Thread: starting a website

Um... you upload your files to the server ... It's just an FTP server (probably running Apache), and all you do is access the server via username/password. And you literally drag your files into the server. Files with the same name will be overwritten, so you make changes to the index.html offline, then drag it into the server and overwrite the existing one.

Once you get the server they'll probably configure it for you, such as, set your homepage, etc..

index.html is usually the default. If you'd like another file to be the default, just put a redirect in within the head. I do it with my site as "mainindex.shtml" is my main page - I just have the "index.html" have a simple link in it with a redirection notice (in case the browser doesn't redirect, an alternative is provided), and after a few seconds, the page redirects.

Also, make sure that you have the DNS nameservers set properly. It'll take a few hours for it to take effect, but once it does, feel free to upload whatever files you need.

As a side note, you can test HTML without even needing a website - just have the files stored on your own hard drive and link to them using the file:// protocol instead of the http:// protocol. That is "file://C:\My Documents\example.html", then just open the file in your browser. Images and styles are all the same way.

How I edit my website, of which I'll be doing shortly, is use Wordpad to type up everything as needed offline, then to upload the updated contents and any new files/images, I just use WS_FTP LE (which is very buggy) to upload everything where it needs to go. I use a folder called "images" in the root that contains all the images - GIF, JPG, and PNG images. Another folder, "temporary", is primarily used for putting images and things for use in forums and vaguely relate to my website. "files" is for general files (usually as ZIP files). The related webpages themselves are sorted by category and subcategory.

As a side note, you can test HTML without even needing a website - just have the files stored on your own hard drive and link to them using the file:// protocol instead of the http:// protocol. That is "file://C:\My Documents\example.html", then just open the file in your browser. Images and styles are all the same way.

You can miss several bug this way - due to hard-coded links that are by mistake set here or there...

It is not too hard to setup the IIS server supplied with XP and test the files in the "real" environment

For learning purposes, doing it that way is better than, say, using some webhost not to mention being much faster. When you, for example, learn how to add a table and want to try it out, links to external files, whether on your own hard drive or remotely on your webhost, aren't necessary. Still, links can be used in this way for learning purposes. For having it on a website, however, using the file:// protocol is highly not recommended.

Search Wampserver from google - that's everything you need for a web server. It includes Apache, PHP and MySQL.

Not sure he would want to run a server. Nor would he want PHP or SQL.

He/she stated in the the first message that he/she just learned some basic HTML (probably bold, italic, the general design and rules, and other simple tags). PHP would likely be beyond the user's knowledge at the moment.

Okay here we go:

With a basic account, godaddy.com (as far as I know) doesn't host any files, but only gives you your namespace. That means that godaddy.com will allow to register www.examplesite.com with them, but you can't actually store any files on their servers with a basic account (as far as I know, please correct me if I am wrong).

When you have your account at godaddy.com, and you have registered a namespace, you can then login to your account there. When you are logged in, it will bring up a page with many options about how you want to configure your .com website, including what server will be hosting/storing your files. So you want to set that option correctly to point to the server that is storing your index.html file.

Next...you need some server to store your files. If I am correct, a more premium package at godaddy.com will allow you to store your files on their server, but once again, I am not completely sure.

There are many other ways to get a file server, however. There are many free hosts out there who will store your files. You just have to find one. They all vary when it comes to how good they actually are, and they might asks for certain stipulations.

Another option, if you are at a university, is to see if your university allows you some space on their servers. For example, at my university of BYU, every student is allowed 20 MB of space on the servers. As a Computer Science student, we are given an extra 300 MB of space on the CS servers. I normally use the CS servers at my school as my web host and file host.

Whatever way you do it, you need to find a server who will store your files, and then tell godaddy.com to point to that server in your godaddy.com account.

Just go with 1and1 hosting. Domain and hosting in one package. If you want to get a website, do it right, not half-ass.

30Mb is for losers!

ust go with 1and1 hosting. Domain and hosting in one package. If you want to get a website, do it right, not half-ass.

30Mb is for losers!

Some people don't have large files downloadable from their website. In his case, if he is just playing around with HTML, 30 MB is more than enough.

I am not sure about yahoo briefcase, because I have never used it, so I can't tell you. Maybe someone else on here has experience with that, and can tell you.

Honestly, though, if I were you, unless you have good reason to register a domain name, I would just skip it and make a website somewhere else. If you really want your own .com, then go for it, but for many personal sites it is not completely necessary.

My site is hosted off of the BYU CS servers, and I decided to just keep the link directed to students.cs.byu.edu/~dpru/ instead of making a .com domain for it. It all depends on your needs really.

Originally Posted by zacs7

Not sure he would want to run a server. Nor would he want PHP or SQL.

Without PHP and SQL the only thing you can do is a lousy homepage...

Originally Posted by DavidP

Some people don't have large files downloadable from their website. In his case, if he is just playing around with HTML, 30 MB is more than enough.

Yup. My browser based game took less than 1Mb and my news portal took even less.