|
Publish
your website on the Internet
Having
made your website on your computer you'll want to publish it on
the Internet so that all the world ( or your relatives or club
members) can see it.
"Hosting
Companies"
To publish your website you have to transfer
it to a computer that is directly and permanently connected to
the Internet. When you go to a particular website you're connected
to the computer that has that website on its hard drive. Such
a computer is referred to as a *server*. Because servers are connected
world-wide, the website you are looking for may be hosted in Australia,
even though the author may be in the UK.
So
the first thing to sort out is who is to host your website. In
order to access the Internet you will probably have an ISP (Internet
Service Provider) to whom you pay a monthly subsription and most
ISPs provide free hosting.(This won't apply if you use a 'pay
as you go' ISP) My ISP is Freeserve (Wanadoo) and I have had a
website hosted by them at no cost other than the usual connection
fee. If you're a first-timer this may be all that you need. The
only downside is that you won't have a personal URL (Unique Resource
locator) otherwise known as your website's address.
Go
to your ISP's website and find out about what they offer in terms
of free webspace and facilities. It's an excellent way to start.
Even a 5MB site will host quite a large hobby site.
And
if you build a commercial website, the ISP website can be used
to promote it, or to hide download files and will be useful in
many other ways. It's worth doing.
"Hosting
Companies"
The alternative is to find a hosting company
of which there are vast numbers. Some will be very large companies
who rent out spare capacity to smaller companies. This needn't
bother you; most companies, large or small, are very good. They
have to be or clients will leave; it's easy. What you have to
do is to find a company that you're comfortable with, and smaller
companies, often manned by the directors themselves must give
good support or die.
We
have several websites each hosted by different companies including
a hobby site on our ISP and a charity website being hosted for
free. But when we started Shed 18 we felt that we wanted something
more powerful and more commercially orientated, yet not expensive.
We're paying $7.95 a month for an incredibly complete package,
but they also offer cheaper and more expensive options. The
hosting company we use is Hostgator. Go take a look now. You
get unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. Wow; you could
start a huge business with these facilities.
If
you elect to use a 'private' hosting company you'll also need
your own domain name, and this is rented on a yearly basic. Normally
you would choose your domain name before signing up with a host.
Hostgator has a great facility that helps you choose a suitable
domain name. So you can do both at the same time.
And
did we mention that Hostgator allows completely different domains
to be hosted for the same price? Of course you'll have to buy
the extra domain names, but think of the saving. Your family could
each have their own web site for one hosting fee.
Another neat feature - sub-domains. These allow you to create
any numbers of distinct URLs from one domain name. This can save
a lot of time and money .For example we could make a subdomain
such as
ebooks_at.shed18.com.
Check out this facility.
Hostgator
uses Cpanel. This is such a powerful tool that I wouldn't be without
it. Be sure to check it out on the Hostgator website. If you decide
to use a different hosting company, make sure it uses Cpanel or
you'll miss out.
Not
many hosting companies offer these facilities, so check before
you buy. Any problems we've had have been our own fault, but the
support staff at Hostgator have been more than helpful.
The
Shed 18 Team
|
