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General Discussion

Posted by Jason Kaiser
Jason Kaiser
730 Points

Free Private Sandbox?

I would like to find a hosting provider that offers some sort of free, private sandbox to build pages. One of my practice projects is going to be to develop a website for just my immediate family with pictures, stories and what not that I would not like to be public. Any ideas for a solution that would be of use to me?

5 Answers

James Ingmire
James Ingmire
11,901 Points
James Ingmire
James Ingmire
11,901 Points

You can download XAMPP to run WordPress locally on your computer offline instead of uploaded on the internet. Then you can practice without paying for hosting and domain name. Actually have a video to help from a course i once did :

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c2V6bZnhcz then http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c2V6DtnfWM

Let me know if helps.

Jason Kaiser
Jason Kaiser
730 Points
Jason Kaiser
Jason Kaiser
730 Points

That sounds like a good route. It is not essential that I have access outside of my home I guess. I will give the screencast a watch, thanks :)

Tom Bedford
Tom Bedford
15,645 Points
Tom Bedford
Tom Bedford
15,645 Points

Hi Jason

Here is a tutorial on creating a password protected domain or section of a website.

There are some companies that offer free hosting, for example 5quidhost has a free forever 50mb webhosting plan with 100mb monthly bandwidth.

One of the Treehouse staff runs discount hosting for students ($25/year for 1gb space and 10gb bandwidth). You can get a free month there with the coupon code "TREEHOUSE".

Jason Kaiser
Jason Kaiser
730 Points
Jason Kaiser
Jason Kaiser
730 Points

Thanks for the tutorial, that is exactly what I want to accomplish. As far as hosting, I went with Dreamhost. A little googling showed that they have a promo through Lifehacker that runs under $20 for 1 year with unlimited everything (and you get a domain registration too).

http://www.dreamhost.com/promo/lifehacker2013/?utm_campaign=lifehacker2013&utm_medium=content&utm_source=lifehacker2013&utm_content=lifehacker2013

"Get 1 year of our award-winning web hosting for just $1.60/mo, plus 1 domain registration for FREE!* Offer Ends 3/14/14"

P.S.-I proofread a lot in my job and noticed that the word technical is misspelled as 'techinical' on the hosting site you sent along. Could you let the author know?

Tom Bedford
Tom Bedford
15,645 Points

The dreamhost plan looks enticing but it's only for one year, it would be $100/year after that. If you have everything set up there it might take some time to move everything if you wanted a cheaper plan in year two.

Zac Gordon, Jason isn't a fan of your " techinical" specs :)

Zac Gordon
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Zac Gordon
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Ahaha, 2nd misspelling that's come in from the new site. Next time we hire a Treehouse student ;)

Jason Kaiser
Jason Kaiser
730 Points
Jason Kaiser
Jason Kaiser
730 Points

Are the specs listed on the webhostingforstudents site per month?

Zac Gordon
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Zac Gordon
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Yup, the 1GB disk and 10GB bandwidth are monthly allocations.