Greetings!

I am an information junkie. I like…need to collect, organize, manage and disseminate information. That is why I am very anxious to get started with my own webpages. I am also going to be opening my own non-profit organization in the U.S. aimed at helping the disabled people and orphans get vocational training. I am usually in China for 3 years at a time so I really need to learn how to take advantage of multimedia in website design.

I need to be able to do the following with my website:

Post streaming video
Be able to synchronize my bookmarks on any computer I am working on with a file on the website
Have my own e-group – I need to send out 400 e-mails every month for a newsletter.
SSL e-mail service for webmail
Offer hundreds of e-mails so that people who help me can have a free one
Host my own chat session
Host a forum
Host video conferencing with up to 6 people in total
Post live video of my aquarium
Synchronize my address book with Thunderbird
Screen comments made in my guest book and forward the comments to different e-mail addresses based on key words..
Will be either using Frontpage or Dreamweaver – not sure which
Need to publicize my website
Will do some e-commerce kinds of things with it – receiving donations.
Display local time - I live in China – and weather conditions

I will not implement all of these things at one time but probably over 16-18 months.

I understand that I first have to decide between using a Windows based server or a Linux/Unix based server. My understanding is that Linux/Unix is cheaper that Windows? I am guessing that both Linux and Windows has the software that I need to do the things I have just mentioned.

Secondly, I have to choose a server. Any reccommendations? Either for a specific host or guidelines?

What factors are important i.e. bandwidth, etc

Thanks

welcome aboard

Welcomez

hi there! it'll be nice to have a site for disabled and orphans. good luck on it!

welcome btw