The Internet is a collection of computers
located all over the world and connected together by telephone lines. These
computers (or servers) basically form network which is loosely termed the internet
or world wide web. They house files which anyone accessing the internet through
a browser can request by typing in an address (URL). Each address is unique
to one specific location. A request is sent from your computer to the server
housing that page, and the file is sent back and appears on your computer as
a web page.
A web page is an electronic document written in a computer language called HTML,
short for Hypertext Markup Language. More on that later.
A Web page is actually not always a single document but can be a composite of
several documents or files. The "page" itself is most often an HTML
file that contains text and references to other files such as graphics, audio,
video, etc.
The main use of web pages is to share information with others.
The first personal web pages that
emerged on the internet were often little more than lists of people's favourite
links. If I have four favourite sites I want to share with you it's much easier
for me to say "go to my web page at www……." than to list
four complicated URLs.
It is also easier for you to click a link at my web page than have to type in
a conglomeration of /~/~.coms and get them all right to reach a page.
Most pages on the internet link to at least one other site. That site links to some more and so on, hence the 'web' metaphor.
A home page is the first screen you
see when you connect to the Internet.
It is also often used to refer to the main page of a web site which usually
contains links off to the branch pages of the site.
Text: A web page usually contains some text. This is usually displayed in one of the default fonts (Times or Arial being the usual two). It can be made to appear bold or italic or underlined, and in a range of sizes or colours.
Graphics: A page usually contains an image or two. These are usually either gifs or jpgs although a few other formats are becoming popular.
Links:
Most pages contain hypertext or hyperlinks. This is the (usually) blue text
which when clicked takes you to another part of the site or another site altogether.
Images may also be links. When you move your cursor over a text link or over
a graphic link, it will change from an arrow to a hand.
Links may be to more related sites, favourite places, a webring, company, etc.
Music: Some pages have music set to play when you enter or when you click on a link. Others may have sounds that play when you pass the cursor over a certain point or click on an icon.
Ad, banners or paid links: Some sites will have these either popping up when you access the page or scattered through the text. They are the junk mail of the net. Unfortunately people use them to pay for their sites. Some links generate money everytime someone new clicks on them and some web pages will ask you to click there to support them.
Background: Most pages will have a colour or a graphic image as a background. Backgrounds are typically a very small image that is repeated over the entire page.
Downloadable files: There may be links to files you can download. These are files on the same server as the webpage that you can click on and download to your computer.
Theoretically it's unlimited. It
is probably better to have several linked short pages than one long huge page
because of download times.
How many pages can there be on a site? Again the answer is unlimited. Things
like server space and money do however sometimes limit web site sizes.
HTML is an acronym that stands for
HyperText Markup Language. You don't need to learn this language to put up your
own page as there are many programs that will write the code for you. You just
click insert this or bold that etc.
To see the HTML that makes up a page simply right click on any page and select
view source (Or view menu > source)
So the HTML for this page looks like this:
Each HTML tag (shown in <> ) surrounds text and instructs the browser
as to how to display that text. Each code performs a specific task and must
be turned on, and then turned off. For example to bold a word on a page the
code <bold> would be put before the text to be changed. If it's not turned
off all the text after that code would appear bold, so the tag </bold>
would be placed after the bolded word.
So <bold> Word </bold> would result in Word on a web page.
There are many many pages on the
internet on how to write HTML codes.
There are also many free programs available (see tucows.com or do a search)
to write your web page. You enter the text, choose the effect you want and the
program applies the code.
Some host sites like homestead and Angelfire even offer tutorials and readymade
pages, or easy to use page editors to get you started. Some of these are more
limited than others. Your choice of what you use to make your pages will no
doubt change as what you want to put on your page changes and your reasons for
maintaining a page change along with your skills.
You can however create a page (from the most basic to quite complex) using just notepad on your computer. All you need is to learn a few of those HTML codes.
Once you actually have a page, or a series of linked pages ready you need to put them on a server that is linked to the internet. They can be viewed on your home computer by you, but not by anyone else on the internet. It is said that the company/server that holds your pages for display on the net is "hosting" your page.
This is not as difficult as it sounds. Most people who have an account with an ISP for internet connection usually get an email address and web space as part of that account. This web server space is for your home page or anything else you want available on the internet.
If you don't have your own server space there are places that offer free hosting of personal pages on the web. These sites often add an advertisement to your page or have pop up ads that appear when you access the site which basically covers their cost of hosting.
Putting files onto a server is called
"uploading."
Uploading is usually done via FTP (File transfer protocol) which is a fancy
name for a way to send files from one computer to another. Again there are many
FTP programs around. There is a tutorial on The
Mouse's Tail about uploading files via FTP.
Putting a web page on the internet
can cost anything from nothing to a lot of money.
You can of course pay to have a site designed and hosted for you (or your business).
Or you could do it yourself, put it on a free host (like Angelfire where The
Mouse's Tail is hosted) and pay nothing more than whatever it costs you to access
the internet.
If you have web space with your ISP then you've already paid for basic hosting.
You will have a limited amount of space maybe 5mb - 20mb, depending on where
you are, and a limited number of hits that your site can generate in a set time.
(A hit is registered every time someone opens your page (or refreshes it). Mostly
this limit is fairly high and the majority of personal sites don't come near
it. If you post a site offering free computers and it's mentioned on National
Television then expect to probably get a bill from your ISP for excess bandwidth
because of the heavy traffic to the site. Most basic sites fit on 5mb easily.
If you find yourself outgrowing the space then you may need to pay for more
space.
If you want a domain name (like www.thisismypage.com ) then you'll need to pay
for hosting and for registering the domain. Your ISP can tell you more about
this.
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