Looking for cheap web hosting for school project

[dots and spots Jeff]

I run a lunch time club in a school, teaching a group of children how to design and build simple websites. I started in September without about 20 in the group, but over time this has whittled down to a group of about 7 to 10 hard core 'coders' (!)

So far, we (they) have built their sites on local machines at the school, but those that still come to the club have shown committment and determination and I/we would like to get their sites 'live' onto the www this term.

I reckon I can persuade the children (or their parents!) to buy their own domain name (about £6 for 2 years from, say 123) but I reckon I can get the school to stump up for some hosting, as long as it doesn't cost too much.

So what I'm after is some hosting that's not going to cost too much and will allow up to 10 domain names to use the same hosting. I doubt that the sites will have too many visitors, but it'd give the pupils a real sense of achievement to have their page 'out there' on the internet. It'd also be an important part of their learning, to find out how to upload a site etc.

Any thoughts/offers/suggestions?

Thanks

Jeff

[PrestigeShopping]

www.110mb.com (http://www.110mb.com) its free and pretty decent hosting.

They also get a free subdomain i.e. www.theirname.110mb.com (http://www.theirname.110mb.com)

[tomsk]

If you are not fussed if its hosted outside of the UK then would recommended http://webhostingworld.net/uk/plans.html

Its $27.00 for a year and that includes domain name - also get free forum and support ticket installs with it.

I use it a lot for testing.

[skyhi2]

Hi Jeff
Have a look at Freeola,it`s very cheap n cheerful so to speak.

Skyhi2.

[nextec]

We offer free hosting for 'not for profit' sites.

All the same support and features as our normal business plans.

you can buy the domain names through us as well and we are currently a bit cheaper than 123 for .co.uk and .com domains

Thanks
Richard

[iboxsecurity]

Jeff, where abouts in somerset are you? In in the lovely Weston-super-Mare. Any way - we offer free hosting to non-profit organizations - drop me an email / pm and lets have a chat.

[J-Wholesale]

https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/

It's pay as you go, so if there isn't much incoming traffic, $10 could last you a few years. There's no limit on the number of domains and sites you can add. I use it for all my testing, as well as for a few non-business websites. I've yet to spend more than $20.

There's none of the hand holding you get from some UK hosts though, which might be a good thing for a web design class.

[Dwebs-Ltd]

I run a lunch time club in a school, teaching a group of children how to design and build simple websites. I started in September without about 20 in the group, but over time this has whittled down to a group of about 7 to 10 hard core 'coders' (!)

So far, we (they) have built their sites on local machines at the school, but those that still come to the club have shown committment and determination and I/we would like to get their sites 'live' onto the www this term.

I reckon I can persuade the children (or their parents!) to buy their own domain name (about £6 for 2 years from, say 123) but I reckon I can get the school to stump up for some hosting, as long as it doesn't cost too much.

So what I'm after is some hosting that's not going to cost too much and will allow up to 10 domain names to use the same hosting. I doubt that the sites will have too many visitors, but it'd give the pupils a real sense of achievement to have their page 'out there' on the internet. It'd also be an important part of their learning, to find out how to upload a site etc.

Any thoughts/offers/suggestions?

Thanks

Jeff

Drop me a PM or Email and we can sort something out at no cost for the hosting and we can also discount the domain reg if you wanted to register the domains through us.

[Graemem]

Could you not get the school to pay for a server, then you could possibly teach them about running their own server as well. Maybe speak to the IT guys and see what their thoughts are? Maybe even the people offering hosting might have some ideas about that too.

[Dwebs-Ltd]

Could you not get the school to pay for a server, then you could possibly teach them about running their own server as well. Maybe speak to the IT guys and see what their thoughts are? Maybe even the people offering hosting might have some ideas about that too.

That may not be easy.

It is down to the type and size of the school.

It's a big step from web site design / development to server management its not something that can just be setup and left to run by itself.

[liquidauctions]

All windows machines can host websites, all you need to do is install IIS. only takes about 5 mins. This will be good to host a site but when it comes down to databases etc it gets harder as you need to install phpmyadmin on the machine aswell. If its just hosting a simple site try setting it up yourself.

[webhostuk]

I run a lunch time club in a school, teaching a group of children how to design and build simple websites. I started in September without about 20 in the group, but over time this has whittled down to a group of about 7 to 10 hard core 'coders' (!)

So far, we (they) have built their sites on local machines at the school, but those that still come to the club have shown committment and determination and I/we would like to get their sites 'live' onto the www this term.

I reckon I can persuade the children (or their parents!) to buy their own domain name (about £6 for 2 years from, say 123) but I reckon I can get the school to stump up for some hosting, as long as it doesn't cost too much.

So what I'm after is some hosting that's not going to cost too much and will allow up to 10 domain names to use the same hosting. I doubt that the sites will have too many visitors, but it'd give the pupils a real sense of achievement to have their page 'out there' on the internet. It'd also be an important part of their learning, to find out how to upload a site etc.

Any thoughts/offers/suggestions?

Thanks

Jeff


Hello Jeff,

I think our plans will surely impress you please check out http://www.webhost.uk.net/shared_hosting.html

Our basic plan starts from 14.99GBP per year.

[KM-Tiger]

It's a big step from web site design / development to server management its not something that can just be setup and left to run by itself.

Would be an interesting project, but only if you have the necessary sysadmin skills in house. You do not want to be learning on a public-facing webserver, or it will be case of when you get hacked rather than if.

Best bet would be the very generous offers of free hosting.

[Dwebs-Ltd]

All windows machines can host websites, all you need to do is install IIS. only takes about 5 mins. This will be good to host a site but when it comes down to databases etc it gets harder as you need to install phpmyadmin on the machine aswell. If its just hosting a simple site try setting it up yourself.

Running a web server isn't just a case of installing IIS you have to know how to secure the machine, lock down IIS etc as I said its not just a case of a couple of clicks job done.

[dots and spots Jeff]

Many thanks for all your kind offers and comments - I'm sure I'll be taking advantage of one or two of them!

Regards to setting up our own server - not a bad idea, but I do worry a little about the security aspect of it. Perhaps that a project to undertake in a year or two.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help,

Jeff

[awebapart.com]

I run a lunch time club in a school, teaching a group of children how to design and build simple websites.
Just out of interest, what software did the kids use to create these websites, what did they like, dislike about the software, what is their age range, what kind of websites did they create, were they familiar with other personal web building sites before (e.g. facebook, bebo, myspace)?

This kind of feedback might be useful for anyone on this forum thinking of creating their own website.

As for free hosting, if the kids have their own broadband connection at home, they might already have some free web space bundled with their ISP account.

[seiretto]

Hi Jeff,

If you do not get sorted let me know, I will sponsor the new sites and domains so you would get them free.

All the best

Dave Walker

[seiretto]

And it would be proper hosting on either Windows (ASP) or Linux (PHP and MySQL) not cut-down hosting they may get else where for free.

[rock2010]

You can also find out cheap hosting from ebay.com

[dots and spots Jeff]

Just out of interest, what software did the kids use to create these websites, what did they like, dislike about the software, what is their age range, what kind of websites did they create, were they familiar with other personal web building sites before (e.g. facebook, bebo, myspace)?

This kind of feedback might be useful for anyone on this forum thinking of creating their own website.

As for free hosting, if the kids have their own broadband connection at home, they might already have some free web space bundled with their ISP account.

A good point, so here goes!

They made their sites (or are still making them) using HTML written on Notepad and then viewing them in Internet Explorer. I decided to use these to keep things as simple as possible and because I'm pretty sure that if they had a computer at home, and wanted to work on these sites, or build another one at home, they'd have access to these tools at home.

Personally I use notepad++ and this would be a much better text editor to use - the amount of time we've spent scratching our heads, trying to work out why something's not working, only to realise a > is missing.

Having learnt the rudiments of HTML I introduced them to CSS, which they grasped pretty quickly.

We haven't yet touched cross browser compatibility problems.

The children are range between 10 & 13 years old and are 'web savvy' - but I don't think any of them have used Facebook, Bebo or MySpace.

They keep asking if they can put games and videos on their site, we haven't done that yet, but they are pretty aware of what websites are capable of.

One of the advantages of this being a lunchtime club - rather than a curriculum lesson - is that we/they are free to explore whatever avenues that interest them (instead of following a proscribed curriculum). For example one lad, v.intelligent, top of maths, chess champ etc., is now learning and using some basic javascript. His site looks like a dog's dinner (although its about his pet cats) but he's cramming as much different HTML, CSS and javascript in that he can. Another lad clearly has a far better eye for design and is spending some time creating a really good looking site about 'Space', and has begun to learn more about picture editing so that he can get the pictures on his site exactly as he wants them.

Just before the end of last term, one or two of them (and/or their parents) were asking about resources that could help them find out more. I recommended "Sam's Teach yourself HTM & CSS in 24 hours" (this is the book that I learnt from) and I think one or to found this weighty tome in their Christmas stocking. The feedback I've had from the children is that they found this book accessible and useful to help them learn more about the topic.

Jeff

[awebapart.com]

Thanks for that extra information Jeff, it is very interesting, and it is good to know that there are still some people learning 'the notepad way', to get a deeper understanding of what is going on.

[bluestagstudio]

Saw this thread and it caught my interest. We work with a few schools and I don't think any of them have got kids interested in doing anything on the web other than playing games or going on facebook.

It's great to see that you are getting kids involved in something that can become a hobby or even career in their future. Refreshing too after all the negative stories floating around about how kids are not what they used to be bla bla...

Anyway if you're still stuck for hosting (which it doesn't look like you are) then give me a shout, we can host windows/linux with databases and the rest of it if they're feeling ambitious. Only shared hosting but we have an old reseller account that some of our customers on a budget use and we can set you up on there.

Also, just an idea, not sure if competition is banned in schools these days but we'd happily sponsor a reward too for the best website they produce if you wanted to give them an incentive to learn a bit more! Nothing much but happy to put £50 or a book voucher or something into the pot, and maybe feature the winner on our site.

Just a thought, and probably a bad one, must be all that left over Christmas spirit...

[liquidauctions]

Running a web server isn't just a case of installing IIS you have to know how to secure the machine, lock down IIS etc as I said its not just a case of a couple of clicks job done.

Yes your right! but the fact is that these kids are only displaying a couple of web pages on there for a few weeks, Im sure it will do

[the king]

Sorry to jump in after everybody else has packed away (there's always one...)

Being also involved with a local school I know it is difficult to foster interest in anything not Facebook etc, so well done for persevering with Notepad!

I too do my 'development' using Notepad, where I last used it to 'prove concept' of an XML-based web page; take a look at:

- ev-o.axspace.com/
- cmic.axspace.com/ (home page only)

each using the same underlying code (different CSS).


E'nuff of my stuff; what might be relevant to you however is that both were put together at zero-cost (EV-O's logo / favicon is made from smarties!) - both hosting and sub-domain is FREE, with cPanel, FTP access etc.

' can't fault the service, even support is ticketed... however I believe AXspace limits free accounts to one per customer, so either sign-up with different eMail addresses or put each individual's site in a separate sub-directory (' not sure whether sub-domain is available); you could always use either a URL-alias / shortening service to reset each root node?

[That Guy]

Have a look at Vidahosts Basic Package: http://www.vidahost.com/basic-hosting

Should be perfect for your needs :)

[AmberSite]

if you are still looking have a look at http://vexxhost.com/, for starters they offer good value for money and can't say a bad thing about them. Just keep in mind their servers are based in Canada.

[florenceij]

Hi if ur still in need of hosting for your school project can help out with free hosting. You can get the domain name from 123reg. We are always happy to support project like this that invest in the future generation.

I like what your doing with the school things also keen on working with you to reward their effort by doing competition offering prices. Feel free to drop me a pm to discuss further.

[Holland Risley]

I am not going to make a recommendation FOR, but a recommendation AGAINST:

Do not use 1 and 1! Don't do it!!!

If you value your sanity and peace of mind then I would highly recommend avoiding this company with your life. I used them at the beginning of my career as a freelance web designer and the amount of times that ALL of my websites went down due to 1and1 caused me ALOT of stress.

At one point my credit card went out of date and without even emailing me to warn me, they took all my sites offline and it took them 1 week, yes a WEEK to get the account reactivated.

At one point their servers crashed and they lost ALL of my sites and data. They tried to restore it but 25% of the files were missing...

Technical support, once you have waited 3 days, is some grumpy American on a bad Skype line who clearly couldn't care less.

1 and 1 - DON'T DO IT!!! I am sure I am not alone in this recommendation.

We use UK Fast now for dedicated hosting. They answer the phone within 3 rings and my world is now a place of peace and tranquility, thank you UK Fast :)