20 price limit will have more than enough for the volumes
of traffic he is likely to expect.

Hosting -

No idea - I use a friends generous hosting for my small rarely used
site, and I know the Snarkpit uses some uber cheap job. I'm pretty
certain there's a site called webhosting.com (or along those lines)
that has lots of customer reviews and recommendation lists etc (it's
all one discussion board). I can recommend GoDaddy for the domain name
registering though, that's who I use. Don't know how their prices
compare with others but they've always served me well.

Design -

Might be worth using a design package like Dreamweaver/FrontPage to
make static HTML pages, although these are tedious to update and
maintain. Hotscripts.com as well as stuff like PHPNuke (bloated but
workable script for new sites) or the ever popular WordPress only
require a MySQL database, PHP support and half a brain to install.

Look at that, Morph's name is in green color!?

@Gwil: Thanks for the reply. I'll check out webhosting.com, godaddy, and hotscripts.com and then pass the addresses along to my friend.

@reaper47: Yeah, I was recently made an admin along with Fishy. The announcement thread is here but since it's stickied and up top I think most people haven't noticed it yet. :smile:

Congratulation, AtM!

Sorry I am not around much anymore. I am busy cranking out my book.

Look for my labor of love in the bookstore next year. It's going to be called "The Everything Parent Guide to Childhood Illnesses" published by Adams Media.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

<span style="color: silver;">I
can and always have hosted files for free at
darktreemedia.com. No limit on size
or amount. I can also design a website if he needs one for cheap, or, I
have a friend who knows some good template site builders for a nicer
more professional looking one.

Either way, the free file hosting is always up for grabs for anyone. No ads, no bulls**t. Just PM me and we can talk.

Gl to your friend and his mod, AtM :smile: </span>

I've been with Wiredhub for years and have never needed to look elsewhere. You can install forums from the admin section or you can (could?) ask the admins to install something for you.

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Hello there.

phpfusion is a nice package with forums, shoutbox, and news post support. Also has gallery's and such.

We use it for our mod, BM: E.

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Thanks for the responses, well wishes, and hosting offers. :smile:

At the moment, I'm not quite sure what my buddy still needs because it seems he was busy last night. I woke up this morning and he emailed me a link to the forums he set up. It some sort of excoboard. It seems simple but functional. I'll talk to him about website and hosting. If he's interested in taking up your generous offer Dark Tree, I'll shoot you a PM.

Additionally Dark_Kilauea, if my friend is not happy with excoboards, I'll pass on the word about phpfusion, so thanks for that.

SpiKeRs, I'll check that out too! Thanks.

I use these guys: https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/

Basically you deposit some money (say, $1.00) and it's deducted from your account based on how much bandwidth / storage you use - which is good, because a lot of the bigger webhosts will give you lots of space and bandwidth but you'll probably never use it.

Sounds like a good deal.

This made me smile: https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/pocket.php

It is not
currently possible to purchase our services with pocket
lint or any other type of lint.

Damn! :razz:

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires