procedures for building your own website

[ArkiStan]

I'm interested in building my own website. I'm new to this whole thing so I could use some advice. I know how to design a website with software, but what I need to know is how to actually get it up and running. All I know is that first I need to register a domain name. Next...what is hosting all about? Is that where all my files (index.html...etc.) and stuff will be stored? I think I heard I can use my own computer instead of using hosting. Then what? Is there money I have to pay for other than the domain name? etc..etc..etc.... help....thanks....I know a lot of you here have your own websites so I'm sure you guys can help me out.

[Edited by ucbstan on 09-11-2000 at 12:27 AM]

[revil]

Originally posted by ucbstan
I'm interested in building my own website.
Good!

I know how to design a website with software,
That software better be notepad :P

Ok, I'm only going to tell you this once. First thing that you need to get is not a domain name. The very first thing you get is BEER! if you don't have a beer in your hand while you make your website, it'll turn out like crap.

[ArkiStan]

ok beer is ready. What next?

[MaggieOK]

1) Find a host. You don't want to host it yourself. Trust me.

2) Have your host help you get your domain name so the DNS will be in place and you won't have to switch afterwards. Trust me. Process takes a couple of days.

3) Use the login information the host provides to upload your website to their servers.

4) Instant website.

[coleslaw]

If you are not going to be running a huge e-commerce site or a site that gets a lot of hits and will only be making a personal web page, I don't see why you couldn't host the site yourself. If you have a permanent internet connection with a proxy server, I would suggest you give it a shot. Of course, I would recommend that you run a Linux box as the server and run Apache to serve your site, but that's just me. Or FreeBSD. However, if you are not the ambitious type, you can find web hosts fairly cheap (or even free if you don't mind pop-up banners or ad-bars). Best of luck to you!

[ArkiStan]

Will my internet connection become slower if I host it myself and a lot of people are visiting my site?

[coleslaw]

uploading occurs on a differnet section of the bandwidth than downloading (sometimes this is not true for cable connections, you'll have to do some research in your area). theoretically, when users are downloading (or when your server is uploading), you should not notice a difference in your connection speed for downloading. however, if you are using the server as a workstation also, it will feel like your connection is slower simply because the processor is working to serve pages and cannot load pages you request as fast as they are coming in. as far as i know and have experienced, this is correct. if anyone can say otherwise, i would appreciate it because i hate being wrong for too long! :D