Web Hosting Tutorial
How to find an inexpensive, reliable Web Host
How to set up a web site:
There are two costs associated with establishing a web site:
The Domain Name
The Web Hosting
What is a Domain Name?
The Domain Name or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is your address
on the web.
A Domain Name is associated with an IP address. Every computer on
the Internet has an IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) which
is a numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods.
Each of the four numbers can be from 0 to 255. An example of an
IP Address would be 200.178.56.48. You can say that an IP Address
is similar to a phone number. Numbers are difficult to remember
so the web uses something called a DNS (Domain Name System) to associate
the IP Address into a Domain Name. That allows us to type www.google.com
instead of 216.239.41.99.
How do I register a Domain Name?
You obtain a Domain Name by registering it through an ICANN (Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) accredited Registrar.
Registering a Domain Name is similar to registering your car. The
cost is a yearly registration fee. When you register a Domain
Name you will be entered into a directory listing of all the Domain
Names. The registry will provide information to allow other computers
to reach your web site your registration contact information is publicly
available. If you wish to keep your personal information private,
you may use your business contact information.
How do I find out if a Domain Name is available?
Visit the web site of your chosen Registrar, they will have a search
function to allow you to search for available Domain Names.
You can visit the following links to see if a Domain Name is available:
GoDaddy - A
Registrar
Dreamhost
- A Registrar
Helpful links on Domain Name Information:
Accredited
Registrar Directory
ICANN- Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers
More About Domain Names
The first step in establishing a web presence is registering the
Domain Name.
This is a yearly registration fee that gives you ownership of the
Domain Name during your registration period.
If the name you want is available BUY it. Good Domain Names are
hard to find. Think about also registering the .com, and .net and
even the .org variant of your chosen Domain Name as well. This will
keep competing companies from registering a similar Domain Name.
Depending on your chosen Domain Name, you may want to consider registering
common misspellings too.
What is a Web Host?
A Web Host is a company that will provide you server space to host
your web site files.
A web server delivers web pages to visitors who request your web
page by accessing your Domain Name.
Web hosting companies charge a monthly fee. Web Hosting companies
often offer a reduced price if the fee is paid in advance for one
year or more.
More Web Host Information
The options and features to consider when choosing a web hosting provider
are:
How much disk space you are allotted on their server
How much bandwidth (traffic) you are allowed per month
How will the web host bill you for any bandwidth or disk space overages
what account features do they offer with the hosting plan? (email
accounts, mailboxes, databases, forms processing)
Reliability
Dreamhost - Our Web Host
Getting Your Domain Name Registration and Web Host Accounts Activated
Once you register your Domain Name it can take up to 48-72 hours
for your DNS entry to become active.
The next step is to let your Registrar know who will be hosting
your web site. The Registrar will need to know the address of the
Name Server of the Web Host. Your Web Host will give you the Name
Server information as soon as you have an active account with them.
Here is a scenario of how to set this up:
You register your Domain Name with the Registrar.
The Registrar will email you when your site registration is activated.
You sign up for a Web Hosting account with a Web Host.
The Web Host will email you when your account is activated and give
you the Domain Name Server addresses.
These addresses must be given to your Registrar so that they can
associate your new Domain Name with the IP Address of the server.
Once that information is given to the Registrar it will take 24-48
hours for the DNS to be updated.
This is often accomplished online though the Registrar and Web Host's
web sites. You will be given a username and password to access a
control panel for your account with your Registrar and your Web
Host.
When all this is complete, you are ready to FTP (upload) your custom
HTML pages to your Web Host.
|
