Getting Started

[tomarrandale]

Hi

 

I'm going to be setting up an online bathooms store and i expect to use oscommerce. Can anyone point me to somewhere with tips on getting started. Starting with web servers (best prices etc.) through to payment gateways - i shall have a mechant account with Natwest Bank. I am based in the UK. Thanks for any help you give.

[Gameprodigy]

Well to start you off with your webservers question AKA Hosting packages. I use http://dynamohosting.net, but what you should look for are fair prices, don't always pick the cheapest one, there is usually a reason they are cheap. i pay 10.99 for 750mb storage, 15gb bandwidth unlimited email, mysql and subdomains. I have my store and 3 phpbb forums all on the same server. Their uptime is 99.9% and I can vouch for that.

 

I am not trying to sell you on this host, but compare the prices to the storage capacity, and transfer rates, see if they show their uptime percentage, if the price is really cheap compared to others and they say they have everything the rest do then be leary if its too cheap then there is probably a reason. Find out about their tech support, do they offer live support, do they respond quickly to email support. Sometimes a great package could have really crappy tech support of long delays in their responses which can cost you downtime. look for things like php4 compatable, admin C-panel, phpmyadmin. These are tools you will need. Don't pay extra for a huge bandwidth limit, if got 15gb per month and the most Ive hit so far in one month is 3gb, If your just running a store until you start getting about 10,000 visitors a month then you could consider upgrading but to start out you don't need tons of bandwidth.

 

Sorry for the long post.

[babylea]

A server I am happy to recommend is:

 

http://www.theemailshop.co.uk/

 

everything you need and more in their 3 packages which are simply explained and reasonably priced.

 

for getting started with osCommerce you should look at the knowledge base and also searching the forums are a great source of help if you can't find what you need in the KB... chances are anything you may want to know may have been something a previous user has asked.

 

As for your payment gateway... I think that the Credit Card payment module which is installed on all basic osC installs should be compatible with your Natwest Merchant Account, you just need to tie the two together through your Payment Modules in your Admin panel... I have never used this myself but from previous conversations I think that's correct.

 

HTH.