I registered my first domain name in 1995.   At the time there were only a handful of web hosting providers and only one domain name registrar:  Network Solutions.   Somehow I managed to register a domain name and pay via check (they didn’t have any type of secure credit card processing) and likewise I found a small web hosting company that was recommended by some friends.

They were members of what they described to me as a web hosting provider reseller program.   In other words, they received a portion of the profit whenever they would sign up someone else on their web site hosting service.   The service was named IServer, and while they had a lower-priced package, the virtual private server at $95 a month allowed you to have complete control over your web hosting enviornment.

There was no control panel and the only way to upload your files was via FTP or you could hand-type it into the server through a telnet client.  The full power of the Internet was suddenly at my command as I created my very first web sites - using form submit buttons as links and using the University’s expensive scanner to scan in graphics that could be put on the page.

How things change.

Today there are almost as many web site hosting companies as there are web pages.   While I have quit and moved on from Iserver / Verio, they will always have a special place in my heart not only as my first web hosting company, but also as a reliable partner that helped me learn the business side of web hosting, as well as hone my technical skills.

Iserver is now ViaVerio, but their high quality still remains.

Technorati Tags: web site hosting, viaverio, iserver, virtuakl private servers

I have been involved in the Internet since its “public” beginnings in the early 1990’s.  Before that, I was active on local and national BBS’s.   I have worked for some of the largest (and THE largest) companies in the world, as well as some of the smallest.  This web site is a collection of my thoughts, articles and techniques from my years of working in the medium.

The site will continue to grow and have articles about web site hosting, web programming, web page design, web development, web site promotion, and other Internet topics.  Where needed, names will be changed to protect the innocent (and the guilty).

Despite my many years of working in the web page design field, I am always learning new techniques and am always on the lookout for better ways to do things and how to stay on top of the latest web design standards as they appear across the Internet.

I hope you will subscribe to my RSS feed, or at the very least keep coming back for more articles on web page design.  I will be posting reviews of web site hosting companies on a regular basis, as I have dealt with quite a few of the “big guys” over the years.

Thank you again - feel free to look around.

Technorati Tags: web site design, web site hosting, web site development, web hosting companies, affordable web hosting