Website Host, Function Options

[mverzyl]

I Don't Want To Make 2 Topics So This Post Will Consist Of 2 Questions.

1. I Want To Start A Website. I Already Know What Domain Name I Want, But I Need Help On Finding A Good Host. My Website Will Be A Personal One, Consisting Of A Few Blog Entries Once In A While Where People Can Leave Comments About My Entries. I Want My Site To Have A Forum, Have An Area Where I Put My Own Graphics And Layouts For People To Use, I Want It Where People Will Be Able To Leave Comments About Each Graphic And/Or Layout And I Want It So That They Can Become A Member Of My Site And Have To Be A Member To Use My Graphics And/Or Layouts. Kind Of Like Createblog (lol) But A Personal Site. And Also Maybe Say If I'm Online, How Many People Are Online, Etc...

Does That Kind Of Function Have More To Do With The Host I Use Or The Design? And If You Could Please Point Out A Good Host For What I Want I Would Appreciate It.

2. My Dad's The Pastor Of A Church And Since He Knows Nothing About Website Design He Asked Me To Make And Run The Website For Our Church. He Bought A Domain (A While Ago) And Is With A Host (Bellsouth), But I'm Afraid It's Not Very Good. They Have This Easy Website Builder And When I Went To The Control Panel To Try And Figure Out How To Put Up The Site And Edit All I Could Use Was Their Easy-Builder. I Couldn't Find Any Way To Put In My Own Codes To Build The Site. Anyone Know About BellSouth Website Hosting? I Think I'm Going To Have To Go With Another Host. Is There A Way To Use Our Web Address With Another Host?




EDIT:

I Looked At 1and1.com And What They Have Kinda Looks Like What I Want, The Blog Thing. And Having Other Stuff On Your Site. But I Also Want A Forum, People Able To Leave Comments About Things, And To Become A Member, Etc... Can I Do That With Them? And Not Just Have It Be A Blog? Also They Have Kinda Like An Easy Site Builder Thing, Can I Still Use My Own Banner/Site Design If I Wanted To?

[Jane Doe.]

1. Most web hosts do offer support for those types of sites.. I would think you'd want something like Wordpress, Invision Power Board and Coppermine Gallery, no? You can easily install those, but they do have a few server requirements [from your host], but most do support things like PHP and MySql. Well, maybe not the free ones or webspace given to you by an internet service provider. I use http://dreamhost.com and would recommend them.

2. I'd recommend you buy hosting from someone. You can add a domain onto your hosting 98% of the time, I would say, but I won't explain exactly how, because it may just confuse you. Just know that you can figure it out once you get a host and domain.

Er. Basically, if you buy hosting from most "major" hosting companies, you should be able to install and use blogging, forum, and gallery software on their servers. Just make sure to look at the requirements for what you want to install and what the host you're looking at offers.