Webmastering 101

I saw a post about becoming a webmaster, and I figured I explain the easiest way to publish your website with the most flexibility.

Hosting:
Hosting is when you upload your files to a server to host your website's content. When a web browser opens a URL, it uses a protocol to request the files from the server. Hosting typically can be purchased from many different variety of hosts. For most basic websites that have minimal traffic, I recommend basic shared hosting from companies such as HostGator.com such like.

TIP: NEVER BUY YOUR HOSTING FROM WHERE YOU BUY YOUR DOMAIN.
If you ever have problems with your hosting, they will hold your domain name responsible and usually the hosting is usually low quality. It's better to purchase your hosting from a company that specializes in it.

When you sign up for hosting, you will be given DOMAIN NAME SERVERS (DNS). These will be used for when you configure your domain. They are used to provide the IP Address to the requesting client for your domain name.

Domain:
A domain name is an easy to remember identifier for your website's IP address. A domain name typically costs about $10 a year. You can purchase a domain name from a variety of companies but I personally recommend NameCheap.com (don't let the name fool you) for their flexibility and options. You could also purchase it from GoDaddy.com or another registrar.

Once you have purchased your domain name, use the registrar control panel to set the DNS to your host.

TIP: Make your domain name easy to remember, short, and natural-sounding. Avoid dashes, underscores, and numbers unless it's a short word.

FTP:
To upload your files, you will need to use a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client to connect to the web server. After you have uploaded your files, configured the domain name, and purchased hosting, you will be able to access those files from a web browser.

Recommended choices:
Domain name: http://namecheap.com/
Hosting: http://hostgator.com/
FTP Client: http://filezilla-project.org/

-Cole Turner