There are many companies that will give you free web space (~5meg) for your home page.
Sometimes your ISP will also give you free web space. However, I suggest
using a company other than your ISP so that switching ISP's is less complicated if you
become dissatisfied with the service. The same holds true with your EMAIL address.
Some popular web sites that will give you free home pages can be found at
http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/
(via yahoo), www.mailcity.com,
www.netscape.com, www.lycos.com, and the list is almost
endless. Usually you are given one directory for your HTML files and a directory
called 'images' for your pictures, java .class files, etc...
Yahoo's GeoCities allows you to create subdirectories. Awesome
place to have a free web site.
Most of these free sites also have WEB editors. My parents site www.deeperlifemin.com was constructed by one of
these WEB editors. My mom, in her 60's, used a WEBTV unit (looks like a VCR) to set
there site up. Her unit is hooked up to her TV unit. She doesn't like
computers too much! Visit my parent's ministry's web site
www.deeperlifemin.com
Register for your own domain name (ex: www.michael-thomas.com)
Domain Name Registrar - you must choose a registrar to
register your domain names. Usually they charge $35 a year (in
2001). You can purchase in 1 - 10 year increments. I've seen
some charge $16 a year.
www.register.com - I use this
company. Great management tools and free services.
www.godaddy.com - My brother
uses this company. Very good rates.
www.networksolutions.com
- Network Solutions - in year 2000 I did not like the services or
process to used to change my information.
Services provided by Registrars:
Types of Services
Free unlimited email address forwarding at your domain
Free URL and frame forwarding
Prompt toll free technical and administrative support
Simple online control panel to manage all domain features and whois
data
Free domain parking and DNS
Free "Under construction" or "Domain for sale"
page
Terms
URL Forwarding - Some companies will register your name (URL) and give you a website "link" to
another site.
I think register.com will do URL Forwarding with no banner for a $50 a
year charge.
Organizations - The non-profit organization that is
working with the government to manage domain names is ICANN http://www.icann.org.
Steps to setting up a Web Site with your own domain name.
First, go to one of the Registrar sites above and
choose a domain name that is available.
Second, locate a "Web Hosting" company to host your site &
setup an email account. They will get the Registrar to point to their server to
allow web surfers to visit your site.
Get a Web Hosting Company
http://www.hostme.com - $23.50 a month with great
tech support service. Includes access to MSQL, PHP, JSP, FrontPage extensions, 350mb
storage, POP3 and many other services. I use this service.
I'm very satisfied.
http://www.wantjava.com
- specializes in hosting web sites that use Java (Servlets, JSP, databases,
etc... (Tomcat, Oracle, Java) )
www.freeservers.com - Free Web Hosting.
20mb free w/banners or other fee options without banners starting at ~ $6.95.
www.interspeed.net - $9.95/$19.95
(www.yourname.com) - Saw a Email advertisment about this company.
UNLIMITED Storage, Traffic, Email Aliases, Email Forwarding
INSTANT ACCOUNT SIGNUP!, 15 POP3 Email Accounts
Free Domain Name Registration
Private FTP (to maintain your site 24 hours a day)
Toll Free Support
Daily Data Backup
Public CGI-BIN (Counters, FormMail, and the Excite search engine)
Private CGI-BIN (directory to run your own scripts)
Free Detailed Graphical Site Statistics
Microsoft FrontPage extensions ($20 setup fee)
www.webprovider.com - Free Domain Based
websites for allowing a banner page.
Other Resources
Free - Normally this means that the companies services are free
to you. Usually the company require that you have a banner ad on your home page so
they get money from companies that want to advertise. In all cases, INTERNIC will
bill you $75 for the first 2 years and $35 each year after. INTERNIC is the agency
that all commercial URL's (www.???.com) must be registered with. INTERNIC is a
separate company!
Hope you have fun. Email me if you have any questions. Use
the mailbox at the bottom!