Guide : Creating a website

[AaronWHUFC]

Now, making a fully functional site can seem like a daunting task. That's where I step in, to show you just how easy it is.

Now, this tutorial will be split into 3 steps. The first is sorting out the Domain, the second is Hosting and the third is creating the actual Website.

So, let's get cracking.

Domains:
Domains are essentialy the URL of your site. They come in different types. Some domains are .co.uk, some are .com and there are many others including .org, .net ect.

The best domain provider in my honest opinion is TSHost (http://www.tsohost.co.uk/). From the name you can probably tell they host as well as provide domains.

So, hop along here (http://www.tsohost.co.uk/domain-registration.php), and check the availability of the domain you want.

The next page you will see will tell you the price of the domain and if it is available. a ".co.uk" domain is £5.99 for two years.

http://www.upload3r.com/serve/230110/1264277348.jpg

So, the domains available. Go ahead and select "Add to Cart".
At the next page, only enter the your name.
Leave the nameservers as they are by default for now.

http://www.upload3r.com/serve/230110/1264277594.jpg

Update the cart:

At the basket, you'll see the chance to enter a voucher code.

Head here (http://www.retailmenot.com/view/tsohost.co.uk)and look for codes. Update your cart and see the new discounted price.

Next, go ahead and checkout via paypal.

We're done. The domains ours. One more step though.

Head over here (http://whois.domaintools.com/), enter your site. You'll see your address and phone number are on display. Now, we can hide out address and phone number easily. Call up TSOhost and ask them to remove your name and address so it's visible when looked up. The best bit is TsoHost have a 0800 Number! You almost certainly wont get put on hold and will be talking to a U.K based customer support rep within a few seconds.

Now, let them do the changes and check back. The details should be hidden.

We now have a domain, and only our name is shown when looked up. Having a name is necessary, even if you are not a business.




Hosting

The hosting company are the ones that will put your site on their servers and let the whole world see it. Now, we need to sort out who we're going to get hosting with. I'm using Vapournet hosting. They use Cpanel which means that your site will have a Control Panel with all the options to do anything you want at all. Imagine Control Panel in Windows.

We are going for Linux hosting and the cheapest package, here (http://www.vapournet.com/).

So do that, enter your domain when prompted, andpay and wait for the service to become active!

When it is, you should recieve information including the below:
===================================+
| Domain: xxxxxxx.co.uk
| Ip: xx.xxx.xx
| UserName: xxx
| PassWord: xxx
| HomeRoot: /home
| Quota: 500 Meg
| NameServer1: ns5.vapournet.com
| NameServer2: ns6.vapournet.com

So what's this you ask. The domain is ofcourse your domain you registered it with. So, the IP is the IP address of the site. The username and password is what's used to login to your site. Homeroot is the default directory where you will put the sites files. The Quota is the max space you have for files.

Now, the nameservers. These are important. These are the servers that the domain will use. Currentely, we haven't configured out domain at Tso host to use these servers, because we only found out now!

So, go to to https://billing.tsohost.co.uk and login.

Go to My Domains at the top, then view details.
Look at the botton where it says "Nameservers".

http://www.upload3r.com/serve/230110/1264278370.jpg

Change them from the default, inactive tso host ones and type in the ones Vapournet gave us.

Click "Save changes" and wait 20-30 mins. This is how long changing the DNS servers takes.

Check back and when they've changed you have a host and a domain correctly configured!

The site:

To make the site we need to use a peice of software or use HTML we know. I would rather use Software but HTML ensures there is no "rubbish" coding whereby unessevary coding is used.

Use Dreamweaver for this if you can as it supports coding and allows the site to be created visually by the drag and drop technique. It also has a "Browser Check" built in so it checks that the site comes out right as it were in a variety of browsers. It also has a "Live View" where you can preview the page from within Dreamweaver.


You can also "upload" the site to dreamweaver within it via FTP. FTP stands for file transfer protocol and is a method of uploading files to the site.

Dreamweaver can be downloaded on a trial basis for 30 days from here (http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/).

Before you FTP, define your site.

This is where you put all the links, images and pages in one big folder ready to upload. To do this go to "Site", "Manage Site" then "New" in the pop up box.

Go to the "Advanced" tab.
I have entered information into the fileds below to help you. Leave the rest on default:
http://www.upload3r.com/serve/230110/1264278992.jpg
Under the "Remote Info" bit:

http://www.upload3r.com/serve/230110/1264279324.jpg

Leave the rest on default.

Press this button:

http://www.upload3r.com/serve/230110/1264279521.jpg
Then this:
http://www.upload3r.com/serve/230110/1264279624.jpg

Drag your defined site to the "Public_Html" directory:

http://www.upload3r.com/serve/230110/1264279697.jpg

Let it upload!

Done!

Now you have a fully working site. Test it by visiting your domain!

[AaronWHUFC]

If you visit your IP address followed by "/cpanel" you will be greeted by the login promt. Enter your username and password and you'll have access to lots of things. Create FTP accounts, "@yourdomain.co.uk" email addresses and much much more. There are tutorials built in too!

Any Problems, give me a shout!

Remember, use Filezilla if you want FTP account. Don't confuse FTP in dreamweaver with the FTP account you can create for your personal files in cpanel. Cpanel has a built in file uploader but you have to upload every file one by one! Just stick to Dreamweaver.

I haven't mentioned any programs which are just for coding but if you know how code you should know how to do this.

Any problems at all, let me know.

Cheers

[Gibbo]

HI there

Great thread, stuck! :)

[AaronWHUFC]

HI there

Great thread, stuck! :)

Thanks!:)

[Tatts]

I take it you're bored :lol:

On a serious note, some nice/useful threads you have put together :beer

[AaronWHUFC]

I take it you're bored :lol:

On a serious note, some nice/useful threads you have put together :beer

Cheers.

I found it quite daunting when I needed to make a site and it was a matter of trial and error initially. I'd like to think that this will help someone out down the line and save them some valuable time:)

[AaronWHUFC]

Ah bugger, just realise I left my sites IP address in:o

And for those wondering, ariatesthardware.co.uk was just entered to give you guys a an idea , I didn't actually buy that domain:p

[AaronWHUFC]

If you guys have any problems with it or want to know how do make FTP accounts or Email accounts @yourdoman then give me a shout!

[Umar]

Great guide, was looking for something just like this actually :) +Rep

Umar

[BeeP]

very nice thread m8.

[Monkey]

Yeah, cool thread aaron. Handy for beginners out there

[AaronWHUFC]

Yeah, cool thread aaron. Handy for beginners out there

Thanks. I've got a few more useful threads up my sleeve;)

[tystar]

this reminds me i must do something with mine....
At the mo it's just a load of holiday snaps nothing jazzy about it.

[AaronWHUFC]

this reminds me i must do something with mine....
At the mo it's just a load of holiday snaps nothing jazzy about it.

Hook up a HTML template, jazz it up, add the pics ect.

IIRC, There are certain templates designed for pictures.

For blogging and lots of data, then Wordpress all the way.

[tystar]

Need to have some time free to do something me thinks.

As i say the holiday snaps on there are usually ones's i show everyone but the misses ;)

[InvaderGIR]

Hook up a HTML template, jazz it up, add the pics ect.

IIRC, There are certain templates designed for pictures.

For blogging and lots of data, then Wordpress all the way.

Sod wordpress. :p

I've recently just installed b2evolution which in my view is lovely blogging software (My new blog can be seen here (www.finaldecap.co.uk/blog)). As for image galleries, there are loads of different ones out there, one most people use is SimpleViewer, which I tried and disliked personally. I installed ZenGallery onto my site and much prefer it (gallery on my site is here (http://www.finaldecap.com/zengallery/)). You can make albums, tags, have comments etc. It also has a brilliantly easy uploading system too.

ZenGallery is not the easiest thing to install for a novice though.

Both require cpanel access on your site and the ability to create MySQL databases, but that is quite a simple thing to do.

If people wish I could create guides for installation and usage of the above software to webservers. :)

[AaronWHUFC]

Wordpress is legendary;)

Guys, I reccomend getting hosting with cpanel. It's a must with hosting

[InvaderGIR]

Wordpress is legendary;)

Guys, I reccomend getting hosting with cpanel. It's a must with hosting

Aye, everyone knows of it, but there are better solutions out there. ;)

CPanel hosting is all I've had over 3 different providers and I must say it is very good.

Currently have hosting with a mate from HostingClick and also have hosting with QiQ from their birthday offer last year. :)

Both running cpanel, QiQ has less modifyable stuff though, which is a shame...one thing it doesn't have is subdomains...still for £20pa (I paid £0.11 for 1 year with their offer) it's not a bad hosting solution at all.

[AaronWHUFC]

Try Vapournet next time;)

Any issues, I have the man who works there on MSN. So PM me:)

[InvaderGIR]

HostingClick is a mate on MSN too. ;)

Not had an issue with QiQ so expect I'll be going with them for a good while yet.

[AaronWHUFC]

HostingClick is a mate on MSN too. ;)

Not had an issue with QiQ so expect I'll be going with them for a good while yet.

Sweet:p

That's two reccomendations then:)

[kicks]

My recommendations:
Hostingclick (http://www.hostingclick.co.uk/) (Hosting, great support, services similar to freehostia but without the bull**** :rolleyes:)
OVH (http://www.ovh.co.uk/) (Domains and hosting, notably reseller and RPS packages)
000Webhost (http://www.000webhost.com/251280.html) (not much PHP support but enough for a forum and the novice user / startup)

AVOID:
FreeHostia (feature full but slow and buggy as hell, also **** support)
123-Reg (absolute ****e service)

[Andrew Moore]

** just a note back to OP on a job well done here with a rather nice guide. Good work!**

Andy

[AaronWHUFC]

** just a note back to OP on a job well done here with a rather nice guide. Good work!**

Andy

Cheers;)

[Monkey]

Anyone got any info on 1&1, im currently using them for my mum's site

Are they any good? Comparatively I mean.

[DoubleTop]

I've a customer who use 1and1, and in the three+ years I've been working for them I've had no issues with the service from 1and1 at all.

DT.

[Monkey]

Does anyone have a clue how to find the IP address of your website?

[DoubleTop]

in dos, nslookup {domainname}

DT.

[AaronWHUFC]

Does anyone have a clue how to find the IP address of your website?

Doesn't your hosting use cpanel then?

[benzeman]

If you visit your IP address followed by "/cpanel" you will be greeted by the login promt. Enter your username and password and you'll have access to lots of things. Create FTP accounts, "@yourdomain.co.uk" email addresses and much much more. There are tutorials built in too!

You can also go to any domain on your account.com:2082 to get the same effect :)

[Bigian88]

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj195/rover25x/ROVER%2025X/ThreadRessurection.jpg


This thread has remained untouched since February matey, please refrain from reviving threads this old ;)

[heavywater]

What's the point in it being stickied then? :confused: