Tag Archives: web tutorials

Getting Started Chapter 5 – Testing and Troubleshoot

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We have set up a domain and integrated it with hosting account. Now the time has come that we check if everything has gone by our plans.

Step 1

Type in the domain name name you registered in the address bar of your browser. Press enter and wait for your page to load. It shouldn’t too long as the site has nothing to show, or in other words its empty.  You will probably see a page with the directory listing of your home folder, i.e., public_html or htdocs.

Troubleshoot

I see a page which says ‘You account has been created’ or something similar instead the directory listing.

This is nothing unusual. Hosts usually create an index page by default. You don’t need and will have to delete it later.

My site doesn’t load at all. My damn browser shows a server timeout.

There can be a lot reasons to this. Lets discuss the common ones.

  1. Make sure your domain properly configed. Just check whether the nameservers you entered are correct or not.
  2. It may take up to 24 or 48 or 72 hours, depending on your host, for you domain to propagate.  You domain might not have propagated. You might have to wait for few more hours.
  3. Your cache memory still has the old values for your domain. Clear the cache and you’ll have your site working.

Step-2

Now the time has come to create our first personalized homepage (for testing).

Log on to your hosting account’s panel and find for something like ‘File manager’ and go to root folder (public_html on Linux servers or htdocs on windows servers). In this file you need to create a new file by the name of ‘index.html’. If a file named ‘index.html’ or ‘index.php’ or any index file already exists, you have to delete it first before creating the new one.

Once created open the file so that we add some stuff to it. I’ll say just type in a warm welcome for yourself, something like “Welcome to your site.” !!

Go open your website in an another window and you’ll see your message. So that means you are done with with testing.

Now we are through with the testing which means we can soon go live to a wider audience.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Getting Started Chapter 2 – Time to get hosted(Part-2)

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What we were talking about was where to get hosting from and I hope you might be through with an account by now. In case, you are not, just leave a message (as a comment) and I will try to help.

You should have received the welcome mail with your hosting details. It should include the following:

1. Your account details

These include you user name and password.

2. Site details

Your site’s domain name (should be a sub domain provided by the host/domain you signed up with) and cpanel’s address.

3. Server details

These should include name servers and might include shared ip address.

You will need the server details later once you’ll get your domain name. But if the host asks for a domain name at signup, get a co.cc domain from http://co.cc.

Getting familiar with your working conditions

Once you have an account,you should get thorough with the control panel. Just wander around,click on random links, to get familiar with your control panel. You will generally find short instructions coming up for your help once you navigate to any page.

Site Initialization

Navigate to the file manager and find you main root folder its generally public_html or ht docs (depends on the service ). Now use, ‘create a new’ file option to create new html document with file ‘ index.html ‘ (don’t use any other name for this time ). For the content go for anything like ‘hello world ! Welcome to my new site’.

Now you are surely through with the hosting so now you need to learn how to set up stuff on it like blogs, forums, etc.

Next chapter will help you learn about setting up domains.

DRV

Popularity: 15% [?]

Getting Started Chapter 2 – Time to get hosted(Part-1)

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TIME TO GET HOSTED

Part-1

Hosting

Well,  other tutorials might suggest you to a create a site and then host it afterwards but I find the following sequence better. As a beginner, making a fast online presence is quite important.

I don’t agree with the idea of launching a site on a particular day or put count downs. I have tried this and believe me , it just wont work. No one’s interested in your site till you really got some viewable stuff on it.

You should get started from the first day itself. Behave a little shameless and invite people to your site ignoring how bad it looks. Constant diligent hard work, maintenance  and promotion is what’s needed for a brand new site.

And now back to topic.

What is meant by hosting??

A web server is expensive and needs a lot of maintenance which, in turn, means more money and time. So we need an alternative and that’s where web space/hosting comes into play.

Hosting is a popular keyword widely used among webmasters. It generally stands for a little space on a web server which allows your files to be viewed on internet using a web browser(eg. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.).

A browser connects to the web server and displays the files user has asked for. So the first thing is to arrange for web space.

Where to get hosting from??

Just like a web server, hosting might sound to be a costly affair. But the truth is that there are loads of hosts providing web space for free. Though, they lack in a few essentials services you might need later. But for now they would do.

My host suggestions/tips:

Go with http://byethost.org. I think they should be highly suited for our purpose.

Or else.. Google’s always there for you. Search for keywords like ‘free host’, ‘free hosting’, ‘free web space’, etc. and you’ll find thousands of them. Keeping searching till you find something which suits your requirements best.

….Continued in part 2.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Getting Started Chapter 1 – The Basics(Part-1)

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Originally posted on 26 Nov 2008

THE BASICS – Part 1

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Introduction

This chapter will make you familiar with a few terms which constitute the basic knowledge required for creating or getting started with websites.

Part 1 will include the discussion about the following terms:

1. Web Hosting

2. Domains

3. Web Pages

4. Scripting languages

Hosting

What is meant by web hosting?

Web hosting allows you to make your site available to anyone using internet. Your website can’t accessed without being hosted on a web server.

Kinds Of Hosting

1. Free Hosting – Hosting on a shared server(i.e. many sites on one server) with all the basic features. This is what you should prefer when starting.

2. Paid Hosting

1. Shared Hosting – Similar to free hosting but may have advanced features.

2. Dedicated Server – A server dedicated to your sites, you get a server on lease and you may use it to your own wish but under some conditions.

3. VPS (Virtual Private Server) – Its like a virtual dedicated server on a big server.

We’ll discuss about “how to use” in the following chapters.

Domain Names

Domain names are a specific identity or address to your website. How do they work? We’ll discuss this in the following chapters.

Web Pages

It is a document which is suitable for the internet can be accessed through a web browser when hosted on a web server. They are generally created using html and css.

Scripting Languages

These kind of languages are used to add functionality to web page. They help you create dynamic sites.

What are dynamic sites?

Using only html would create sites which will be static, ie. there will be no changes in your web page unless you do them manually. When dealing with dynamic sites, you can modify pages or part of pages using a scripting language in a single click. You see tags plugin in the sidebar of this site, it updates as soon as I post an article.

Hope you got what dynamic means.

Scripting languages offer high functionality

You should have seen some web sites which allow to register, login , logout, etc. and that is what I mean by functionality.

Continued in Part 2 . . . . . . .

Popularity: 21% [?]