general question about this project..

[Aurora]

I have a friend who has hired this woman to create for her a website that she can sell her fabric on, which is all fine.. but i find out today that this woman (who ill refer to as Carrie) told my friend (or rather, is charging my friend) 75 dollars a month.. that she says is what hosting the site is costing.. now, i saw on the site in mention, that osCommerce was listed as powering the site.. now, from what i gather after checking this site out, is that it costs nothing to use this.. project. I know Carrie has skills enough to use the open source codes and modify the look of my friends online store.. but it looks just like the demo from this site.. so i Know she didn't do all that much.. and she isn't paying osCommerce 75 dollars a month to use their codes.. right? i mean, i figure that Carrie is ripping my friend off big time.. but i want to be sure before i mention anything..

 

Another thing.. Aside from purchasing a domain name, which i know doesn't involve osCommerce.. there aren't any other fee's? I mean, i have a website and i use doteasy.com to host it.. i paid for the domain, and i pay yearly for doteasy to host it.. i understand that. but with osCommerce.. is it a hosting site? like, if i have a domain, and want to use these source codes to create an online store, will osCommerce host the site? or do i still need to have a company like doteasy to host it?

 

I ask because my friend is thinking of changing servers to ipowerweb.com.. But if osCommerce is a hosting site, and she changes her domain name over to ipowerweb, then would she lose the catalogue and admin layout? Would it change at all? I guess it depends on if osCommerce is a hosting site or not..

 

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Aurora

[wizardsandwars]

OSCommerce does not host websites, but there ar emany hosting sites that come with oscommerce insatlled.

 

Yes, this women is ripping your friend off.

 

You only need - $10 per month at most for a host

$13 for a domain name

[joongpark]

If your friend's site looks just like stock OScommerce site then I would say your friend is getting tipped off.

 

Is Carrie also maintaining the site for her like uploading new items and stuff? That might justify charging more.

 

Also, you should check if there is Copy right to Oscommerce on the main page of your friend's site. If look of the site is same as demo site here, then Carrie is violating copy right by removing credit to Oscommerce.

 

I hope it helps and read GPL to make sure your friend has not been violated in more ways. Your friend should been told in beginning that open source program is being used and program should have been made available to your friend by Carrie.

[Guest]

If it is the hosting charge, plus updating and running the website then they have it cheap.

 

The bulk of the work would be to update the website. If this is the case, I think she is doing well. If your friend has to update the site manually (by herself) then she is getting ripped off majorly. There are cheaper providers everywhere :-)

[Aurora]

well, Carrie is supposed to be updating the website for my friend, but she isn't.. so my friend is doing all the new uploads and pictures and things.. and ive sort of taken over with new pages and graphics..

 

to sort of clarify, the site doesn't look exactly like the demo.. i mean, colours are different, different items in the columns on the sides and the middle column is totally different.. but all the formatting looks somewhat the same.. i dont know if that's standard, or how complete the customization can get.. ill take a look at the GPL as suggested..

 

Thanks you to those who replied,

 

Aurora