Last updated on January 17th, 2024
What to do so that anyone can access my web pages?
To make your HTML pages visible to everyone on the Internet, you will need the following:
- Domain name – name of your website (something like www.mydomainname.com, or .net, or .org, etc.).
- Hosting – a place to upload your HTML files.
- FTP software – a program to upload your files to the hosting.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is the address that you type in your web browser to access a website. It’s like a digital address for a website, just like a physical address helps you locate a particular house or building.
For example, “google.com” is a domain name that you can use to access the Google search engine website, webcodes.org is the domain of the current website, etc.
A domain name is made up of two parts: the name of the website (like “google”) and the so called top-level domain (like “.com”). There are many different top-level domains available, such as .org, .net, and so on. Each country has its own top-level domain, for example .de is for Germany, .ca is for Canada, etc.
When you register a domain name, you are actually claiming that specific name and top-level domain for your website. This means that no one else can use the same domain name, which is important for branding and ensuring that people can easily find your website.
What is hosting?
Website hosting is a service that allows you to store and publish your website on the internet.
When you create a website, you need a place to store all the files that make up your website. This includes the images, videos, text, and other content that people see when they visit your site. Website hosting provides you with the server space and resources necessary to store these files and make your website accessible on the internet.
Think of hosting as renting storage space. Just as you rent a physical space to store your belongings, you rent a virtual space to store your website files.
Hosting also ensures that your website is available to people who want to visit it. When someone types in your website domain name into their browser, the browser sends a request to your hosting provider’s server, which then delivers your website files to the visitor’s browser. Without hosting, your website files would not be accessible to the public and your website would not exist online.
What is FTP?
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a method of transferring files between computers over the internet.
Think of FTP as a virtual delivery service. When you need to move files from your computer to the hosting server, you can use FTP to transfer those files securely and quickly.
FTP works by connecting two computers, one acting as a server and the other acting as a client. The server computer hosts the files that you want to transfer, and the client computer connects to the server to upload or download those files.
To use FTP, you’ll need an FTP client program installed on your computer, which is a software that allows you to connect to an FTP server and manage files.
Once you’ve connected to an FTP server, you can browse the files on the server and transfer them to your local computer, or upload files from your computer to the server. This makes it easy to update and manage files on a website.
There are many free FTP client programs. For example, you can use FileZilla FTP client.
How to use FileZilla FTP?
Download FileZilla from the official website https://filezilla-project.org and install it. You will then be able to connect to the hosting and upload your files online. To do this, open FileZilla and enter the data you will receive from the hosting company – host, username and password.
Note: If you have difficulty downloading and installing FileZilla FTP client, please read the additional tutorial How to download and install FileZilla?
This is what the FileZilla icon looks like:
Double-click the FileZilla icon, then select File -> Site Manager from the top menu.
From the panel, click the “New Site” button and enter some name, for example: “My New Site”. Then fill in the Host, User and Password fields with the data received from the hosting company namely: your FTP server name, your username and password. Then click the “Connect” button.
After successfully connecting to the hosting, you will see the FileZilla admin panel with two windows – in the left window are the files located on your computer, in the right window you can see the hosting space. You should usually place your files in a public_html folder. So open the public_html folder and just drag and drop your files into it (from the left window to the right window).
Where to get hosting and domain?
There are many companies on the Internet that sell domains and hosting. Search Google for keywords like “cheap hosting” or something similar. Choose your domain and hosting plan. Cheap hosting plans cost a few tens of dollars per year. After paying for your domain and hosting, you will receive an email from the hosting company with detailed instructions on how to use it. You will also receive a username, password and a host name to connect to the hosting via FTP.