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How can i create a website?

Most of you guys have heard of Websites/Servers/Email servers etc. But how do you own one website is always unclear with the information available in the net. Hence with less number of page lines I will tell you the basic idea behind the internet and HOW TO CREATE(OWN) YOUR OWN WEBSITE.

Introduction

What are servers?
They are just simple computers as we have at our home(PCs) with more power, RAM, etc. etc.

How do they become Internet servers.?

—> The server needs an operating system. Let’s say you have Windows
—> It need a Web server. IIS which comes with Windows.
—> FTP server
—> MailEnable server for mail service.
—> DNS server
—> MSSQL Database server

I just said the above as an example. In fact 70% of internet servers runs on Linux, 25% on Windows and rest 5% on other OS.

To get you a general Idea about server, I will tell you another example.

If you have a static IP address from your Internet Service provider, connected to a PC at your home with Linux Operating System, .
and with Softwares Such as
Apache (Webserver)
Bind(DNS server)
Exim (Mail Server)
Pure-FTP(FTP server)
Mysql (Database server).

You can run the website in your machine at home….. which can be accessed from any where around the world.

So we can summarize that the above same setup with a lot of servers housed and networked is called a Datacenter(DC) or Network Operation Center (NOC).

ALL SERVICES ARE FOLLOWING THE CLIENT SERVER MECHANISM

Let me tell you about the Webserver First

(Apache)WebServer:-The working
What does the Webserver do?

When you type in to the browser, say “www.google.com”. (Lot of process are involved to find the IP address of the name “www.google.com” which is ignored here. we suspect that the browser has found the IP address of the name “www.google.com”). The browser gets the IP address of the name “www.google.com”, lets say eg: 212.544.121.2. Now the request is sent to the server “212.544.121.2″ along with domain name “www.google.com”.

In the server “212.544.121.2″ , the Webserver is listening for request. So the request sent from our browser is serviced by the Webserver at “212.544.121.2″ . The information send back by the remote server is received by the browser.

Here BROWSER is the client and WEBSERVER in the remote server is the server.
Hope you got an idea how website is serviced.
Hence the servers are the same computers we use at home (of course with higher power) with softwares such as Webservers installed.

Bind(DNS server) :-
The DNS servers are softwares installed in the same server. It helps to resolve the domain name to IP address. “www.google.com” ==to==> “212.544.121.2″ (Just a basic).

Before going to the next session.

Lets navigate… how a browser works in finding the IP address of the domain name.

If you need a domain name, say www.this-isagoodplace.com, you need it to get it registered from ICANN(ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). You cannot directly contact them and register a domain. However, there are authorized resellers for domain names called domain registrars (birdfirehosting.com). There is a annual fee for registration.

Assume that you have a domain registered www.this-isagoodplace.com. Now you just have the domain name with you. You need to get webhosting space (the space where you site’s file resides) from some provider. Now theses hosts will give their nameservers. (ns1.domains.com and ns2.domains.com).

Login to you portal at you domain registrar(you will be provided the login for your clients area when you register domain name). You will have the option to enter the nameservers there. Enter the nameserver which your webhost provides. Here we will enter
ns1.domain.com and ns2.domain.com

NOW HOW THE BROWSER WORKS.
when you enter the domain name “www.this-isagoodplace.com”, it will search the root nameserver+++complex parsing+++finally finds the nameservers. Now browser request the nameservers DNS service(Bind software) at your webhost for the IP address of the domain name “www.this-isagoodplace.com”.

Browser now has the domain name and IP address. Hence browser now asks the Webserver(Apache software) at the remote server giving it the relevant question (domain name and IP address) and fetches the site.

(The DNS working is not exactly the same. I have mentioned this for better understanding. Latest technology involves caching the IP addresses for domain names at local ISP. So browser asks local ISP for IP address rather than the remote server. This saves a lot of time.)

Exim (Mail Server)
The mail server software is also the service in the server. Like gmail and yahoo you can have mail boxes like xxx@this-isagoodplace.com

FTP
FTP server allows you to login to the server with username and password. It allows you to transfer files from your localmachine to the server. You have developed a site but how to load it to the server. The FTP server does it. You can install FTP clients in your local machine (such as filezilla) with which you can connect to the server.

Database server.
If you are dealing with Shopping carts, other records, you need to have database. The Mysql server software is deployed for that.

Now to manage all these softwares easly and handy, the main control panel softwares are installed.
Once these control panels are installed, these services can be manages via nice interface.
Examples of such control panel softwares (cPanel, Plesk, Helm, Hsphere, Parallels Pro. etc). Among theses cPanel is the everyones favourate.

HENCE VIA THE CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE, YOU CAN MANAGE SERVICES LIKE
APACHE, BIND, EXIM, PURE-FTPD, MYSQL/PGSQL, etc.
cPanel is a licensed software. However, APACHE, BIND, EXIM, PURE-FTPD, MYSQL/PGSQL, are open source softwares. By installing cPanel it will install all the required softwares ( APACHE, BIND, EXIM, PURE-FTPD, MYSQL/PGSQL) and will provide the Administartor as well as the clients a very good graphical user interface to configure the server.

Now you have a basic Idea of what a server has.

NOW WE MOVE ON THE PART ON HOW TO OWN A WEBSITE.
Think of a domain name which has not yet been registered. Go to some hosting providers which you can get on an easy search from google. Keyword : hosting

Under Plans, select a suitable plan for you.

You will be asked for domain name which you need an hosting package you require. Once you have purchased the domain name and the package, wait for the welcome mail from the administrator.

Assuming that you have registered “www.this-isagoodplace.com”
You will be getting a control panel login from which you can access your hosting area.
Login to the control panel.
Click File Manger. You will be inside a location
/home/. so this is your home directory. Now if you want to put a html page, for example a simple html page.

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is my first page </h1>
</body>
</html>

Copy this code to your notepad and save it as index.html
now using the file manager, navigate to public_html folder(this is your web folder. What ever you place it here, it will be loaded in the browser when the site is called.) use the upload button to upload the index.html file you just save.

when you take you domain “www.this-isagoodplace.com” in the browser, it will show the page.

Now rename the file index.html to test.html using rename. If you take “www.this-isagoodplace.com”
It will show either a directory listing or Forbiddon error. From this we understand that the default page is index.html otherwise you need to call the page as www.this-isagoodplace.com/test.html

Suppose if both index.html and test.html exists, then the result would be index.html page when you call “www.this-isagoodplace.com” via browser and test.html “www.this-isagoodplace.com/test.html”

File manger can be used to upload when the number of files which needs to uploaded is less. However, if you need to upload a website with hundreds of pages, it is better to us FTP.

Conclusion
Hope the above information is enough to start with a website with a basic idea of what servers are.
If you need any further support, please contact me at support@presoon.com