Internet Ignorant

[Julie Wright]

Ok, so I have No idea how the thing they call the internet works.
So, how about a little lesson? I want to set up a set page (maybe even sell a few pens) that I can show my family (who live in KS) what I have been up to. What is bandwidth they talk about and ISP? Do I have to own my own server?
Storage space? of course I have lots of Pic's...

Ok internet literate, Help this iliterate understand the Net...

Thanks
PS, Keith I did not mean to offend or upset the apple cart, Thanks for the COOL head. :)
SORRY !!!

[Jason Roehl]

Ok, so I have No idea how the thing they call the internet works.
So, how about a little lesson? I want to set up a set page (maybe even sell a few pens) that I can show my family (who live in KS) what I have been up to. What is bandwidth they talk about and ISP? Do I have to own my own server?
Storage space? of course I have lots of Pic's...


ISP = Internet Service Provider
Bandwidth = data transfer capacity

It depends on your internet account, but most accounts come with some amount of storage space on the ISP's servers, usually 5-20 MB, and you can often pay for more. Generally, you do not get your own domain name--your webpage would be accessed with something like the following form: www.yourisp.com/~youraccountname/index.htm. You definitely do not want or need your own server (that would mean that the files are stored on your computer, and the internet would be able to access them all the time--would be very difficult and risky for a novice like yourself).

Another route would be to register your own domain name (such as juliewright.com), which would include a minimum cost of about $15 a year on up to the sky. The company that hosts your domain name would provide the server storage space (again, a minimum of about 5 MB on up to whatever you want to pay for). You could then upload your files and webpages to their servers for internet-wide perusal.

As for designing webpages, there are a number of ways to go about it. There are a multitude of software packages with varying degrees of automation such as Dreamweaver ($$$$$), MS Frontpage, Netscape Composer, etc. Or, you could learn to code in HTML(HyperText Markup Language) and just use Notepad, saving it as a text file with the extension ".htm" or ".html".

Hope this helps, Julie!!

[Julie Wright]

So, Howmuch bandwidth do I need?

Bandwidth = data transfer capacity

thanks

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

So, Howmuch bandwidth do I need?

Bandwidth = data transfer capacity

thanks

Probably the minimum amount of bandwidth.
Daniel

[Julie Wright]

ok , so I understand what bandwidth is, but how do I know how much I need for a website.





Probably the minimum amount of bandwidth.
Daniel

[Michael Perata]

ok , so I understand what bandwidth is, but how do I know how much I need for a website.
Julie

Most hosting companies set a minimum, but allow your website to expand to the stars (for extra money :rolleyes: ). The minimum bandwidth will be more than enough to get started.

Some of the more well known hosting companies (xo.com, networksolutions.com and others) have stock webpages you can use to set up a site in a matter of minutes. The sites will be minimal at best, but will get you going.

If you want to transact business on your web site, these same hosting orgs will have basic packages available, and some can assist you in setting up credit card transactions.

If you think you site is going to be somewhat active, I would imagine you could get started for about $15/month. A very active site might get to $100/month, but if that happens, you have other problems. :D

[Sheila Crosby]

Julie, here is some info, and hopefully it is helpful, if not simplistic.

Think of it in terms of shopping at your local grocery store. They have x number of square feet for displaying groceries. This is your webspace . From a webhost, you can get 500mB of webspace for as little as $5 a month, if you pay for a year at a time. 500mB will host way more than 1,000 web pages. This is where your information and pictures will reside...on the host's servers.

Then, imagine that the groceries themselves at the grocery store are the bandwidth . And imagine that the store says that only 1000 grocery items per month can be bought. After 1000, they will start charging extra for each item. So, your bandwidth is how many page requests or how much data transfer you can have per month, and each item or link or page on your site is a request. Something like 1 or 2 gB would be way more than enough for anything you would want to do. You would never go over your bandwidth and be charged extra.

Most of this stuff is really cheap and really easy, and most web hosting companies provide a domain name registration for free...so you could get www.juliewright.com (or anything that is available) for free for a year when you sign up for webhosting. After the year, the domain name is only a few bucks to renew every year.

I used FrontPage for creating our first website....it is a WYSISYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get). You just type it in how you want it to look, and it spits it all out just like that. That's easy if you want to do it yourself and control how it looks. Just make sure your webhost will accomodate FrontPage.

Also, A lot of webhosts offer online site builders...you just answer some questions in the site builder program and it builds the site for you. You don't have a lot of control this way...you pretty much get what they programmed in, but it's super easy to get a site going in less than an hour.

Lots of stuff here...call if you need clarification or more info...you know the number!

Sheila

[Julie Wright]

Thanks for the info. Yes, its simplistic BUT its what I needed to get started. Somethings just dont want to make sense to me. But I believe It all makes sense to me now :)

[Tom Sweeney]

Sheila's explanation is one of the best everyday analogies I've ever heard on the subject. Just one addition to put your mind at ease on expense.
I have designed over 20 real estate web sites. A few have over 100 pages & dozens of photos. They might average 2,000 - 7,000 visitors & up to 30,000 hits a month (hits don't mean a lot except they are an indication of bandwidth use). In the 9 years I've been doing this none of my sites have surpassed the minimum bandwidth allowances from any number of different hosting companies. Of course there are some small sites that get hundreds of thousands of hits a month -that would cost you real money :rolleyes:

You should get by fine with the minimum hosting program - the only extra might be some type of shopping cart when you want to start selling your pens.

[Julie Wright]

Thanks for All the Help. :)