Ok guys, so I really need your help on this one. While I know a ton about HTML/CSS/Javascript and building the actual website itself, I have ZERO knowledge of servers, networking, hosting or PHP, MySQL, etc.

So I've recently been put in charge for the next year at least of maintaining a website for the selective living group I'm a part of at Duke. Think of it as a fraternity for now since that's easier than me trying to explain exactly what SLGs are (they're unique to Duke). We already have an existing site (that I plan on heavily modifying, which I already know I can do) but it's hosted on the university's webspace, which has an annoying URL and most importantly it doesn't allow PHP and I'm sure a collection of other cool stuff.

I would like to move the site to an external host and be able to give it a name of my choice (I'm thinking www.waynepals.org, don't ask). So I guess the first question is, what service should I use to do this, or should I set up my own server and host the website on that? If I'm better off using an already established service, obviously the cheaper the better as long as they still provide what I need. If I might want to host it myself, how would I go about doing that?

Looking a little bit ahead, here are some of the plans I have for the website:

- Have some password protected areas of the site
- Set up a database of alumni contact information that they can submit themselves (using forms I guess). I'd like this to be searchable by various fields like name, location, class year, etc.
- Set up a paypal donation system so alumni can donate money to the house/living group
- Have signups for freshman during rush (filling out contact info, submitting a picture, etc)

The above features are what I definitely want. Here are some other things that I may want to be able to implement in the future:

- Set up a message board/forum
- Be able to upload pictures, videos, or other files

Any help with ANY of this would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

I used GoDaddy.com to purchase my domain name and for my webhosting. It was like $2 to buy a domain for a year(special deal only for new domains) and I think I pay like $60/yr or so for the Deluxe plan(non dedicated server stuff)

All right, I'll check that site out, thanks.

Any advice on resources for PHP/MySQL stuff? At least just enough to be able to do the stuff I listed above?

I don't know any of that stuff...I fail

fuck godaddy.com> http://nodaddy.com/

First off what is your budget a year for hosting? Determine that and then look for a host.

MySQL 6.0 reference manual: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/6.0/en/index.html
phpmyadmin: http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php

Some hosting:
AISO: http://www.aiso.net/linux-plans.asp (real green, real expensive)
Dreamhost: http://www.dreamhost.com/hosting.html (pseudo green, pretty good price)

well if you dont know any php/sql you can install a simple cms and hack it to be what you want, there's plenty portals out there you can use that are full site management including forums, and various pages listing customized db resources with whatever fields you want, without you having to plug any queries into sql, and personal file space for user uploads, and if you want some directories pw protected you can go ahead and just use standard http auth w/ htaccess or if your cms is user based you can just grant certain member groups access to those pages through that

if you know any coding at all the scripts should be self explanatory, plus they're generally commented well (but even so a good open cms shouldn't require you to have to hack it up like that)

aside from that if you want to tackle each of those one by one seperately there are individual public scripts out there, each of those are pretty simple but i'd go with a cms for a streamlined usage and interface...

one free easy one i know that includes all of that is seditio (http://www.neocrome.net), and although its usual purpose is not exactly what you're going for, it provides all the necessary tools for you to turn it into what you want (plus alot extra - it is kinda big and bloated - which is why i generally turn to making my own cms's - but that won't effect your users, just you)

also im sure things like joomla work


domains..
i don't quite like godaddy myself -- i have maybe 20 domains on aplus.net and i love them
moniker.com and register.com are always a safe bet too

yahoo small business domains is annoying

whatever you do stay away from registerfly.com or regfly.com..


as for hosting i'm going to shamelessly plug my friends companies:

http://made2own.com/

http://surpasshosting.com/

also some reliable hosts i've used: http://www.hostgator.com/
and master bob suggested dreamhost which is also pretty good

if you don't quite have a budget and are looking for a dedi: http://oxeo.com/.. i used to pay em $2,300 a month and i wasn't complaining so you can guess they must be worth it.. they also have some shared plans and vps's but they're a bit higher price than usual
and if you are looking for a vps and you come across http://zone.net/ just say no because theyll feel free to cut you off from their service because you've been using them since before a certain date because for some reason thats how it works with them cause they are farkin arhg 123441 ahsjhj @!#.. dumb

when looking for shared hosting don't particularly look for what offers the most bang for the buck, chances are when you compare $5 for 50gig and $5 for 200gig, the latter will look cooler, but would you really use all that space? the most most most important thing you need is good tech support and reliable uptime

whatever you do don't use ipower or any service that provides vdeck as a control panel because first of all they (the services) screw you over and suck balls and second of all vdeck is the worst backend ever and third of all anything that offers plesk 9 is your best bet, or something that offers cpanel for the webdev newbers

I second the notion of hacking a CMS to suite your needs.

I like to use Joomla (http://www.joomla.org/) for my projects, and if you want a slick template, try searching for some RocketTheme (http://demo.rockettheme.com/) torrents.

For hosting I like HostGator.