Lesson 8(cont'd)

Free Sites?

If your ISP doesn’t offer Web server space or FTP capabilities, or if you aren’t impressed with what they offer, you may want to consider one of the many free Web sites out there that offer these services free of charge.

There is one thing I need to warn you about. With most of the sites out there that offer free Web space, you will have to show their banner ads on the top of your pages (you won’t have to do anything; they’ll automatically add these banner ads to your pages). These sites make their money by selling banner ads. Every time someone pops into your page, a banner ad will pop up. Even though this is a little bit of a nuisance to see these ads on your pages, I still think it’s a great deal. After all, you will be able to post your Web pages on the Internet for free.

Here is a list of nine free sites that I have checked out myself. These sites offer free Web space and FTP capabilities.

Check these out and see what you think. If you aren’t satisfied with these choices, go to a search engine like www.google.com and start a Web search for "free web hosting". You will have lots of options to look at.

Part of your assignment this week is to investigate three different ways to obtain free Web space and FTP capabilities. You can check out your ISP, some of the Web sites listed above, or other Web sites that you know of.

What should I look for when obtaining Web server space and FTP?

Great question. Here is a list of important things to look for when checking out options to post your Web sites:

Ease of use: This is probably the first time you have ever posted something on the Internet, so choose a service that is easy to use. I want your first experience posting pages to be a great one, so narrow your choices down to the ones that seem to be the easiest to use.

Web space: Free services will limit you to how much information you can post on their server. For the purposes of this class, 10 MB (megabytes) of space should be plenty, but the more they give you, the more freedom you have to post lots of pages. Some of the services listed above offer 50 MB, 100 MB, and even more space. This is definitely nice to have for things you might do later on.

Support: What happens if you get stuck? Do they have a help feature you can use to get some questions answered, or do they have real people that you can call or e-mail? Again, this is probably your first experience posting Web pages, so go with a service that offers you the support that you may need.

FTP: Find out if the service offers their own easy-to-use FTP program. If they do, that is definitely an advantage. You’ll get everything that you need (Web server space and FTP) in one place. Find out if the FTP program is reliable and easy-to-use.

Ads: As I mentioned before, the price you will probably be paying for your “free” Web server space is that you must display the company’s ads on your Web pages. If you go with your ISP, you will probably not have to do this. That is definitely an advantage. If you choose a free online service, and you do need to display ads, you may want to find out what the ads look like, how big they are, and how intrusive they are.

You may find other criteria to look for, but I think that looking for these 5 things will definitely guide you toward a smart choice.

A Word about Domain Names

A domain name is a unique name for a web site, like microsoft.com and natomascharter.com. You type in a domain name practically every time that you enter a URL on your Web browser.

How do you get a domain name? For example, if your name is Mary Smith, how could you get a domain name like www.marysmith.com? Well, domain names must be registered. When domain names are registered they are added to a large domain name register, and information about your site is stored on a DNS server. DNS stands for Domain Name System. A DNS server is responsible for informing all other computers on the Internet about your domain name and your site address.

Domains can be registered from domain name registration companies such as www.dotdnr.com or www.register.com. If you want to register your very own domain name, you will have to pay a small amount of money to do that ($20 to $40 per year).

Don’t worry. You won’t need to register a domain name for this course. Whether you go with your ISP or a free online service to get your free Web server space, they will assign you a URL to access your Web site. For example, if your name is Mary Smith, and you obtained space on geocities.com, your URL for your site might be members.geocities.com/msmith.

Some Final Advice

You will not have to design any new Web pages this week. Your assignment this week is to investigate different services for posting your Web pages, choose one for yourself, and then post your Mid-Semester Project (the page that you completed last week) on the Internet. That’s it! Figuring out how to post Web pages to the server might be very easy for you, or it may prove to be a great challenge. Start this assignment as soon as you can. Don’t wait until the last minute, so if you run into problems, you’ll have time to get some help. Have fun this week. After this week’s assignment is complete, everyone in the world will be able to view one of your Web pages!

You have now completed the Week 8 Lesson. Please re-read this information until you feel that you really understand it. If you feel like you already understand the information on this page, you are ready to complete your Week 8 Assignments.

Lessons

Assignments