Starting a website- what's involved, costs?

[Marquoz]

Depending on what OS you are running, and how good your connection is, just starting you can run it for free at home. dyndns or it's ilk will give you a dynamic ip that people can link to while you are getting it up and running. Then once you are ready and it's up and running to your satisfaction find a good service provider to host the site. If it's going to end up being a very large site with heavy traffic in and out, you might want to look into co-locating your server.

Co-locating usually gives you better speed and uptime then you would have running it from home on a standard cable/DSL line. It also is probably cheaper then a fractional T3 line. Some co-location sites will easily set up your name server when you get service with them as well, usually for a good price since you are already signing a contract for them to host your computer.

When looking at hosts, make sure to figure out your bandwidth allotment. With a larger site you will quickly run over it in a matter of days. Find out what the policy is for exceeding the limit, do they shut you off, or do they meter you and give you a huge bill at the end of the month. Cheap hosts don't offer that much bandwidth overall, and you will have to expand the limit numerous times to find a good limit.