ptg1647605238 LESSON 2: Getting Your Tools in Order
plans, but there are plenty of other options, too. Many people subscribe to hosting plans
from the company that they use to register the domain name for their website or go with
hosting companies that are in their local area.
If you choose to go this route, the steps for going from setting up a hosting account to
making your pages available on the Web are as follows:- Optionally, register a domain name. If you want your website to appear at a URL
like mycoolsite.com or mycompany.com, you’ll need to register that domain name
if you haven’t already. There are a number of domain registrars; just enter “domain
registration” in your favorite search engine to see a large number of ads and search
results for companies that offer domain registration. - Pick out a web hosting company and sign up for an account. If you’re going to be
putting your pages on an internal or external server belonging to your employer or
your school, you won’t need your own hosting. But if you’re creating a new web-
site that will be available on the Internet, you’ll need some sort of hosting arrange-
ment. - Associate your domain name with your new website, if you have registered one.
Your domain registrar and hosting company should provide instructions for set-
ting it up so that your domain name points to your hosting account. That way when
users enter your domain name in a URL, they’ll get the content that you upload to
your server. - Start uploading your content. Once your web hosting is set up, you can use what-
ever tool you prefer to start uploading web content to the server. Many hosts pro-
vide a web interface that will allow you to upload content, but most hosts will also
let you use a file transfer tool that supports File Transfer Protocol (FTP ), Secure
Copy (SCP) , or Secure FTP (SFTP) to get your files to the server.
There will be a much more extensive discussion of web hosting and how to publish your
site in Lesson 23, “How to Publish Your Site,” but I wanted to give you a head start if
you’re eager to start publishing on the Web.Summary
In this lesson, I explained how to get set up to productively work on web pages. You
learned about how to use the Developer Tools built in to Google Chrome to assist in
working on web pages and how to find a text editor that you can use to create web pages.
You also learned about setting goals for your website and about finding hosting for your
site. I also explained how wireframes are used to create a map of your website before you
start creating it in HTML.