Web Publishing and Hosting SS2 Digital Technologies Lesson Note

The Two Ingredients You Need

To put a website online, you need two things: a Domain Name and Web Hosting.

• The Domain Name (The Address): This is the name people type into their browser to find you (e.g., www.yourschool.com).
• Web Hosting (The House): This is a computer (called a Server) that stays on 24/7. It “hosts” your files so that when someone types your address, the server sends them your HTML and CSS.

Simple Analogy: If your website is a house, the Domain is your street address, and Hosting is the physical plot of land the house sits on.

Understanding Domain Extensions

The ending of a domain name (the part after the “dot”) usually tells us what kind of website it is.

How Web Hosting Works

A web host is a company that has giant, powerful computers connected to very fast internet. When you pay for hosting, you are renting a small piece of their computer’s hard drive.

Types of Hosting:

1. Shared Hosting: Like living in an apartment building. You share the server with other websites. It’s cheap and perfect for beginners.
2. Dedicated Hosting: Like owning a whole mansion. The entire server is yours. It’s expensive and used by giant sites like Facebook or Amazon.

The Publishing Process (Step-by-Step)

Once you have your files ready and your hosting paid for, how do you move the files from your laptop to the internet?

Step 1: Get an FTP Account FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is the “delivery truck” that moves your files. Your hosting company will give you a username and password for this.

Step 2: Use an FTP Client An FTP Client is a software (like FileZilla) that lets you drag files from your computer and drop them into the web server.

Step 3: The “Public_HTML” Folder On the server, there is usually a folder named public_html or www. You must put your index.html inside this folder, or the website won’t show up!

Testing and Maintenance

After publishing, your job isn’t finished. You need to:

• Check the Links: Do all the buttons still work?
• Mobile Check: Does it look good on a phone, or is the text too small?
• Updates: Websites need to be updated. If you change your phone number, you must edit your local file and “re-publish” it to the server.

Summary Table

Review Questions

1. Why can’t we just leave our website on our own computer for people to see?
2. If you were starting a charity for homeless dogs, which domain extension would be best?
3. What is the name of the main folder on a server where website files are kept?