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INTRODUCTION
We assume that you know nothing about the inner workings of the
Internet; maybe you're not even sure How people actually get
to web sites? Where are the web sites actually sitting?
what is the web in the first place?
In this article we are going to give you the minimum you need to
get your 'feet wet' so that we can quickly get into building web
sites. won't go into painful micro-details that would put all but
true nerds to sleep, again there is just enough so that you have
a basic understanding of what's going on.
What is the web?
In a nutshell, the web is a whole bunch on interconnected computers
talking to each other. The computers (on the web) are typically
connected by phone lines, digital satellite signals,
cable and other types of data-transfer mechanisms.
A 'data-transfer mechanism' is a nerd's way of saying:
a way to move information from point A to point B to point C and
so on.
The computers that make up the web can be connected all the time
(24/7), and they can be connected only periodically. The computers
that are connected all the time are typically called as "SERVER".
Servers are computers just like the one we are using now to read
articles, with one major difference; they have a special software
installed called 'server' software.
What is the function of server software / programs?
Server software is created to 'serve' web pages and web sites.
Basically the server computer has a bunch of web sites loaded on
it and it just waits for people (web browsers) to request or ask
for a particular page. When the browser request for the page the
server sends it out.
How does the web surfer find a web site?
The short answer is: by typing in the URL, or in other words, the
web site address.
For example if you wanted to find the web site www.virtualsplat.com
you would type in the address into your web browsers address bar
or maybe use your 'favorites' link to virtualsplat.
There are other ways to find web sites (like search engines)
but behind the scenes web sites are all being found by going
to the web sites official address. That brings us our last nerd
detail; how does a website get an official address so that the
rest of the Web can find it?
Registering your domain name
If you ever wondered what the heck registering a domain
was all about ...you probably guessed it by now. But just is case;
registering a domain name gets you an official address for your
web site on the World Wide Web so that the rest of the Web
can find you.
Like your home address is unique in the real world, there also can't
be any duplicate addresses on the Internet, otherwise no one would
know where to go! In other words domain names are unique addresses
on the web.
Why does registering a domain name cost money?
If you want to have your own unique address on the web, your own
domain name, it will cost a few bucks for each year you want to
'own' the name. The cost of registering a domain name ranges
from less than $10 USD to $30 USD per year and maybe more.
You can register a domain from 1 to 10 years.
The reason it cost is because there is this central 'address
book' of all the worlds domain names that needs to be updated
and kept going - somebody's got to pay for that!
You may have noticed that we had just snuck in a little extra
piece of information: the giant 'web address book' of domains.
That leads us to our last bit of nerd information: when you type
in a web sites domain name or click on a link to that domain name,
your browser starts asking servers where that particular domain
name is sitting and the servers are able to tell the browser where
to go by referring to the giant address book we mentioned above.
The two steps to getting your web site 'live' on the Web
With the nerd background details under our belts, we can now go
over the two steps to going live on the Web:
1. Register your domain.
2. Rent some server space.
1. Registering your domain
There are many companies out there that allow you to register the
domain name for your web site. Prices vary, as does the quality
of service, but at the end of the day, they all handle the details
of getting your domain name listed in the giant address book about
which we spoke earlier.
These days, you will find many of the names you may be interested
in registering are already taken. As I mentioned above, domain names
have to be unique and many have been slurped up.
What is the difference between .com, .net, .org etc?
Practically speaking there is really no difference these days.
Search engines don't discriminate between a .com address
and a .net address. The only thing you might consider is
that people tend to type in .com automatically since it was
the first publicly know domain extension. So when registering a
domain name, we would go for the .com first and if
it were taken, we would then try for any of the others. (.net,
.org, .tv etc ...)
You probably guessed; a .com address is not the same domain
name of the same name with a different extension.
For example:
www.virtualsplat.com is not the same place as www.virtualsplat.net
As such each of the addresses can be registered separately.
2. Renting server
space to 'host' your web site
When renting space on a server so that it can serve your web site
on the World Wide Web, it is often called 'HOSTING'. Companies
that provide this service are often called 'HOST' or 'HOSTING
COMPANIES'.
After you registered your domain, all you need to do is contact
a hosting company and tell them you want to host you web
site and that you have a proper domain name. They will guide
you through the process and you should be live on the web in no
time!
Another cheaper option
Some people may not want to buy a domain or pay for hosting
because they have just a personal web site for fun or practice.
You can still get your website live on the web by using a free
hosting service that allows to create what they call a 'SUB-DOMAIN'.
A sub-domain is just a domain which is part of another domain.
So if virtualsplat.com offered sub-domain hosting you
could have an address like:
www.virtualsplat.com/yourWebsite/
Or it could be like:
https://yourWebsite.virtualsplat.com
What ever way the free hosting service decides to do it,
the point is that your web site domain is really a part of
the parent domain, in this case virtualsplat.com.
Doing it this way, you don't need to buy a domain name and you don't
need to pay for hosting.
This is fine for fun/project websites, but if you are serious about
your web site (say it's your business website) using sub-domains
is like taking someone else's business card and writing you name
on it! You figure it out ...
One last point, I've heard of free hosting services that
will allow you to host proper domains with them for free and without
annoying ads that other free host will insert into your pages. But
I've never used them, and in my opinion you always get what you
pay for. In the internets' recent past there was once a crop of
free service providers that would give away access to the web via
dial-up, they were notorious for bad service and all have since
gone bankrupt ... I wonder why?
Moving your web site files Into the server
After you have your domain name registered and your hosting
service in place, the last step is to upload the website onto the
server. You can transfer your web site to your host's server using
an FTP program.
An FTP program is a type of software that is used
to move files from one computer to another over the Internet.
FTP is the acronym for: File Transfer Protocol,
this just means that this is a 'way' of moving files. There are
several free FTP programs you can use to move your files onto the
server, and many HTML editors and web design programs like Front
page have FTP capabilities built in.
One option you probably have to FTP your files to the server, is
Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer 5 and up have an FTP program
built right in and you can use it by just typing in the FTP address
of the server in the address bar preceded by the keyword: FTP. Here
is an example:
FTP://207.35.15.69/youwebsite/
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