Looking For Recommendations For A Web Site Technologies Looking for web design suggestions.

[levimage 0]

Hi there. I need some web help. The reason I've chosen the Xisto.com for hosting was because of their free web hosting. Originally I wanted to create and host my own website - using my own graphics, design, and content. What I've noticed is not only is there a learning curve when experimenting with different software and hosting but the time required to create, update content is also time consuming. So I would like to make it easier on myself by getting my feet wet with a content management system.

First I am hosting two web sites with Xisto. One is for 'computer consulting' and the other is for own of my desires 'photography'. I'm just on the basic package for now cause I haven't been posting as much as I would like lately. So give the fact that I have a limited amout of hard drive space to work with - approx. 20MBs - I still wanna manage both under one account.

Here are my questions if you would like to help. Look at the both web sites for what I currently got going http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ for reference.

1) Since most of the Xisto.com hosting members are familar with Astahosting.com hosting capabilities, the Cpanel, and their selection of the sample addition(s), I would like to know from other members if there are any add-on technogies that would compliment the above websites and to better cater to the web viewer's experience in addition to making management easier on my part.

2) Do you have any success with the addons, if so which should I use.?

3) The CRM/CMS(s) versions and addon(s) fairly recent or would it be better to download the more recent distributions? (keep in mind the 20MB limit)

4) What are some good alternatives to creating accounts on other servers for hosting images and other data. So I can save on storage and bandwidth.?

5) If you have any other suggestions or directions about making the web site more interactive, that come to mind, I would love to hear them.


Thanks for your time. The forums have been a lot of help lately.

Levimage

[Eggie 0]

4) I used a tool something like image editing and when you were finished it was automatically hosted on imageshack.us but i don't really know how they did that...

5)Make your site more interactive by getting the best color schemes/style/pictures which matches like probably mine ( http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ )

[yordan 10]

The pictures at http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ are rather small (140 pics wide), so this kind of things is really reachable by the standard hosting plan, which is 500 megs disk space.
The interactivity is easily obtained with the current 4image or coppermine image galleries which are straightforwardly installed by the cpanel installer coming with your account.
So, first have a look at these standard tools provided here at Xisto, before trying something more complicated.
Moreover, here at asta the standard photo galleries are easy to upload and automatically thumb, because the hosted members don't have the memory limitation problems you could experience somewhere else.
So, I would strongly suggest to try 4images first (my favourite you can guess) although coppermine could be closer to the style of the site you were referrencing.
Regards
Yordan

[levimage 0]

I guess I'll have to try them out. Another option I have been thinking of are the off-the-self programs which have options to export as web pages, create collages, and thumbnails.I know the size seems pretty small, I was thinking of going small then saving at high quality jpegs or saving large then using medium quality jpegs Using medium/default quality pretty much defeats the purpose. I was thinking of putting a transparent url watermark on them but my images are so small.All in all, I think I will have to invest more time in how I should best export an image for the web. I do work on all images at their actual sizes and do editing across various layers for printing as opposed to posting online.Maybe I should create some new processes or tasks with my work stream.