Advice for newbies

Hey Megan,

There are four basic steps anyone needs to take to build a web site and have it hosted. This step by step guide should help:

http://www.1simple.com/webhosting/starting/

This should help with understanding web hosting, etc.

http://home.verio.net/products/hosting/webguide.cfm

Hope this helps. Does this answer your question?

Hi Megan,

The below link will provide an insight on domain name registrations and other related topics that may interest you.

http://www.excite.com/business/internet_services/site_administration/domain_registration/advice_and_guides/

Regards,
NSS

Okay, I will try to explain as simple as I can. Here's how I would go about from registering and getting my domain name hosted on a server.

REGISTER A DOMAIN:

1) Look for a Domain Registrar such as Register.com, 000domains.com, etc.

At the Domain Registar's site,
i) Do a search for the name you wish to register.

ii) If the name is available, then proceed to sign-up and register it.

iii) You will normally receive a reply via email from your domain registrar regarding details on your ips, guide to make changes to your records, email, etc from a control panel.

iv)Wait for 24-48 hours for propagation time for you domain name to be added to InterNic database records.

v}Do a search at any domain registrar site and confirm that the name and records is accepted or correct.

vi)Now you are all set to look for a Web Host to rent some space at their server to host you domain name and webpages.

2} GETTING YOUR DOMAIN NAME HOSTED:

i) Look for a suitable Web Host for example at hostsearch.com, etc. that meet your requirements.

i} Decide on the type of system(Unix,Linux,RAQ,NT), space that you require for you web pages and graphics, bandwidth, support,etc. and also check other features that the Host may provide such as Cgi-bin, Php, Sql, Perl, etc.

iii) Once you sign-up with a certain Web Host, you will normally receive an email from your Web Host details such as Ips(Primary & secondary), Ftp (To upload your files to their server), control panel to make changes such as email address and others.

iv) Once you have the IPs from your Weh Host...Go back to your DOMAIN REGISTRAR and make the changes at their control panel for your domain name IPs and you are all set. Wait for 24-48 hours for propogation time for the changes to take place before your domain name is detected automatically.

v)Don't forget to upload your files to the server, you can do it by FTP since you are already provided with you FTP IP, Username and Password by your Web Host.

Hope this helps,

Regards,
NSS

Oh, I forgot to mention.

Some Domain Registrars also provide Web Hosting service, so if you register your domain name with them, then the Web Hosting side would be much easier. But I prefer two seperate companies(Domain Registrar & Weh Hosting) for various reasons(personal).

If I am not getting value for my money and support, I change Web Host anytime I like and just make changes at my Domain Registrar's control panel for my domain name IPs(namesevers) and upload my files to the new Web Hosting company.

Regards,
NSS

IMO if the person is not vey technical and doesn't plan on becoming so then just find a good host. Nearly all hosts provide domain registration services too. If there's a good reason for going with one registrar over an other then ask the host which registrar they use. Otherwise think of domain registration as part of the hosting package.

Unless they expect to be registering a bunch of domains, selling/transfering all the time etc. then IMO it's the hosting and not the domain registrar that counts more.

Hi Jaiem,

From my experience, you don't have to be a technical person, but having some knowledge on how to go about registering a domain name and getting your domain name hosted on a server is not a difficult task.

I do agree, the first time it's confusing and after doing it correctly you should have no problems doing it again the second time since you already have experienced it.

Don't worry, I have done it more than 50 times for my personal and clients' site.

Anyway, if you are into the web designing business and have clients, this is a neccessity on your part as a webmaster as you have to do the registration(domain name) and web hosting for them in most cases.

Regards,
NSS

Thanks for all the advice guys! The people who need help with this are real newbies (I mean, they had to be shown how to sign up and upload to geocities! gag.) I just don't want to have to explain it to them individually every time. I mean, these people will have no idea what type of hosting they want (Unix vs. Windows) or what kind of add-ons they might need etc. They won't know what FTP is (because they are taught that Dreamweaver is the way to go. No, you don't need to know HTML! )

Can anyone explain to me the difference betweeen Windows and Unix hosting? I'm not sure on that myself - I know that you need Windows if you want to use ASP but that's about it (and Unix if you want PHP usually). How do you go about deciding which one you want to use?

Hi Megan,

Actually it's the os(operating system) that professional web hosting companies install to their computers.For example Unix system is more or less like the DOS code and windows systems, it's usually NT server software.

For personal use it's normally Personal Web Server(PWS), IIS, etc. and sometimes Unix server software that is normally used for win95/98 system and connected to their Intranet network or networking(a few computers) and having access to the Internet and one computer is usually used as the web server where the server software is installed.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
NSS

[Edited by NSS on Jan. 29, 2001 at 12:49 PM]

I just want to know why someone would chose Unix over Windows or vice versa (besides the ASP/PHP thing I mentioned). What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?

There's a thread at

http://www.webmaster-forums.com/showthread.php?threadid=13302

Maybe it will help.

Regards,
NSS