Where Do I Place, or Host My Web Pages?
Once a site is created on your hard drive, it needs to be placed
onto a web server so that the rest of the world can see your masterpiece.
Web hosting is the term used to describe placing your site on
a server so that it is viewable on the web. A good comparison
is creating an add on a piece of paper and leaving it on the table
versus having it published in the yellow pages, and indeed 'publishing
your web page' is a term often used by commercial web creation
software packages. Many commercial software packages allow you
to move files to the appropriate locations, or it can be done
manually using any FTP (file transfer protocol) client program.
One related bit of information is domain name registration: If
you want to create your own domain name, such as "cocacola.com"
you need to check for name availability (we're not at www.asa.com
because the American Sailing Association got to it first), then
register it for a low yearly fee. Network Solutions provides an
extremely easy method of online domain name search and registration.
Two choices available to you for web hosting are:
Creating a web server
Folks who are just getting started should consider letting someone
else host the site. There are many good ISP's (Internet Service
Providers) from which you can choose. Setting up a web server
is not a trivial thing to do so it's best to seek the help of
IT professionals.
Using an internet provider that allows registered domain names
Most of the larger internet service providers will allow registered
domain name hosting for a monthly fee. Contact the technical support
staff of your internet support provider for more details. The
degree of support and amount of server space available for storing
pages can vary, often requiring limitations on numbers of pages,
or sizes of images that can be displayed.
Committee on Electronic Media and Information
Technology
For more information, send email to Keith
Ruskin or Roy Soto
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