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Web-hosting for beginners

Do you feel confused and helpless? Do you want to have your own site but you are afraid of these technical terms? In the next pages we will try to explain, as simple as possible, what exactly you need to know for a proper site. Obviously from the moment you will have your site, you will need to gain knowledge and skills, but this can be done step by step and without pressure. WebSys will be always on your side to advise you and support you. We are almost sure that you have a very basic knowledge and experience regarding browsers. If you don’t know what a browser is, you might know some of the most common browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla etc. This experience, even if it is small, is a good start, since most of the jobs that have to be done by you, whether for  using your web server (the machine hosting your webpages) or for updating your pages, require the use of the server. It is also quite possible that you already have experience in using the email, either with Outlook Express or with some other email client (client = application in your pc connected to the server, regarding our mails) Ok then…Lets get started….What do we need, first of all, in order to have a working site? We need an internet name, i.e. a domain name. So let’s go to the next page and see how we can secure one and how much it will cost. All of us have a name. Without it, although we would still exist, no one would be able to refer to us. The same is valid for a site. A site without a name does exist but no one can find it….not easy at least. No one can refer to it nor can it be promoted. The internet name, from now on domain name, consists of two parts: the top-level domain and the subdomain. In the domain name WEBSYS.GR, the top-level domain is the part on the right of the dot. This part can be the same for many different domain names. All the domain names registered on Greece have as a top-level domain the “.gr” ending. “WEBSYS.GR” on the other hand is a subdomain of “.com” Every country has its own register, where the domain names are registered. Responsible for the registration in Greece is the National Committee for Telecommunications and Post (EETT). The committee is responsible for the administration of the register, however for the registration of domain names responsible are the registrators. WebSys is an official registrator of domain names for the domain “gr”. WebSys is also an intermediate for domain names abroad such as “.com”,“.biz” etc. Hence, if you want us to register a domain name on your behalf, go to the site domain names, fill in the respective form to confirm that the domain name you want is still available, and if so order it! The domain name is not bought for ever but is rented for a certain period of time. The next step, after securing the domain name you wish, is a webhosting subscription connecting the domain name, you just registered, with a web server that will be hosting your webpages and your mail. In the next page we will see the parameters that have to be taken into consideration in order to be hosted in the most suitable web server. In order to decide which server is the most appropriate for you, you have to decide first what you expect from it. So ask yourself: “Why do I want a website?”, “How do I imagine it?”, “What will it offer to me?”. If you have answered to all these questions, then it is time to proceed. Let’s start with the easiest part. Are you a professional, a private user or does your research involve a company? Is your website going to be a private one (e.g. a blog), a professional one (e.g. are you a designer , a photographer, an artist or a professional in general) or is it company related. The answer to this question solves a very basic problem: that of the email. How many mail-accounts do you need? If you are a professional or a private user and you don’t need more than 5 email accounts, then the Starter pack is just fine for you. If you need more than 20 then you should probably go for the Standard Pack. We say probably because as we will see further down, there are some more parameters playing a role in this decision. Anyway, if you want more than 20 accounts then you should choose the Advanced Pack. As we said there are few more components that should be taken into consideration before taking a decision. The 2 most important are: How much space do we need? & Are interested in internet applications? To this one we will come back soon. As for the space take into account that only in very few cases a site can exceed the services even of the Starter pack. Of course if we overload it with movies, sounds, pdf’s etc. then we might need something bigger. In that case we might proceed to an upgrade or reexamine the need for such a big data. The Starter pack is out of question in case you need a dynamic page or other applications requiring a data bank. We will examine this case in the next page. A blog, a forum, an e-shop and even the site you are watching right now require one thing: a data base. We don’t want to go deeper about how a site, supported by a databank, works, after all this is supposed to be a guide for internet dummies right? The only thing you need to know is that if you want a site that can be changed and updated, without hiring a graphic designer, then you need a server able to support dynamic sites, i.e. having at least one databank. The maintenance of such a site does not require HTML knowledge (HTML: the language, in which webpages are written). Although we do not claim, this is the simplest thing in the world, we do believe that the free training offered with every dynamic site we create, will enable you to administrate your site within a week. Knowing how to use a text-processing application such as MS-Word is more or less what you need to know. So far we analyzed the domain name, the hosting packs and their characteristics, as well as the dynamic pages. Now let us examine some scenarios and the respective costs, i.e. how much the site will cost.