Webmaster Resources - Getting your website online

Ok so you want to run your own website, you have your idea's you have your computer and you want to get started. But where do you start. Well a good place to start is with some software.

Software

Now there are many types of software you could use, from FrontPage express for total beginners to even something as simple as notepad for those of you that know HTML inside and out. You will be wanting to make sure you know exactly which type of software you need before you make the purchase. Also you need to know what kind of level you are working at. For simple static pages you can use the free express version of FrontPage. Obviously for the latest technology in web pages you will need the latest software like DreamWeaver MX.
 

FrontPage 2002 I think is a good place for most people to start, it lets you change HTML code directly as well as having a WYSIWYG editor. Although some true design professionals do not like to use front page the majority of people will find it an essential tool.

Dreamweaver MX is a power tool, for creating static pages and dynamic pages, it has built in support for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as well as ASP pages. Write code faster than ever before using features like code hints, tag editors, extensible colour coding, tag choosers, snippets, and code validation. Accelerate development with support for XML, including creating, editing, validating XML code, and importing XML schemas. Easily introspect XML web services. Ensure standards compliance with default creation of XHTML output, easy conversion from standard HTML to XHTML, and increased support for CSS2.

Domain Name and Hosting

Right if you have chosen your software and you have started to create your own site you want to place it on the net. Two essential things you will need for doing this are a Domain name and some webspace. Registering a domain name is easy and cheap. All you need to do is visit a site that sells domain names and find one that's available. For webspace you have even more choice depending on what you need out of it.
 

British NIC sell UK domain names such as .co.uk .org.uk .me.uk. .plc.uk and .ltd.uk. For only £11.75 inc VAT you get your very own domain name for 2 years plus web and e-mail forwarding. Meaning you could have your e-mail address as your domain name. This e-mail would then be directed to your current email box.

Reg-1-2-3 also sell other domain names such as .com and .net plus many more. You can choose from loads of extensions now, there can be no end to your creativity

Once you have your domain name you will need some web space hosting. This is a massive section to look into. Firstly, you will need to know how much space you require to host your website on. If its just a few pages then you will need very little space, perhaps a little bit to expand though. To give you an idea Panther Products uses about 75Mb webspace of its 300Mb account. However I fully intend to expand the site to utilize this.

Lets run down a list of a few of the things you will need to check on before ordering your website.

  • Webspace

  • Bandwidth p/m

  • PHP

  • CGI

  • SSI

  • POP3 Email boxes / aliases

  • FTP Access

  • WAP Enabled

  • MYSQL

  • FrontPage extensions

You may not require all of these but you should go with a host that gives you all of what you need plus all of what you will expect to need in the future. Most hosting companies now give you nearly all of the features above however the webspace and bandwidth usage varies greatly.

We have already been through webspace, so on to bandwidth. Bandwidth is charged per month. Meaning at the end of the month your bandwidth usage is set back to zero. calculating bandwidth is easy, its simply the amount of data which is transferred from your site to other computers. If page A is 50k in size and is view 10 times in a day then page A has used 500k of your monthly bandwidth.

PHP and CGI as well as ASP are types of software technology that your sever has to have installed and support before you can use these languages on your web pages. If you are going to use dynamic PHP pages then your host must have Perl installed and support PHP. SSI (Server Side Includes) is a sort of dynamic add-on to CGI (Common Gateway Interface) which allows inclusion of dynamic content such as time or poll results.

The POP3 Mailboxes is simply how many actual mailboxes you get with the account each box can be handled how you want it. However e-mail aliases are different they all go to the same mailbox but allow you to access them with different passwords.

WAP enabled sites can provide data that can be downloaded from mobile phones. If you intend on doing a site which provides this service then you must have a host which provides this.

MYSQL is a database program, if you intend on using PHP or other languages that fetch data from a database to provide dynamic content then you will need at least 1 MYSQL database. Some hosts offer more databases should you want to split your site in such a way that separate databases are needed.

Lastly FrontPage extensions are required if you intend on using some of FrontPage's extra features such as its publishing feature. This is only required for FrontPage users and those which use the special extended features.
 

Your Choice Budget Is currently the cheapest host that I am aware of for only £29.95 per year you can have a host which offers you 25Mb of webspace as well as 500Mb Bandwidth per month. You also get PHP, CGI and SSI.

HostWay Can offer you a more specific package to your needs. It offers more space bandwidth and other features all to suit you. If you are serious about your website or you are running a business on the web then maybe you want to be looking at Hostway to host your website.

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Getting your website noticed
 

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