Web Process: Part I
August 6, 2004
All 7 of you who regularly come by here will forgive me for not posting over the last week or so, I had a bit of a writer's block. Also, we are gearing up for a big move, bradleyboy.com and I. After some time at hosting provider Omnis, I am shifting bradleyboy.com et al (that means northoftheborder too..) to my Dreamhost Account to save me money and headaches, mostly the latter.
As I was doing this, and going through writer's block as well, I realized I get many questions to the effect of "What do you do anyway?". The ways of web development usually are reserved for the uber-geek, and it is usually in the interest of the geek for it to remain that way. After all there is nothing better than job security, right? Well here we go, part one of a series on the making of a web site from the very beginning in laymen's terms.
A website really begins with a host. A host can be defined as, "A business that provides server space, web services and file maintenance for individuals or companies that do not have their own servers". Basically, this is a rented space on a hard drive of a server, where you store the necessary files needed to make your website go. They provide you with information to connect to that server, and place your files there remotely.
So the files are there, how can someone come to see my site? Well at this point, they can type in a numerical identifier called an IP address. It could be something like 216.222.45.234 (that is purely hypothetical, I have no idea where that goes..). This is all well and good, but how are people going to remember that? That's worse than a phone number. Enter the domain...
A domain name provides the means to connect a name like bradleyboy.com to the numerical IP address of the host. You can buy a domain for a yearly fee from many places, although it is easiest to purchase it at the same time and with the same company as your host. Using Domain Name Servers (DNS) the name is registered so that when someone types in www.bradleyboy.com into the address bar in their web browser, they are taken to the appropriate IP address, and the web site is served.
So that is the quick and easy brief on how a website is setup and basically made to function. Where is a good place to get started? Dreamhost provides great hosting at cheap rates and they even register your fancy new domain for free.
Next time: The fun begins, as we go from the drawing board to a completed web composition. Here's the link to Part II
Filed under Design, Technology
Comments
Brad Daily says:
Oops, link was broken...maybe that should be a future article...proper linking.
Larry Franks says:
This Dad guy that is always on here seems to be a big pain the butt? Is that the case. Looking forward to seeing him this weekend. Hope all is well.
Larry
Brad Daily says:
Always Larry, you know that without asking...
Karen Anderson says:
Thanks Brad...This elementary lesson helped me a lot. I am right in the thick of the photoshop design stages of www.jaxgrace.org so if you go there now, keep in mind---I DID NOT, I repeat NOT design the current site. Keep watching though, and you should see an improvement!
Comments are closed for this entry
Dad says:
When I clicked on Dreamhost it went to a HTTP 404 not found page?? Hmmmmmm!
Interesting stuff and I look forward to follow up and continuing articles.
You may actually edgimacate me yet!
Love ya,
Dad