Jumpstarting an online community - questions by a first-timer

[Edwardtron]

After searching for quality shared hosting I've found HG very attractive. Before purchasing I'd like to ask some questions to be sure I purchase the right hosting plan. Here are my circumstances:

1. My index page (as well as a few other pages) will look something like this (a small amount of php): http://holotec-community.netii.net/demo2.php

2. I'll be using a forum (phpbb3 w/ my mods) for the visitors to interact.

3. No streaming media of any sort, and no downloading/sharing files

4. I'm not sure how large of a community I'm aiming at, but I'd like it to grow as large as possible. However, I won't be advertising all the time as this is a hobby. Therefore I doubt my online community will ever reach huge proportions and mass amounts of visitors at a time.

5. I'm only focusing on one site and domain, no more than that. As for space, I won't be using a lot of storage. Though I'd like to have plenty of monthly bandwidth for the site traffic.

6. I want a good amount of speed and reliability. I tried to design my layout from the ground up to be lightweight and fast. As for phpbb3 I'm modifying it slightly for some speed tweaks but nothing major really.

-Based on the above circumstances, what hosting plan do you think would be best for me? I want to make sure that I choose the right plan so that I may be more successful and my visitors enjoy the experience.

[GatorLBrower]

You should be able to do fine with a Hatchling plan for this. You can always upgrade if you start needing more in the future.

[Pazeh]

^^ what Larry said.

It is a very good practice to have your main page named as index.php or modify the .htaccess file to make it load as the default page.

currently any visitor to your site, (without the demo2.php) will see a list of your files on the server, which is not good for Search engines, SEO, directory submission, and your visitors. PLUS this can be a serious security problem.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by Pazeh

^^ what Larry said.

It is a very good practice to have your main page named as index.php or modify the .htaccess file to make it load as the default page.

currently any visitor to your site, (without the demo2.php) will see a list of your files on the server, which is not good for Search engines, SEO, directory submission, and your visitors. PLUS this can be a serious security problem.

Note that cPanel lets you turn indices off in the Index Manager, probably easier for novices.