Product Reviews

Everything you need to set up a website.

Not everybody has the skills or time to learn HTML and build a website from scratch, which is why software companies have come up with a host of interactive site design packages that take away the need for programming. Mr Site simplifies things even further with its Takeaway Website package, which includes a registered 'dot com' domain, 12 months of pre-paid site hosting and access to a very simple yet powerful site builder that runs in any web browser.

The really important item in the retail box is an activation code. You'll need this to log on to the Mr Site website and choose a domain name. If the name you want is already

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taken as a .com, you can choose from .co.uk and seven other suffixes. The domain name registration and the first year's rental of web space on which you host your website are included in the purchase price. After 12 months it costs £2.49 per month to keep your site up and running.

Designing a website is a simple matter of choosing how many pages are required, and what should go on each page. There are ready-made pages for picture galleries, blogs, contacts, guest books and forums, and even for setting up your very own online shop complete with shopping basket facility linked to a PayPal account. Snazzy features like on-screen MP3 players, digital counters and analogue clocks can be included on any page, and there's a wide selection of themes that can be applied to the entire site.

The design system is very well thought out and really can be used by anybody who knows how to use a web browser, as the process is divided into easy-to-understand steps. The only niggle we had with Mr Site's Takeaway Website was that after creating our site we waited 72 hours for it to appear online. During this time, five emails to Mr Site's support service went unanswered, which detracts from an otherwise positive impression of a sensibly-priced and well-designed package.