How do I get my own website and unique URL/Domain name?

[germistonguy]

Any helpful boffins still up and about?

How do I get my own website and unique URL/Domain name?

I am clueless, so sorry if I don't know the correct jargon (e.g is a URL the same as a domain name?????).

Here is how I THINK it works , but I really need to know how it actually works.

1 You register your domain name

2 You upload your web pages, pictures etc, to somewhere in cyberspace that will be accessed by the appropriate URL i.e
http://mydomainname.com/appropriatepage.html

Okay I realise it is not as simple as that, and have come up with a stack of questions (no doubt someone will say why not go to google and do a bit of research , but I much prefer starting my research here - much friendlier)

I suppose registering your (untaken) domain name would be the first step. Is this registered with one official body which can ensure no-one else can set up something under the same name (I am assuming a domain name is a bit like a telephone number in its global uniqueness?)

Is there a fee for registration, how long does this fee keep the name registered to you?

I assume the next step is to store your webpages, pictures somewhere, and I imagine this will be with a specialist company who have their computers (servers??) switched on and connected to the net 24/7?

I am also puzzled as to how "http://mydomainname.com/" is now associated with the info I have stored somewhere in cyberspace. i.e. when someone puts "http://mydomainname.com/" in thier address bar how does the persons ISP know where to connect to, to find that website?

The only way I can get my head around this is by thinking in terms of the telephone network i.e. my computer/ISP has a "telephone number" and the computer I have my webpages stored with will be allocated a "telephone number" which equates to http://mydomainname.com/ - so when I put http://mydomainname.com/ into my address bar and press go, my internet connection effectively males a "phone call" to http://mydomainname.com/???

Am I making any sense? Should I just go and lie in a corner for a wee while??

All info will be very welcome!

[duncan]

Ok, domain names first. Decide what you want, do a WHOIS lookup to find out if it's available before you try and buy it. Expect anything obvious to be taken already! I'd recommend using the 'Whois lookup' box on this site:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/

You might want to think if you want to have more than one variation of your domain, e.g.
germistonguy.com
germistonguy.co.uk
germiston-guy.com
etc. Take into account common misspellings, who your target audience are (UK or international?), that kind of thing.

Domains you basically register for a certain amount of years, so you don't own them in perpetuity. .co.uk domains are registered for 2 years, .com domains (and most other types) are registered for anything between 1 and 10 years, depending. Generally 1 or 2 years is fine, then just renew it on an annual basis for as long as you need it.

As well as the domain, you also have to sort out your webspace. It would probably be a good idea for you to get somewhere that does both the domain and the hosting for you, to keep life simple. So you get the domain, X Mb hosting, X Mb monthly bandwidth etc, all in one package. Shop around to find someone that does this.

Ok, getting a bit technical now:
When the domain is registered, the company who registers it specifies which DNS servers are used when someone needs to find out about this domain. For a quick explanation of DNS, check this easy-to-understand cartoon:
http://brain.cx/DNS-HOWTO/index.html
Then, whatever company has those DNS servers (usually the same company as has registered the domain for you, but not necessarily), sets up some details about your domain. They say where is the website located at, what is the name of the mailserver that handles email on this domain, that kind of thing.

The telephone number analogy isn't far off the mark. Instead it uses IP addresses, which are numbers divided into 4, like this:
1.2.3.4
The IP address numbers go between 0 and 255, so might look like:
199.245.3.75 (for instance).
So in the DNS, your website is associated with a particular IP address. Anyone typing in 'www.germistonguy.com', what happens is it checks the DNS to find out what IP address is that on. Then it goes to where that IP address is located, i.e the company hosting your website.

Then for you to update your site, you use FTP to transfer files between your computer and your hosting company's web server.

Does that cover it all?

[james73]

As a slight aside, I bought a domain name, but use webspace provided by
my ISP (Pipex). The domain name 'forwards' anyone visiting it to my site
which is hosted on Pipex's servers.




James H