How do you link a web site to a domain name?

Question

I know how to design a website, with plain HTML, or with Dreamweaver, but I've never had anyone outside a cable provider host my site.

I see where Go Daddy or RegisterFly or some others can sell a domain name for a few dollars a year. So then what? A few dollars more for hosting where you can FTP the coding? And then how's that linked to the domain name? Thanks in advance...

Answer 1

You've hit the nail on the head - domain names and domain hosting are two different things.

Domain Name - is the www.myname.com that identifies your website. This is like your mailing address online and tells visitors how to reach your website, much like your mailing address tells your friends how to reach your home.

Domain Hosting - is the actual HTML pages, scripts and images that your site shows. This is your actual home, so if you have an empty plot of land, you still have an address, but there's nothing in existence there.

When you want to setup your own website, you need both a domain name and hosting space. Your HTMLs, images etc go into the hosting space and the domain name merely points to them for your visitors.

You will need to use goDaddy etc to book the domain name and then other commercial providers like Yahoo, Windows Live etc to actually host your pages.

How are they linked - When you register your domain name (say www.myhome.com), the registration agency (goDaddy for example) asks you for the IP address of the server where you are going to host your actual site (say 192.9.200.1).

So if someone types http://www.myhome.com or http://192.9.200.1 in their browser's address bar, they will reach the same place - your start HTML page.

Answer 2

The main two ways is having a company host your website on their server or hosting it yourself on a computer at home that is always on (for example: using IIS). You'll also have to have a static IP address, and forward all incoming port 80 requests to your sever, which should also have a static IP address. If you don't know how to host it yourself, I suggest you let the same company that you purchased your domain name from do all the work for you. Purchase a hosting plan and the company will walk you through the process. They will give you an FTP account (ftp://[e-mail]), which allows you to transfer files over the internet and upload your changes through an FTP client or Dreamweaver itself.

Answer 3

If you intend to create a few websites (usually you will end up more than 1 website), go for multiple web hosting where you could handle your websites in one account.

Visit Following webhosting , they are quite good.

Hostmonster http://anurl.com/?PQMRY

They offer hosting of "unlimited domains" and you will get massive webspace of 200000 MB (200 GB ). They only charge $4.95/month and they offer "a free Domain Name" and installing service called "Fantastico". By using Fantastico, you could create own forum, photo gallery, shopping cart (e-commerce),your own auction site and your own blogs within few seconds. They also offer "Free Website Builder" as well.
Visit the site to check details.

Hostmonster http://anurl.com/?PQMRY

Domains
Following site is quite good to register domains as price is reasonable with free privacy. Some charge about $5/ year just for free privacy.

IPOWER http://anurl.com/?TXIBE

Answer 4

all a domain name is a ip address you setup / ftp your files to the site and dns does the rest dns resolves ip addresses to domain names
the host system when you sign up does this automatically.

Answer 5

Thankyou everyone for all the answers!

Answer 6

Hope this helps!

Answer 7

I was curious about this too

Answer 8

it sounds good