You are hereBuilding Your Own Website - Part 3

Building Your Own Website - Part 3

Typically website contents are prepared locally on your computer. Therefore there's a need to trasfer those files onto the server at your web hosting site.

For this, there's a popular method using a program called FTP (file transfer protocol). Don't worry about it's name, all it does is to transfer whatever file you instructed it to move from your PC to the hosting server.

In some case you might also want to download files from the hosting server as during site backups.

Your files need to reside there so that your visitors can access them whenever they come to your site www.example.com.

Here is a list of commonly used ftp programs:

Filezilla - description and download from sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla
SmartFtp - download from www.smartftp.com
DeluxeFtp - download it here,
plus many others - just go to www.Download.com and search for "ftp"

Using FTP Programs

After installation on your PC, almost all FTP programs will require you to setup login account. You need to enter login id and password that you used when registering for your hosting account.

When connected, you're presented with a file listing on your PC (called "local") and hosting server which is called as "remote".

Navigate to the right folder or directory both local and remote. Most FTPs will allow you to do drag-and-drop files just like that. If not, use whatever menus or buttons they have. You may also select a group of files to be transfered all at once.

Time taken to upload or download the files mainly depend on your connection speed and size of the files.

Once upload completed, the files can immediately be accessed from your website.

Domain Server Setup

Another simple thing to know is domain server setup so that whenever someone type a URL (for e.g. www.domain.com) into their browser, they will be presented with the intended page.

This is achieved with help from domain name server (DNS). Unless your domain and hosting were purchased from the same provider, you'll need to do a simple setup on your domain registration account.

It's like telling your site visitors where to look for your website out of million other sites.

Typically it may look like this:

"nsx.hostname.com", where "x" can be a digit. This should have been given by your hosting provider when you registered. Most will give you two of such.

So enter those parameters under a section with a similar name within your domain management screen.

Next: Build Your Own Website - Part 4