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How To Make Your Own Website?

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Well, here is the full story.....
At first you need a good reason for your homepage.
Second you need some knowledge about how to write HTML-Code - i.e. creating your pages.
Third you need a few tools to edit your webpage (or homesite or website).
Furthermore you need "Webspace" - i.e. a place in the internet to put your homepage on.
and you need an FTP-Client to put your homepage online

THE SIMPLE WAY HERE!

KEEP IT SIMPLE!

HTML-Code

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HTML-Code is the 'language' used to describe a page in the internet. A browser will 'interpret' it and display the page. HTML is a simple code that consists of 'tags' - the commands in HTML. If you are using Netscape or Internet Exploder, just right-click on this page and select "View Source". A new window will open and show you the code that produces this page.
HTML-Code is saved in files with the extension 'htm' or 'html'. This is quite similar to 'documents' created with a text program such as Word Perfect or Microsoft Word, except for that these files can be viewed with many different programs on many different platforms.
Many people offer good information about HTML-useage on the internet. Look in your search engine for keywords like "tutorial", "webauthoring", "HTML", "Webpage" and so on. Here is one good address for those of you who understand German: http://www.teamone.de/selfhtml/. It is a very complete HTML-tutorial covering also some JavaScript, CSS-style sheets, CGI and other things, as well as telling you more about the care for your homepage, promoting it and so on. You might also want to check your search engine for the subjects covered in that tutorial. An easy introduction to HTML is found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2090/. This page tells you the basics about HTML. For a quick start it is absolutely sufficient!

Tools

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To start with, you only need a simple text editor such as "Notepad" (Windows), "Vi" (Linux) or "Edit" (DOS). The code only consists of text that is stored in files with the extension "htm" or "html".
Later on, you might want to get a real HTML-Editor that helps you to easily create code, check it and view it in your browser. Some well known editors are "HotDog" from Sausage Soft, "Homesite" from Allaire, "FrontPage" from Microsoft. These are commercial applications, i.e. you can get a demo version first but you need to pay some to much money later on. There is also some "Freeware" and "Careware" to be found on the net. Search for "HTML", "HTML-editors" and "Webauthoring" in a search engine. This page is too small to give you good ideas. I am currently using "UltraEdit" which is a very special text editor with special features for programmers, webauthors etc. You can download a trial version at http://www.ultraedit.com or http://www.idmcomp.com.
You need one of these programs in order to create the HTML-files.
Go directly to a search engine here: Yahoo, Alta Vista, Lycos or HotBot.

Webspace

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In order to publish your website, you must put it onto a 'host-computer' that is directly connected to the internet. Many companies offer this service for free - provided that your homepage is used for private purposes only. Here some addresses:
Geocities - this is where I started
Hypermart - also commercial pages allowed
Tripod
There are many more hosts. Many internet providers also offer free webspace to their members (check out the homepage of the company that gives you access to the internet).
What you have to do normally is to become a member, register your 'free homepage' and send your files up into the internet.
All the hosts offer some help on creating webpages. This is a good source for more information.

FTP-Tools

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Having prepared your homepage on your own computer, you have to get them into the internet. In order to do so, you need an FTP-client - i.e. a program that is able to copy something onto the internet.
If you are using a PC, you might have installed Windows or Linux. Both offer a simple program called "ftp" that you can start when connected to the internet. It must be run at the command line and is very uncomfortable but it works fine! Actually I use it a low in spite of some powerful colored graphical applications installed on my computer.
A simple instruction can be found here.
If you want more comfort, you can use something else. WS_FtpPro is a very good program, others are certainly too but I don't care because I am happy with what I got.
It is a good idea to go to Tucows and look for FTP-Clients. There are many programs for trial and even some freeware (if I remember well).
To start with, you might even find a service from your host to send your pages there from within your browser.

FTP with DOS or Linux (Unix might be the same...)

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Back to the roots of black and wite (or black and green) command line adventure

If you are using Windows or Linux to connect to the internet, you can 'upload' your pages with a very simple command line tool called 'ftp'. What you need is an active connection to the internet and the address where to upload your pages to, as well as your user name and password on hand.
In order to make the commands more comprehensive, I will use the following information that you have of course to replace with your personal ones:
- ftp-address is ftp.host.com
- user name is Johndoe
- password is Donjoe
Now start DOS from within Windows or run a command line shell under Linux and here we go:

1.

go into the folder where files are stored that you want to upload.

2.

type 'ftp' and press 'return'

3.

type 'ftp.host.com' and press 'return'

- as soon as you are connected, you will receive some lines on your screen telling you that you are connected to blablabla and so on. You will also be asked to log in with a user name and a password.

4.

type 'Johndoe' and press 'return'

- when the word 'pass' or 'password' or similar appears...

5.

type 'Donjoe' and press 'return'

- it will take a while and then you get another message informing you that you have successfully logged on etc.

6.

type 'put' followed by a space and followed by the name of the first htm or html file that you want to upload (and press 'return' after that of course). When the transmission has finished, you will be told.

Now follow this procedure for all other files except for graphic files. These must be uploaded in 'binary' mode.

7.

type 'binary' and press 'return' to tell the host that the next files will be not text but binary (i.e. graphics, programs or so).

now follow the procedure as for the htm/html files as described in 6.

8.

if you want to see what you have uploaded, enter 'dir' to get a list. The command 'ls' will basically do the same, Linux users are encouraged to find out what arguments are accepted.

Something general:

enter 'help' to get a list of possible commands.

enter the command followed by '?' or 'help' to get some more information about an individual command.

9.

When you have finished uploading, enter 'close' to cut the connection, then enter 'quit' (DOS) or press 'ctrl+c' (Linux) to leave the ftp-program. Don't forget to close the internet connetcion.

When you are finished, please let me know by email: mail@dieter-speck.de.

Please also email me, when you found something wrong or have any comments to this page.


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Enjoy your new hobby!