Publish your website

Ever wondered what a domain name could be?
Actually, it's an address on the web: newbiesparadise.com is an example of domain name.

A domain name is made of two parts:

• The red part shows the domain name itself. It's usually a name you can choose freely, but it must not be already booked by somebody else. It can be made of letters, numbers, but should not include any special character (such as ç, é, è, spaces, etc.).
• The blue part highlights the extension (also referred to as TLD). There is roughly one extension per country (.fr for France, .be Belgium, .ca for Canada...). However, there also are some international extentions such as .com, .net, .org. Those were originally reserved for commercial and organizational websites, but it's now been a while everyone can use them. Not to mention, the .com extension is probably the most commonly used extension through the internet.

How to book a domain?

OK, sure! But I have good, and bad news for you.
As usual, let's start with the bad one:

• The bad news: it's not free...
• The good news: ...it's not that expensive!

The average cost for a domain name is 12 $ a year. Being able to enjoy your own "name" on the web for roughly 1 $ a month is not outrageously expensive.
Prices can vary depending on the extension. The .info extension is usually cheaper, and might be an interesting choice, but if you need a more "usual" extension, you'll have to target the .com one.

To book a domain name, there are two ways:

• Either you'll have to visit a registrar's website. Basically, a registrar is a company between you, and the ICANN (the organization that has assumed the responsibility to manage the domain names system such as .com). 1&1 is a famous registar.
• Or even better: you can order a domain name at the same time as the hosting (that's what I advise you to do). So you kill two birds with one stone, assuming you will need a hosting and a domain name anyway.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to order a domain name at the same time as the hosting. It's the most simple and cheapest solution.

Now let's take a look at the host.



On the internet, all the websites are kept on special computers called "Servers". These computers are usually very powerfull and always switched on. They store the pages of a website and send them to the users who ask for them, at any time of the day or night.

This is what the server of Newbies Paradise looks like:




A server does not have a screen since most of the time it works in the dark on its own without the need for external assistance. As you can see, servers are very flat: it's a format specially created for servers ("1U"). This allows them to be piled on top of each other into bays (a kind of air-conditioned cabinet for servers ).

This is what a bay looks like:



As you can see, there is one screen on top for the whole bay. It's enough because we only plug it into a server if the former encounters a problem. Most of the time, luckily, the server will work smoothly

The host's role

The host is a company which is in charge of the well-functioning of their server bays, 24/7.Indeed, if one of them breaks down, all the websites it contains become unreachable (and clients become angry ).

These bays are situated in particular locations called <strong>datacenters</strong>.Thus, datacenters are "server storers" in a way. Their access is highly protected.





Thus, taking care of a personal server is hard. That's why most of the time, personal users and companies call on professional hosts.

Finding a host

Hosts, as opposed to registrars, are numerous. They are of many different types, and of different prices. There is some vocabulary you should know to understand what they offer:

• Mutualized hosting: if you choose this type of hosting, your website will be hosted on a server which already contains other sites (maybe a hundred, maybe even more). <span class="souligne">It's the less expensive offer and I recommend it</span> if you are starting a website.
• Virtual dedicated hosting: this time, the server only contains very few websites (generally less than ten). This offer is usually adapted to webmasters who have too much trafic going on on their web site for a mutualized type of hosting (too many visitors), but who cannot afford a dedicated hosting (see below).
• Dedicated hosting (you might also say "dedicated server"): it's the most fancy solution. The server only has one web site to take care of: yours. Warning: it's pretty expensive and you'd better know how to use Linux pretty well to be able to administrate the server from distance.
  For example, Newbies Paradise is itself on a dedicated hosting system, because its trafic is very big.

Oh that's very simple
A "web host" Google search will give you millions of results. The choice will be the only tough part.


If you want my advice, I would recommend you check out what 1&1 proposes. It's a well-know host. Its advantage is that it is quite easy to use and really user-friendly, which is a good thing when you're starting.

1&1 offers mutualized, virtually dedicated and dedicated hosting. As I've already told you, if you are just starting, you should take a look at the mutualized offers ). Here are the links:


You are proposed several offers:


Without going into too much detail, each offer proposes different services. What differs most from one offer to another is the storage space you are given (from about 1GB to sometimes 20GB). Another important point: the host offers PHP on its server, which will allow you to use PHP later on if you wish to learn that language and then use it on your site.

Ordering an hosting for your website

In the proposed offers, I'll let you choose the one you need.
Click on Sign Up. In the next page, you have to confirm the package you have choosen. Then 1&1 proposes several softwares (for UK users there is another page before which ask you if you want to get 25% off the price but you'll then need to sign for a minimum 24 months contract, so be careful) but that has nothing to do with we want to do, just click on Continue.

On the next page, very important, you are asked the domain name you want for your website. Choosing it, you'll choose the address of your website :



British users can see that the "www." is already written. Choose the domain name you want and check the box which refers to the extension you want (here the .com has been chosen). US users have to type it manually.
In this case I've chosen www.iamanewbie.com domain.

You have to click on Check Domain to check if the domain is still available. If someone has already registered it, you'll have to choose another one.



Phew, the domain is still available!
We're going on.



The total cost is displayed (US users have to choose if they want the 25% off mentionned above).

Click on Continue. You just have to fill in the last necessaries informations (first name, last name, etc) and it's done. Your hosting is ordered.

Once this step is done, you should receive an e-mail which contains all the informations necessary to set up your website. Save them carefully, you'll need them.

As soon as you get your login and password to connect to your host server, you can start the next step: send your website to your host server !

Installing an FTP client

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. To make it short, it is the way we send in our files on a webserver.
Many softwares use FTP to send files over the internet.

As a matter of fact, you will find hundreds of FTP Clients, some are free, some are not, some are English only, and some have multi-lingual support...
To make sure we understand each other, I will suggest the one I use myself, a freeware: FileZilla.

However, I will explain step by step how it works with FileZilla.
First Step: ... download it of course


I trust you for the installation process, it is just simple like that, and you should have no problem with it
Run the Software, here is what you should see:


At first glance, it seems tricky (at first glance only). It actually is fairly simple.
In this window, there are 4 areas to identify:

1. The top area of the window is dedicated to messages the FTP Client sends and receives. If you are lucky enough, you may even see some welcome messages (yes, it happens! ). Usually, this area is not of some great help, unless we have error messages we have to go through, and they can be spotted easily since they are displayed in red.
2. On the left side is your Hard-Drive. In the top part are displayed your folders, below is a list of the files from the currently selected folder.
3. On the right side is the directory list of the remote computer. For now, it is empty since we are not connected to anything, but things will happen, do not worry.
4. Last, but not least: in the bottom area, some information such as the percentage of the transfer completion will be displayed. These are related to files being processed either in transmission or reception.

The next step will be to connect to the remote computer: your host.

FTP client configuration

Whatever the hosting service you have chosen, it always works the same. You will be provided with 3 settings FileZilla needs to connect to the remote computer (the host):

• The IP address: this is the actual "address" of the server. Most of the time, you will be given something like ftp.my-website.com, but it could also be a list of numbers like 122.65.203.27
• The login: This is your ID. You have probably been asked to define it when you filled the web hosting form, or it can be given by the provider. It can be a nickname, your domain name, or some scribbled ID if you have a twisted isp ;). My login could be mateo21.
• The password: here again, either you have been asked to provide one, or (most commonly) you have been assigned one (something wicked like crf45u7h)

If you own these 3 pieces of information, you are the king of the world (well... at least, you are going to be able to keep going with the tutorial ).
If you do not have them, you must find out, they are mandatory. They probably have been mailed or emailed to you. If you have bad luck finding them, do not hesitate to bug your hosting company (IP / Login / Password).

Now we have all the needed information, we are going to give them to FileZilla so it can connect to the remote site.

Click on the small icon located in the top left corner of the FileZilla window (not the small black arrow, the icon itself):

A new window pops up. Click the "New Site" button, and set the name (for instance Newbies Paradise). In the right section of this new window, you will have to set the 3 things we just talked about, just like this:


In the "Site details" section, the host is where you give the address: ftp.newbiesparadise.com).
To be able to enter the login / password, you have to check the "Normal" option in the "Logon type" section.
In our example, the login name is mateo21 and the password is... hidden! (Come on, you did not really think I would give it up to you, did you!? :p)

Next, click the "Connect" button, and there you (almost) go!

Sending files

At this point, 2 different things can happen:

• Either the connection was successful, and you see some green messages in the top area of the FileZilla window. In this case, the right area should be active, and you should see a list of files located on the host computer (it can be that some files are already there).
• Or, something crashed, and you have a bunch of red messages... Then, there are not many options: you either made a mistake setting the host address, the login, or the password. One of these has to be wrong. Double-check them by yourself, and if you have no luck, go back to your provider to check them all. It has to work.

If you successfully managed to connect to the remote host, then what comes next is fairly simple: from the left area, browse your hard drive until you find where you saved your .html and .css files (but also your .jpg, .png, .gif etc. pics).
Double-click the file you want to send. A moment later, it will be displayed in the right part, meaning it has been successfully sent to the host, hence it can be accessed through the internet!!!
Here is an example of what it shows when an "index.html" file has been sent:


It shows on the right side, meaning it is now available on the web server.
You can also send entire folders at once: just drag and drop them from the left side of the window, to the right one.

Now, come on ... it was not that hard, was it?