Section 2 - Basics
Section 4 - Advanced
Section 5 - Publishing
Local directory
Clean your code
Web Hosts
Uploading files
You try it
Section 6 - Extras
Appendices
The Internet isn't as magical as it seems. It's run by computers and programs, just like your computer at home. These computers take money to run, and the large servers take a lot of money to buy. These servers are an important part of getting your page online.
Your site will have to be placed on someone's server. This server is owned by a company, and this company is known as your host. Hosts may either be paid or free. Both have their advantages.
Paid hosting
Most websites on the internet are paid sites. The company or individual paid someone to put that site online. There are many places online to purchase web hosting. You can learn much more about comparing web hosts at places online like findmyhosting.com. These sites can point you in the right direction when seeking a host.
It may be useful to know a few terms before deciding whether to purchase a site.
- Basic web hosting
- Basic web hosting gives you a limited amount of space and your own domain name. Sizes vary and prices start around $5.00 a month. This service is often what people purchase as their personal sites.
- Domain Name
- Some web hosts will attract you with an uncommonly low price. They will tell you that they can offer you a domain name for $5.00 to $10.00 a year. A domain name is the address, such as www.yoursite.com. When you purchase a domain name alone, it reserves the name, but doesn't give you a site. This is a good place to start though if you've decided on a specific ".com" (or .net or .org, etc.) site.
- Their design
- Some web hosts will offer to create your site for you. This gets to be a bit pricey. One site I went to offered to create your site for $500.00. And that was the starter price. Learning HTML keeps you from having to pay these kind of fees.
- eCommerce
- If you plan to own a business site where people can purchase items, you'll need special consideration. Often, people will be using their credit cards and putting their personal information into forms and sending them to you. This could be dangerous for them, so the site must be secured. To prevent an outside source from intercepting and using this information, it must be encrypted - coded - before it is sent. Because of this, commercial sites are more expensive, starting at about $50 a month.
- Starter site
- One other possibility is a starter site, which only consists of one or two pages. Some people will get a starter site and link it to a free site. Such a site will cost you about $15.00 a year. These sites can't be expanded, but if they meet your needs, it's a decent price.
You can also acquire a free site. Free sites don't come with their own domain name, but you become part of their domain. For example, my old website (www.geocities.com/superfunhtml) was a part of the geocities domain. Free sites are found many places on the internet. Usually these sites are ad-supported. This means you get pop-up ads when people come to your site. While these are annoying, the sites are free, so many people don't mind.
Whatever host you choose, make sure it fits your needs. Will you need an e-mail address, or perhaps dozens? Will people visit your page often, perhaps to download a lot of pictures or sounds, or will there only be a couple visitors? How much space will you need? These are questions to consider when choosing a site. The more you need, often the higher the price will be, but it's remarkable what good deals you can find online.
Whatever you choose to use, you may also want to consider what amenites are included in the deal. What customer service does the company offer? How often does it crash? Will it allow you to upload files easily, or does it use a system you aren't familiar with? All of these questions should guide your choice of a host.
Here are a couple sites to get you going:
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www.0hosts.com
www.freewebspace.net http://100best-free-web-space.com www.50megs.com fortunecity.com tripod.lycos.com |
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