 |
Web site up to 3 pages
1 year of hosting
Free domain name
Matching email addresses
No set up fees |
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Web site up to 5
pages
1 year of hosting
Free domain name
Matching email addresses
No set up fees |
|
Web site up to 8
pages
1 year of hosting
Free domain name
Matching email addresses
No set up fees |
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| What
is a Domain Name? |
A Domain Name is a way to identify and locate computers and Websites connected to
the Internet. No two organizations can have the same Domain Name.
Every company or organization that wants to be on the internet will register a
Domain Name for use as their on-line identity or name that clients (customers, all
internet users) will use to access on-line services such as the organization's
website or email system. Much like a company's name, logo, or 800 number, a
Domain Name has marketing
value when customers can easily remember and associate it with the organization.
Within each top-level domain, there is obviously a finite
number of possible domain names. The organization that administers domain
names in the US is a company called Network Solutions. To use a certain
domain name, you must register with them, and pay an annual fee, Rochester Web Design will register
your Domain Name for you and pay all register fees and renewal fees when you sign up for
one of our Web packages and remain our customer. Domain names
are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Since the Web gold rush has
been going on for a while now, all the really good names have long ago
been spoken for. In fact, almost all the possible combinations of 2, 3, 4 or
5 letters have been reserved already. We still can usually find something with
your business name in mind.
Even if you have only a rudimentary Web site or none at
all, it's worth registering a domain, so that you can use it in your
email address. Yourname@yourcompany.com makes you look like a legitimate
concern, like having your own letterhead. Whatever you do, don't use one of
the "free" email services or an online service like AOL as your
business email address. A business that uses an email address ending in
hotmail.com or aol.com will be dismissed as at best clueless about the Web,
and at worst a fly-by-night outfit.
Does this mean you have to ditch your existing email
account, and set up a new one with your Web hosting service? Not at all. An
email address that uses your own domain name can be set up to forward mail to
any address you please. This is called an email alias, and is a valuable
tool. We can set up many email aliases, and
point each at the address of your choice. This can be useful for several reasons. If you change email
providers, you can keep the same email address - just change the alias. An
email address can also be associated with a role instead of an individual -
for example, webmaster@yourcompany.com can be set up to forward mail to your
address. If you later hire someone else as Webmaster, you can change the
alias to go to their address. An alias can even send mail to several people
at once - for example, staff@yourcompany.com could be set to forward mail to
everyone in the company (be careful with this kind of thing).
As a client of Rochester Web Design, it's not required
for you to
know any of this, sign up for one of our customized
Web packages and we will register and set up your Domain Name account for free. |
| Can
I set up my own website? |
The process can be broken into 3 stages.
1.
Choose a Domain Name -
Use an online free search tool and find a name that
will best describe your website. This name (Domain Name) is
how people will find you when they go onto the world wide web. Once you have
found the right name for your website and you are sure it's available to
purchase, depending on where you register your Domain Name and
the length of time you register it for, you can expect to pay
anywhere between $15-$40 per year.
2.
Find a company to host your website -
It's one thing to register your Domain Name, but it is equally important to attach that name to a web server
with your favorite web hosting company so you have a place to put up your website.
Many hosting companies can charge hundreds per year, so research carefully!
3.
Build your website - There are 3 ways you could build your website.
A.
Buy a program like Microsoft FrontPage,
Adobe Golive
or Macromedia
Dreamweaver, learn how to use the program and build your own website.
These types of software are very expensive and can take weeks or months to learn how to
manipulate them properly.
B. Get a
Web hosting plan that includes an online authoring tool. These kinds of tools can be very
limited, usually by
the amount of pages and designs they can create. And the "free"
hosting comes complete with annoying pop-up ad banners and super slow
loading time.
C. Rochester Web Design will complete all 3 stages for you when you sign up for one of our
custom Web packages.
You do absolutely nothing!
|
| What
is a Web Page? |
Web pages are text files written in a language called HTML (stands for
Hypertext Markup Language). HTML tells your Browser
how to display these text files. Your browser "reads" the HTML
within the file, then
displays it on your screen. The "words" of this language are commands which are called
tags.
The HTML file is also called the "source code" of the page.
You can look at the source code for any page that you view on the web.
In fact, before there were tutorials, textbooks, workshops, etc., many
people actually learned HTML by studying the source codes behind pages that
were already on the web.
To view the source code for a web page, (you can practice with this page
you are looking at right now) click View on the tool bar of your browser and
select Source
(or Page Source in Netscape) from the drop down menu. In
Internet Explorer, a Notepad window opens to display the code. In
Netscape a new browser window will open.
Most web pages are made up of pieces: background images or colors, a
title, the actual text, including links to other pages, and images. Images
are separate files, which you must create and save in an accessible
directory before you can place them on your page. Netscape will
automatically save the images used in a web page in the same folder as the
html file.
|
| How
does a website work? |
A
Web site is nothing more or less than a bunch of files, HTML
files, image files, etc... sitting on the hard drive of a Web
server. A Web server is simply a computer that's permanently
connected to the Internet, and has an application running that
allows anyone else connected to the Internet to transfer files
from the Web server to their own machine. By the way, the term
"Web server" means both the machine itself and the
software running on it.
When you visit a Web site, what you are
doing is sending a message to a Web server, asking it to send
you (or serve) a certain set of files, usually text and
pictures. These files are displayed by your browser program,
but not permanently saved to your computer's hard drive
(unless you choose to save them). It would also be correct to
say that you are downloading files from the Web server, but
that word is usually used to refer to files that you're saving
on your hard drive for future use, like a program update or a
picture.
A Web server is basically just a big &
beefy computer, with a super-fast permanent connection to the
Internet. It also needs to be protected against system
crashes, power outages, hackers, etc.... The more visitors
your Web site gets, the more powerful Web server you'll need
to handle the load. The big sites live on "server
farms," huge clusters of computers with all kinds of
gadgetry hooked up to them, and a bunch of geeks to keep them
fed and watered 24 hours a day.
Of course, a lot of consumer-oriented Web
outfits, like AOL, Geocities and others, allow you to put up
Web sites on their servers at low cost, or even free. However,
the services they offer are very basic, designed for people
with personal Web pages. They accept your material only
subject to their procedures and rules, and the amount of space
and bandwidth they offer is limited. And since it is their
space, they usually put their advertisements all over
them. So if you want a Web site for your small business, you
need to go with a proper Web design/hosting service. |
|
Billing/Refund
Policy 
Email & Web Forwarding