Hopefully they also have SQL Server and can allow me to set up web services, but I'll cross that bridge when I find it, and right now I'm very pleased. 

Case closed.  Thanks to all.

PJL said:

figuerres said:

*snip*

hi figuerres  -- I joined discountASP.net today (the price was irresistable) and so far I'm pleased.  I notice they have an entire forum devoted to programming, which I will post to if I have problems.  I will attempt to load a simple "hello world" program tonight, and if I have success I will post here.  If I don't, I'll also post here.

 

BTW my first post at discount ASP.net was about whether you have to change your domain name 'right away' once you sign up with discount ASP.net--if you have an answer, pls feel free to let me know either there (  http://community.discountasp.net/showthread.php?p=37168#post37168 ) or here.  I repeat the message below for your convenience. 

 

UPDATE:  I got an answer--so this is a moot point, see below.

 

 

I appreciate your help.  I notice that for >= 2 referrals, DiscountASP.net gives $50 to the referring party, so if you are part of this program let me know and I can ask you get a commission.  If they give me a hard time ex post I'll cancel and reregister, since anyway I should have registered under my company credit card the first time around. 

 

PJ

 

//message posted at discountasp.net:

 

I just signed up today for discountasp.net to host my website, which is registered with Network Solutions under a unique name and as of yesterday hosted by Earthlink.

Discountasp.net says *see below.

My question is: if I don't care to leave Earthlink.net right now, can I do nothing, and will my website page still load in the future? Or, is the change made below by discountasp.net 'permanent' and do I have to do something right now? I am really busy and I rather make any changes, if at all, a few weeks or months from now rather than right away.

Thank you,

PJ

* Domain Name Check
Your Domain Name is registered.
Your Domain Name Servers are not correctly pointing to DiscountASP.NET.

To use our hosting platform with your existing domain, you will need to update your Domain's Name Servers to point to our DNS. To make this update you would work with your Domain Registrar. We have instructions on how to update the Domain's Name Servers for some popular Domain Registrars in our Knowledge Base.

 

ANSWER:  You don't have to do anything. You can keep the site at Earthlink and use the Alternative URL to do work on the site here. Once you are ready to have the site served from our servers, you would change the name servers for your domain.

Name server changes are not permanent...you can switch them any time you'd like. But every time you change them there is a day or so of propagation while the changes make their way through the internet.

Success!  Those guys at discountASP.net sure know how to cater to programmers.  In five minutes my HelloWorld app worked perfectly, using FTP from inside Visual Studio and following these directions:  http://support.discountasp.net/KB/a72/how-do-i-deploy-visual-studio-20082005-visual-web-developer.aspx 

Case closed.  In case you're reading this figuerres, out of curiosity I wonder what the Web Application Tool does that enables your web folder, but that's a small point of academic interest.  Probably sets permissions so the world can read your folder.  Next I'll try a database app to see if SQL Server is working.

PJ

figuerres said:

PJL said:

*snip*

Not a problem.... just letting you know i did not look for special help. so i could not say if they did or did not provide it.

 

FrontPage Extensions: yeah there's a company called "ready to run" as i recall that has the Linux/Unix package for that.

i would look to ftp as FrontPage is not going to be updated any longer and personally it adds a bunch of files to the website that are in hidden folders that IMHO are a waste of space.

 

as for how you will publish @ discountasp.net you are very close.

you will have ftp access to yourdomain and you can publish to it.

you can put the files at the root or in a folder as you wish.

 

VS can publish the files or you can use an ftp program and i think they also have a web based tool to view files and make updates.

 

i recomend that you publish the compiled web site.  there are two options for that Updateable and non.

 

if you select the "updateable" option then your .cs will be compiled in a bin folder but the .aspx markup will be editable.

if you select the non-updateable option then the .aspx files will be placeholders and everything will be in the compiled dll's

 

keep asking. i did not mean to put you off...

hi figuerres  -- I joined discountASP.net today (the price was irresistable) and so far I'm pleased.  I notice they have an entire forum devoted to programming, which I will post to if I have problems.  I will attempt to load a simple "hello world" program tonight, and if I have success I will post here.  If I don't, I'll also post here.

BTW my first post at discount ASP.net was about whether you have to change your domain name 'right away' once you sign up with discount ASP.net--if you have an answer, pls feel free to let me know either there (  http://community.discountasp.net/showthread.php?p=37168#post37168 ) or here.  I repeat the message below for your convenience. 

UPDATE:  I got an answer--so this is a moot point, see below.

I appreciate your help.  I notice that for >= 2 referrals, DiscountASP.net gives $50 to the referring party, so if you are part of this program let me know and I can ask you get a commission.  If they give me a hard time ex post I'll cancel and reregister, since anyway I should have registered under my company credit card the first time around. 

PJ

//message posted at discountasp.net:

I just signed up today for discountasp.net to host my website, which is registered with Network Solutions under a unique name and as of yesterday hosted by Earthlink.

Discountasp.net says *see below.

My question is: if I don't care to leave Earthlink.net right now, can I do nothing, and will my website page still load in the future? Or, is the change made below by discountasp.net 'permanent' and do I have to do something right now? I am really busy and I rather make any changes, if at all, a few weeks or months from now rather than right away.

Thank you,

PJ

* Domain Name Check
Your Domain Name is registered.
Your Domain Name Servers are not correctly pointing to DiscountASP.NET.

To use our hosting platform with your existing domain, you will need to update your Domain's Name Servers to point to our DNS. To make this update you would work with your Domain Registrar. We have instructions on how to update the Domain's Name Servers for some popular Domain Registrars in our Knowledge Base.

ANSWER:  You don't have to do anything. You can keep the site at Earthlink and use the Alternative URL to do work on the site here. Once you are ready to have the site served from our servers, you would change the name servers for your domain.

Name server changes are not permanent...you can switch them any time you'd like. But every time you change them there is a day or so of propagation while the changes make their way through the internet.

W3bbo said:

Choose "File System" and have it export your website to some new directory in your filesystem.

 

Then inspect it to ensure everything's in order and present. Open up your web.config file and change things like connection strings and system-specific settings to match your host's, then upload it using an FTP client to the right directory within your webspace. The FTP client built-in to Windows Explorer shoud be fine.

 

Some hosts don't let you define custom application scopes, in which case you'll want to move the \bin directory and web.config file (assuming you're using "ASP.NET Web Applications" and not "ASP.NET Websites") to the root of your website's public folder (often called "public_html" or "htdocs") if your application won't exist in the root of your website.

 

As for your database, you'd use SSMS to connect to your host's SQL server and upload the bootstrap data into your database (in case they don't allow you to run a RESTORE you'll have to use DTS to restore the structure and do a batch import of data).

 

As for the stuff you've posted:

• The FTP option would work, but you don't get any second-chances to check what you're uploading. I'm not a fan of the Publish feature introduced in VS2005 which was added mainly for the benefit of beginners uses using VWD who wouldn't be familar with the "Web Applications" way of doing things. Note that the FTP client built-in to VS2008 doesn't support FTPS (FTP over SSL) or SFTP (SSH FTP).
• The "Remote Site" is just a byword for FPSE/WebDAV uploads. FPSE is de-facto deprecated now (the last version of FPSE was in 2002 and it doesn't offer any compelling reasons to install beyond making life simpler in the short-term for users of FrontPage). I understand that the "Remote Site" upload feature might work using plain-old WebDAV without FPSE, but very few hosts offer WebDAV as a means of managing website files. WebDAV is more secure than FTP because it doesn't send plaintext passwords.
• The Remote Site location would be a WebDAV address, which is a normal URL (e.g. http://www.mywebsite.com/webdav) except the server is configured to recognise the URL as being a webDAV-enabled location and so enables file management features. WebDAV is a powerful and underused/underrated feature, it's also the underpinning of SVN, which is testament to how good it is.

Right W3bbo.  I could slog through all that.  But wait I have a better idea.  You are the person I need to do all of this in a flash--probably without even thinking twice--send me an email quoting a price to rent from you please to: pljprogrammer@live.com  I am a poor Greek in a bankrupt country so any concession you could make on price would be greatly appreciated.  I actually do have a guy I am using in the USA (he helped load one of my Silverlight apps, which ran for about a week before somehow the permissions changed on the folder it was running on and now it's inaccessible), and he's earnest, but lacks experience with programming and appears very overworked.  I rather just use you.  Also I need to be able to run databases on occasion in SQL Server Express.  BTW I figured out a trick the other day where the database, though a trick in the connect string ("Data Source=|DataDirectory|UserData"), can reside in a subfolder in the folder your database app runs in, which makes maintainace easier I imagine because you don't have to copy the database into a central depository, but I digress.

You mention web config file, and once I did have to play with the switches and XML in one such file when I was doing a login page for ASP.NET, so I do have a vague understanding of the same, but below is a simple "Hello World" Web.config file, and as you can see it's quite complicated looking (to me).  A lot of this stuff is signing off on your executables with a public key so they can't be spoofed I think, and other such stuff, but to me it looks pretty daunting.  There's a gulf between theory and practice that you, having mastered both, can bridge.  I myself was tickled pink the other day when I managed to build and then consume a 'web service' following an example in a textbook.  But getting such a web service to run outside of localhost might be another matter (maybe not, with your help)?!

PJ

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<configuration>

        <configSections>

               <sectionGroup>

                       <sectionGroup>

                              <section requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/>

                              <sectionGroup>

                                      <section requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="Everywhere"/>

                                      <section requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/>

                                      <section requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/>

                                      <section requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/>

                              </sectionGroup>

                       </sectionGroup>

               </sectionGroup>

        </configSections>

        <appSettings/>

        <connectionStrings/>

        <system.web>

               <!--

            Set compilation debug="true" to insert debugging

            symbols into the compiled page. Because this

            affects performance, set this value to true only

            during development.

        -->

               <compilation debug="true">

                       <assemblies>

                              <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>

                              <add assembly="System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>

                              <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3845AD364E35"/>

                              <add assembly="System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>

                       </assemblies>

               </compilation>

               <!--

            The <authentication> section enables configuration

            of the security authentication mode used by

            ASP.NET to identify an incoming user.

        -->

               <authentication mode="Windows"/>

               <!--

            The <customErrors> section enables configuration

            of what to do if/when an unhandled error occurs

            during the execution of a request. Specifically,

            it enables developers to configure html error pages

            to be displayed in place of a error stack trace.

        <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="GenericErrorPage.htm">

            <error statusCode="403" redirect="NoAccess.htm" />

            <error statusCode="404" redirect="FileNotFound.htm" />

        </customErrors>

        -->

               <pages>

                       <controls>

                              <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3845AD364E35"/>

                              <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3845AD364E35"/>

                       </controls>

               </pages>

               <httpHandlers>

                       <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/>

                       <add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false"/>

                       <add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false"/>

                       <add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" validate="false"/>

               </httpHandlers>

               <httpModules>

                       <add/>

               </httpModules>

        </system.web>

        <system.codedom>

               <compilers>

                       <compiler extension=".cs" warningLevel="4">

                              <providerOption value="v3.5"/>

                              <providerOption value="false"/>

                       </compiler>

               </compilers>

        </system.codedom>

        <!--

        The system.webServer section is required for running ASP.NET AJAX under Internet

        Information Services 7.0.  It is not necessary for previous version of IIS.

    -->

        <system.webServer>

               <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>

               <modules>

                       <remove/>

                       <add preCondition="managedHandler"/>

               </modules>

               <handlers>

                       <remove/>

                       <remove/>

                       <remove/>

                       <remove/>

                       <add verb="*" path="*.asmx" preCondition="integratedMode"/>

                       <add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" preCondition="integratedMode"/>

                       <add preCondition="integratedMode" verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd"/>

               </handlers>

        </system.webServer>

        <runtime>

               <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">

                       <dependentAssembly>

                              <assemblyIdentity publicKeyToken="31bf3845ad364e35"/>

                              <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/>

                       </dependentAssembly>

                       <dependentAssembly>

                              <assemblyIdentity publicKeyToken="31bf3845ad364e35"/>

                              <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/>

                       </dependentAssembly>

               </assemblyBinding>

        </runtime>

</configuration>

figuerres said:

PJL said:

*snip*

? hand holding ?

 

I have no idea if they will or won't.

 

the thing that i like from them is a good price and good access to configure stuff.

 

Sorry but i have been doing software for over 20 years, i very seldom need help with server admin related stuff.

I have done PERL on Sun servers and ran Linux boxes and most all the versions of windows from NT 4.0 on ward.

so for me it's just give me access and i will do my setup.

"Sorry but i have been doing software for over 20 years, i very seldom need help with server admin related stuff." - ay, there's the rub, ... William Shakespeare.

By contrast, I just found out five minutes ago that Microsoft FrontPage Server extensions are made for Unix / Linux (Apache) servers, and not just for Microsoft IIS servers, and apparently the website servers I rent from Earthlink runs under Unix (I do have a domain name for my index.html page).  But at least I got Visual Studio 2008 to 'publish', via FTP, to this website, proving that if I can find a Microsoft IIS web server company, like presumeably discountasp.net has, I can again publish my ASP.NET files into a folder, let's all it "\Programming", and then presumeably, let's say the virtual directory discountasp.net gives me is called www.pjl.com, copying and pasting this link: http://pjl.com/Programming/Default.aspx  will run my "Hello World" ASP.NET app, having an initial .aspx file as noted, right?

Sorry for such a simple question but you have to start somewhere...

PJ

I wish to join a commercial web service like discountasp.net, but I am concerned that they will not help me publish.  Before I join them (or anybody else) I would like to know what steps I would have to take to publish.  So I'm asking this group.

Any advice greatly appreciated, even reference books if necessary.

PJ

Here are some screenshots: 

http://cid-04b57c48188f7179.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Programming%20Album/WebScreen001Publish.jpg 

In Visual Studio 2008 for ASP.NET, click on Build, then Publish will give you this screenshot

http://cid-04b57c48188f7179.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Programming%20Album/WebScreen000RemoteIIS.jpg

Clicking on the ellipses (...) of the prior screenshot, then on Local IIS button will give you this screenshot. But you must be the web server Administrator to run this option, so that excludes me I bet, leaving only "FTP Site" and "Remote Site" as options to publish? 

http://cid-04b57c48188f7179.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Programming%20Album/WebScreen002FTP.jpg

Clicking on the FTP button gives this screen. If I was a member of a commercial server like discountasp.net, I could set up a Username and Password to FTP to this site?
 
http://cid-04b57c48188f7179.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Programming%20Album/WebScreen003RemoteWebSite.jpg

A Remote Site is the final option given under the Visual Studio 2008 publishing wizard. Who would set up the website if I was a member of a commercial web server like discountasp.net? Would I do that, and, if so, what web site location would I use? A virtual drive? 

More info:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983453.aspx (How to: Publish Web Application Projects)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cdt9aht6.aspx  (How to: Configure Published Web Sites)

http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeehouse/532962-Best-web-server-company-for-hosting-programmers-is/     (thread on looking for a commercial web server to join)

Dexter said:

Maybe your RC chrashes because of the "well known" Intellisense issue? http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/02/15/patch-for-vs-2010-rc-intellisense-crash-issue-now-available.aspx

 

I've yet to get my RC to chrash. It seems to be quite stable here.

I always am bemused to see these two words everytime a new version of development software is released:  "breaking changes".

An incentive to keep your code as mainstream as possible, and an incentive for programming book writers too?

W3bbo said:

ManipUni said:

*snip*

I recognised the irony when I posted it

 

When I say "down" I mean "intentionally removed because I don't need it"; I'm not at a point where I want to take on customers en-masse, but picking up a few here and there is fine for now. It isn't down because of any problems.

Thanks W3bbo, master of baiters (are you their master or a master?).  You are, if you're the right person and cheaper than discountasp.net, the kind of person I would like to meet, since my apps are strictly adverts for my company, and there's nothing confidential or proprietary about them.   I might however just try discountasp.net and see what happens--worse case I'll be out of a couple of hundred dollars and find their support is nonexistant, in which case I'll be back on this board asking you to help me troubleshoot!

I am indeed in GRE, and the trouble is they have digital noise here where you're either getting a decent signal (see below) for a generic DSL or nothing at all for 30 seconds to a minute.  Very frustrating but par for such countries...this is not unusual when they are building infrastructure.

PJ

http://www.speedtest.net/ 

Athens, GRE at 18/2/2010: download speed: 6.95 MB/s, pin = 21 ms; upload: 0.25 MB/s
average US says this board: 6.9 MBps

figuerres said:

discountasp.net are not bad. you might want to check them out.

I am familiar with discountasp.net from their cheap prices.   Do you use them? Do they also hold your hand for your first ASP.NET or Silverlight publication?  I don't expect them to debug my app, or even to tell me what my connect string should be for ADO.NET, but for you programmers out there there are lots of other things that are not at all obvious to a casual programmer like me using Windows, such as virtual directories, a Unix concept, for example PhysicalPath vs ApplicationPath vs PhysicalApplicationPath, and things like setting permission to write to a directory (I'm taking about setting it up so I can write to the directory--I am familiar with Windows permissons and even Unix permissions since I FTP to my own website hosted by Earthlink).  Also right now everything is working fine in the localhost (my hard drive) but I'm not quite sure how to publish, and from a few blog posts I find it's not trivial (there are three different ways, and the easiest, from inside of Visual Studio, is I don't think supported by my free Express version, though I will double check).  I'm not sure a 'big' organization like discountasp.net can support me.  What I don't want is to pay for a year's subscription, then find myself talking to some script reading but otherwise computer illiterate high school graduate in some call center.   However, the way things are looking that might be the industry norm, in which case I will sign up with them and then look to this board for support.

My first post here.  I develop apps in Silverlight, ASP.NET & ADO.NET, WPF, and I'm looking for the best web hosting company for programmers.  Right now my server is pretty much the developer server built into Visual Studio 2008, running locally on my PC.  My machines are either a Windows 7 modern PC or an older Windows XP PC, both running Visual Studio 2008 with SQL Server Express.

There are a lot of web hosting companies out there, but after emailing some of them I get the impression what they do is host a front page for a business (i.e., index.html), and/or a one particular app that a company has developed, but they don't host lots of apps (I develop a new app every few weeks or months).  I need a place that will hold my hand when I want to publish my app.  Turnaround time is not that important, in that even if the IT guy gets back to me within a week that's fine.  I just want to have that support.

Can anybody recommend a "programmer friendly" web hosting company?  One that will support you if there's a minor glitch?  Also I need for them to run SQL Server in the background since my apps use a database.

Thank you.

PJ