I’m just past being dangerous, and need some guidance. I’ve got a homepage (www.sallee.org) that was made over a single weekend typing html into Wordpad, with a very small amount of later adjustments. I did it several years ago as an experiment, and haven’t really touched it since. I’ve also got a complete PC running in my basement, acting as a backup for my music collection plus a few other items there. I want to go to a next step –

1) Better homepage. Are there some templates out there, or a package I can buy? I know about software such as Dreamweaver and Homesite, but I’m looking more for “templates for stupid/lazy people”. I could download and tweak code from somewhere else, but would prefer to have my own from the start. Problem is - while I can understand, or at least figure it out technically, I have NO artistic abilities whatsoever. Something along the lines of the Sonic Blue site – header across the top, side bar, good colors, etc. would be about right. Ideally I’d find a “fill in the blanks” template that I can start off of, or a package that had a dozen or more to choose from. Basically, I need the design side, I can fill in the rest.

2) Hosting. I have this fully functional PC (Athlon 700, 256 RAM, XP, lotsa hard drive space) with no real purpose in life. I also have cable modem that seems to finally be stable. I’d like to be able to host my homepage off of it, and avoid the monthly cost my old ISP charges me. I’d also like to run my own e-mail from it as well, and set up addresses that anyone in my family could use. I don’t get many hits on the homepage, and don’t plan to have much up in the way of downloads, so I think the setup can take it. But I’d like a “plug and play” software that I can install that would walk me through the steps I need to host my site and run my own e-mail.

Any ideas or direction-pointing would be appreciated!