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Web Hosting

ITP 104. Web Hosting. Validating Your Website. Validate sites like W3C at let you give a URL of a page and it will return errors and warnings based on your HTML .

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Web Hosting

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  1. ITP 104 Web Hosting

  2. Validating Your Website • Validate sites like W3Cat let you give a URL of a page and it will return errors and warnings based on your HTML. • Dreamweaver can do the W3C validation for you and take you right to "problem" lines in your page by doing File > Validate > Validate Current Document (W3C)

  3. Categories • LOTS of choices. Four general categories: • Free: • Almost never use for real/business sites. OK for hobby or fan sites I guess. Examples: Yahoo Geocities, Tripod, etc. • ISP: • When you get an Internet connection, from AOL to Earthlink to MCI et al, usually comes with 5-10MB of free file space in which you can build Web sites • Inexpensive: • $5-$10/month hosts. Typically more Web services, such as CGI/script space. Also tend to come with more pre-installed scripts/programs you can use. • Dedicated Web hosts: • START at $15-$30/month. Tend to have the best up-time and technical support (for their servers, not your site). • Example: http://hosting.verio.com/index.php/web_webcompare.html

  4. Dedicated Hosting • Shared/co-hosted server: • The typical route in which your site is hosted along with many others on a server. That is all transparent to user though. • For instance, 50 or 100 different domains might all be on one physical machine, but to the user they are just going to www.mysite.com or www.thepage.com regardless of whether they are on the same server. • Generally because of security policies your ability to install original programs et al is limited. You also do not have access to server settings, etc. • Dedicated server: • MOST expensive Web hosting option. • Example: http://hosting.verio.com/index.php/managed.html • Co-location: • Use your own Web machine but have it located at a Web host's facilities using their network infrastructure. • Less expensive than a 'dedicated server', basically you are paying for the same network and support costs as above without paying rent on the machine (http://home.verio.net/powerplatform/hosting/colocation/)

  5. Web Hosting Options • Scripts: • Most Web hosts have a suite of scripts for common tasks (such as e-mailing the contents of forms on pages), typically in Perl. • Most hosts will allow you to install your own on your site. • Streaming Media: • Many hosts throw in basic streaming media for free, although your account may not have space of the video files. • The better streaming modes such as true RealVideo serving tend to be bundled into the mid-range price plans. • One of the common reasons people upgrade from a basic Web host plan. • Traffic reports: • Most major Web hosts include at least basic reports generated by programs such as Webtrends. • Most plans above the basic level allow you access (to download or process yourself) to the raw log files that record your site's traffic. • Secure Server: • SSL connections are typically included in mid-range and e-commerce plans.

  6. Web Hosting Options • E-commerce: • Shopping carts, online CC transactions, etc., tend to cost extra or to be bundled in higher-cost plans e-commerce plans. • Forums: • Many hosts have forum software pre-installed so that you can easily add forums to your web site. • Some are free and some are add-on costs to hosting plan • ASP/CF: • Active Server Pages are usually standard on any Windows NT-based Web server, and support for 'Frontpage extensions" are common on many Unix mahcines. • Some NT hosts support Cold Fusion. Both run on Unix as well but are less commonly supported. • ASP is typically free; CF is usually part of a mid-range price plan. • Database: • The 'open source' solutions are often free (MySQL, etc.), while the commercial databases (from Access to SQL Server to Oracle) are usually extra charges, and sometimes substantially so.

  7. Host your Website in 3 Steps • Register a Domain Name • A domain name is a pointer/alias to an IP address, a unique number to identify a device/machine. • When you make a request for a specific domain name like (www.usc.edu), your computer accesses a Domain Name Server (DNS) to look up the IP address associated with that domain name. • Once the domain name is resolved, your computer makes a request to the server with that IP address to fetch the webpage you asked for • All domain names are registered in a central registry maintained by ICANN (Internet Coproration for Assigned Names and Numbers) • ICANN certifies domain name registrars like Go Daddy or Dreamhost • Extensions available • .com • .cm • .biz • .net • .us (country code exentions) • .edu • .gov • .info

  8. Host your Website in 3 Steps • Register a Domain Name (cont): • You can choose any name you want (given that it is available), but it should reflect what your website is about. Domain names can only contain letters, numbers, and hyphens and it is limited to 70 characters. • Domain names also can be upper or lower case, but case is ignored by Domain Name Servers (DNS) • Find a domain name using a site like Instant Domain Search instead of typing into the URL bar . • Once you’ve found a domain name, register your domain name with a domain registrar. • Prices vary considerably depending on the domain registrar you choose. • List of registrars • Domain names are usually registered for a minimum of one year, but usually you can register your domain name for longer than that. • Typically, the longer the contract, the cheaper the domain name

  9. Host your Website in 3 Steps • Find a web host • At this point, all you have is a domain name. • You don’t have a server to host your website, so you now need a server to host your files. • You will link up your hosting server with your domain name • Rather than doing Step 1 (registering a domain name) and Step 2 (finding web hosting) separately, you can register a domain name and sign up for hosting in one process. • If we wanted to use GoDaddy, we would create an account on their site and purchase a domain name and web hosting. • When you are browsing hosting plans, it will ask you to choose an operating system. • On GoDaddy for example, it will ask you to choose between Linux or Windows. • This does not mean the operating system of your local computer. • This refers to the operating system of the server. • The default is Linux, which is typically what you want. • If you get into ASP.NET development, you will probably want Windows. • You can usually find coupon codes when buying web hosting. • Google something like “coupon code GoDaddy” and you will find various discounts. • In the end, hosting a site for a year will typically range from $45-$65.

  10. Host your Website in 3 Steps • Upload your files using FTP • After you’ve purchased a domain name and web hosting, you will be sent an email with FTP information so that you can upload your website files using an FTP client like Fetch, Cyberduck, or FileZilla. • This process will be just like how you uploaded to the aludra.usc.edu server

  11. References • How Domain Names Workhttp://www.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm • Instant Domain Searchhttp://instantdomainsearch.com/

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