Domain Name Registration

Even though most of us spend a lot of time on the Web, the “how-to” of creating a website is still shrouded in mystery for many of us. Setting up a website doesn’t need to be a frustrating experience. If you know what to do, it can be a relatively easy process. The first two things you need to do are:

1. Register a domain name
2. Purchase a web hosting plan

Registering a domain name will provide the address, commonly called the URL, for your website. This is where the public can find your website. You may want to purchase your name (unless of course you have a common name like Kelly Smith, then you will need to come up with something else.) You can check the availability of a domain name on most web hosting company sites. Notice the “Find a Domain” search on the Network Solutions home page.

I have provided the following information for people interested in registering a domain name.

• I recommend you register your domain name with an ICANN-Accredited Registrar. If you don’t want to sift through the hundreds of companies, I would recommend Network Solutions or Go Daddy.
• Price and service is the big difference between Network Solutions and Go Daddy.
• To register a domain name with Network Solutions is $34.95 for one year. (Or free if you sign up for a year of web hosting. A one year basic hosting plan is around $120). Network Solutions has excellent customer service and has been around a long time.
• GoDaddy is more economical. You can register a domain name for $1.99 for one year with the purchase of a 2 month plan (Two months is the minimum purchase length and costs $3.99 a month) GoDaddy’s customer service has been impressive recently. (I’ve been told they send both a follow-up email and call new customers to answer questions.)
• Feel free to register your domain name at a different company than the two given above. I would recommend you check to see that the registrar you’ve chosen is ICANN-Accredited and you know someone who has had a good experience with the company.

Here are some additional, very reputable companies for domain registration (and web hosting).

Dreamhost
http://www.dreamhost.com/
Media Temple
http://mediatemple.net/

What company do you recommend for domain registration — and why?

Web File Name Conventions

Web file naming conventions
When creating your web site, you must be very methodical when naming your files. First, never use spaces, uppercase letters, or any special characters in your file names. While your site may seem to work OK in Dreamweaver, on your local computer, once you put the web site on the server, violating these rules can cause you no end of problems.

For the web page file names, be sure you use “index.html” (or “index.htm”) for your first web page. Using this special name will tell the server to display this page as the default page for any directory of html files.

Other HTML files should have meaningful names such as products.html or about_us.html, rather than convenient names such as page1.html. Name your files as if you giving the web site to someone else to work on, and who won’t be able to ask you any questions about it (for example, you 6 months after the project is finished when you can’t remember anything about it).

Web file naming rules:
• No spaces in the filenames
• Use all lowercase letters
• No special characters in the filenames: For example none of the following are acceptable in web filenames: “!~:&(,
• The files MUST have the proper suffix (.html, .gif, .jpg)
• Be consistent in your naming of files, for example use the same prefix in a series of files. Also, to ensure that the files alphabetize correctly, always “zero-pad” your filenames when they have numbers in them. In other words, if you have a series of files numbered 1-20, the first file should be something like myfile01.jpg, and the last file should be named myfile20.jpg.

And again, it’s critical that you name your files correctly from the start. If you attempt to rename your files after you’ve created your site, you will, in all likelihood, break all the links in your web pages.

Purchasing a Web Hosting Plan

In additon to securing a domain name, you may want to purchase a web hosting plan so you have your own server space. Both Network Solutions and GoDaddy, (and other web hosting companies), may attempt to get you to sign up for additional add-on services. Rarely will you need to add additional services to your web hosting plan. All you’ll need is a domain name and a basic hosting package. Beware of the multiple attempts companies make to sell add-on services when you order your domain name and web hosting. If you want to get started slowly without committing to a 12-month hosting plan, the 2 month minimum plan through GoDaddy may be a good choice.

When you purchase your web hosting you’ll see a box to add a domain name to your order. If you specify a one year registration, you’ll be charged $1.99. I recommend you choose the Linux/Unix platform rather than Windows for your web hosting. (Unless you need language support for ASP.NET, then you should probably go with a Windows server).

Remember to stay clear of the multiple attempts companies will make to sell other add-on services when you order your domain name and web hosting.

Here are some other features you should be aware of:
Disk space: total amount of usable space that you are allotted on hosting company servers. You will only need 300 – 500 MB…. at GoDaddy you get 5 GB with the Economy Plan. If you plan to incorporate a lot of video on your site, it is good to have at least 1 GB of disk space.
Data Transfer/Bandwidth: This is the total amount of data that you can transfer to or from your web site. Below is an example of how many times a page would need to be viewed in order to reach 10 GB of transfer:
Page size 30 kb: 699,050 views
Page size 40 kb: 524,288 views
Page size 50 kb: 419,430 views
Page size 60 kb: 349,525 views
Therefore, most web hosting plans offer plenty of bandwidth.

When signing up for these services, you’ll be asked to specify a password and will be given a login name. Please make note of all login and password information, You may be given a separate login and password for your domain registration and for web hosting. You will need this information to login onto your server.