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So what’s different about visiting a site on
web instead of one on my computer?
Not much difference at all, except that page that you will first see is on another computer at some unknown to you location. And that some how your browser must find that computer and asked it to send a copy of that page over internet to your computer where it eventually arrives loaded into your browser. Exactly how all that happens is another story, but basically, your browser sends a request for a page whose location is really given in address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that you typed into your browser. The request goes outside through your Internet Service Provider to a nameserver computer and asks what path it should take to send command to webserver. All this happens automatically, kind of like when you dial a phone number, but not exactly that way. Anyway request for webpage finally finds it’s way to webserver on which web page is stored. The webserver receives request and sends data contained in html document back over path through internet and back to your computer where it is delivered and read by your browser which properly displays it for you. All this happens in seconds!
Getting Hosted
Now, you create html documents using whatever program you choose. But your computer is not a webserver. A webserver is a computer with special programs which can receive and act on commands to deliver a webpage to another computer. It finds page that was requested and sends it out over internet back to requesting computer. You could make your computer a webserver by installing proper programs and making connection to internet. But normal way for most of us is to arrange for web hosting from a company who offers that service to public for a fee. There is a full range of hosting packages with various features and from free to expensive. An average for a reliable, full featured package will probably be in $20 to $25 a month range.
Once that service is arranged you are told what their URL is so that you can know how to send html documents that you created to webserver computer. Most of time this is accomplished by using an FTP (file transfer protocol) program which acts like a translator and sends pages from your computer to webserver. A username and password setup allows your access to your space on webserver and prevents others from gaining access to your files. It can get a little confusing when you use FTP. That’s why I prefer and recommend that you use a program where FTP is built-in to html editor.
FrontPage is a wysiwyg html editor with built-in FTP
FrontPage has this FTP program (actually Word has it too) built into it and uses it to send and receive html document to and from your computer. You only have to use one program and believe me, it’s going to save you a lot of aggravation over dealing with two. So remember when you are comparing prices of html editors and whether or not they have a built in FTP or require a separate one. You can get a free one or a free trial of one, if you search.
But of course many of you have Microsoft Word so just type up a little page, click on menu bar File – SaveAs
Notice slashes instead of backslashes in file name box and notice that address of website is added before file name in that same box, Save as type is set to Web Page. Now click Save button and if you have worked through this carefully Word will send this document (web page) to your website.
To see if transfer worked, just enter same address that was in File name box into your browser and it should retrieve document from your site and display it.
How about domain names?
Oh, you don’t have to have your own domain name to have a website on a webserver somewhere else. You can use domain name owned and hosted by someone else. Geocities is an example of this. You use their domain name with some variation such as a subdomain or a subdirectory. Here’s an of example.
http://www.geocities.com/dollarwareinc/howto.html
Domain names and email accounts.
In most cases, though, you think of a domain name that you would like to own and you go to a Domain Name Registrar’s web site and do a search to see if that name is available. If it is you pay a fee and get exclusive rights to that domain name for a given period of time usually one or two years. Prices vary quite a bit. I’ve seen them as low as $8 or $9 for one year to $65 for two years. For less than $10 (ten dollars) you can get a domain name, and get 5 email accounts. Even if you don’t get a hosting account. You can have email forwarded to your regular email box. But email address will be at domain name you have chosen, john@moneymaker.com for instance.
Ok, now that you have domain name, you need to also tell registrar where you will be hosting your web site. You give them address of hosting company’s nameservers (usually two of them) . The name servers addresses will have names like other web sites. Something like this:
Nameserver 1 ns.my-ehost.com Nameserver 2 ns2.my-ehost.com
You give this information to registrar, usually by just typing it into a special form on their website. You usually find it under something like “Manage Your Domain”. The registrar then, will send this information, name of your new domain and where it can be found to all other name servers on Internet. Actually new information is transferred from one connecting device (Routers) to another automatically until it is said to have “propagated” throughout internet. This just means that anyone can now find your website by typing its address into their browsers. This propagation process takes from 24 to 48 hours to complete.
You’re done. That is, you have your web site’s html pages created, you have them “uploaded” to webserver. You have a domain name which becomes address of site.
Now just tell World about your new website.
John Wilson, BSIM, A+, Network+, CCNA, MCSA. Webmaster for http://website-how-to.com offering help to those who want to create and setup their own site.
