This article is specific to WebHost4Life and to Subtext. I will be discussing Subtext more in future articles and that will help you understand why I am recommending a web hosting account that is compatible with Subtext. For now, I will simply say that Subtext is my recommended blogging platform. I will go into all the details later.
Setting up your hosting as I describe below will work for other blogging platforms as well.
If you do plan to use Subtext, but you would like to host it on your own computer, I plan to describe how to do that in a future article. However, the most popular option is to host Subtext at WebHost4Life and that is what I will describe here.
- The purpose of this article is not to promote WebHost4Life (WH4L). The link I just provided does not include a referral. However, if you wish to use my referral link (every new customer gets one) here it is. Throughout this blog, if I am being compensated in any way, I will disclose that fact up front. However, I do not intend to seek out or accept direct compensation. I prefer to be independent so I can change my recommendations if/when I find a better product or service.
- Make sure you have registered a domain name before signing up for hosting. Many people are tempted by the offer of free domain name registration by their web host. I am not recommending that option. Play it safe and follow my advice on this point.
- With your domain name in hand, go to WebHost4Life
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- Subtext requires an ASP.NET 2.0 application. and it requires Microsoft SQL Server. I recommend using MSSQL 2005. These requirements mean that you need to sign up for the $9.95/mo plan rather than the $4.95/mo plan. If you want to use Wordpress, WH4L will install it for you for a $30 one-time fee and you can use MySQL as the database. Therefore, the $4.95/mo plan may be sufficient (although I still prefer the features of the $9.95 plan myself.)
- After you click "Order Now", you will see a page with the $9.95 Web Hosting plan selected.
- Look over the options on that page. You do not need ColdFusion MX support for Subtext or Wordpress. Do not check that option.
- You do not need the e-Commerce wizard for blogging. Do not check that option either. (Therefore, you avoid a $9.95 one time setup fee.)
- Click the "Sign Up Now" button.
- On the following page, complete the details such as billing address. When you get to the "Your Domain Name" section, you can fill in your domain name. You do not need to supply the "www" part. Use your_domain.com. Notice the tempting offer for a free domain name registration. If you read my other article, you know that I recommended you pass this offer up.
- Next you will probably experience the same unpleasant surprise I did. All that talk about monthly pricing was a sales gimmick of sorts. (Click to enlarge this image.)
- Shortly after you have completed the signup process, you wil get an email. Look carefully at the email. It should include the details of your domain name servers (DNS). It will look something like this:
Primary DNS
NS1.DNSSERVER99.COM
(66.186.25.255)
Secondary DNS
NS2.DNSSERVER99.COM
(66.102.135.255)
- With this information in hand, go to the place you purchased your domain name. If you followed along with my recommendation, that would be Go Daddy.
- Login and look for the "My Account" link as shown here.
- Find the "Manage Domains" link and click it.
- Select your domain name. If you have more than one, select the one you want to set up now.
- Look for the "Set Nameservers" button. (It isn't easy to find. In fact, if Go Daddy had a better UI, I would not need so many images in this article!)
- After you click the "Set Nameservers" button, you will see the following panel on the right. Make sure the domain name you want to edit is selected by the radio button (round checkbox).
- Choose the "Custom Name Servers" option and enter at least two name servers. WH4L only provides two servers in their email at the time of this writing. That's fine.
- You do not need to type in the IP addresses. Just enter the values like this:
- NS1.DNSSERVER99.COM
- NS2.DNSSERVER99.COM
- Make sure you use the nameserver values from the email you receive. The nameserver values I provide in this article are examples only and they will not work for you. Use the information the hosting company emails to you.