Section 2.2. Creating Hosted Sites

2.2. Creating Hosted Sites

Hosted solutions are a great way to try out SharePoint without committing a lot of resources up front. Table 2-1 lists some of the hosting providers currently available; several offer a free trial period.

Table 2-1. Some SharePoint hosting providers

Company	Site	Provides
Apptix	http://www.apptix.net/default.aspx	Free 30-day trial
ASP-One, Inc.	http://www.asp-one.com/default.asp	Combined Microsoft Exchange/SharePoint Server hosting
Enlightened Technology Group , Inc.	http://www.etgroup.net/pages/sharepoint_hosting.aspx	SharePoint Server hosting at different service levels
FrontPages Web Hosting Network	http://www.frontpages-web-hosting.net/sharepoint.hosting.htm	SharePoint and other types of hosting
724 Hosting	http://www.724hosting.com/sharepoint/	Free 30-day trial

Setting up a hosted account is as easy as navigating to one of the sites in Table 2-1 and completing the registration process. After you've done that, you'll want to:

• Add members to the site.

• Customize the site's home page.

• Add content to the site.

The following sections demonstrate those tasks using a hosted site; they provide a quick tutorial, so you may want to follow along using your own trial site to get a better understanding of SharePoint.