Hosting On the Web
1. The Quick and Dirty Guide to Getting Your
Own Domain
Kevin Ryan, Showa Women's University
2. Finding the
Ideal Host for Your Website
Robert L. Seltman
The Quick and Dirty Guide to Getting Your Own Domain
Kevin Ryan, Showa Women's University
http://kevinryan.com
Ever wanted to make a presence on the web? Once it just meant getting your home page up. Now you can do that free through a number of sites (called portals these days) like Yahoo, Excite, etc. These places sometimes even offer communities that you can set up for free. A listserv for your family? Your class? Try Excite, or Delphi. They throw in a home page too.
But some of us want to maintain control over a permanent presence on the web which is not subject to the vagaries of Internet Service Providers. ISPs, the companies that have the computers you call to connect to the Internet, can go under, leaving you stranded. Not if you get your own domain name. Some think of it as the cyber equivalent of vanity license plates. I think of it as staking out a claim in cyberspace. Better get yours before somebody else takes it. It is easy to do and not too expensive.
I first looked for ryan.com, and it was taken. You can find out which ones are taken or not by going to http://www.internic.net and using the "whois" function. I found kevinryan.com open. You can register directly through internic, but I would advise against it, as it creates 2 new steps in the process. Simpler to go to a web host provider, and they will register you if you sign up for their hosting service. Hosting is to domains as ISPs are to home pages and email addresses.
You can "park" your domain name at some web hosts. I have used 9netave.com (9 net avenue). It takes about 10 minutes. The ISPs forward your request and either do it for free or a small charge ($5). You still have to pay the $70 for two years to the Internet governing body (Internic), and you will get a bill in a week or so. The problem with this is that they make it inconvenient to switch to a new web host when you want to activate the account.
If you decide to actually use your domain for a home page, class exercises or even a small business, get a web host. It is important to know how close they are to the main information corridors (main cables, or backbones) and how fast a throughput they have. At least as important is their service. They should be willing to do handholding for newbies like ourselves. Get an Internet magazine and look at the back section. Ads proliferate for Web Hosting and the going rate is about twenty dollars a month.
Please note that I highly recommend getting a Web host in the United States. Hosting a Web in Japan costs about 65,000 yen just for the domain registration. Web hosting is at least triple the rate of United States. Since the World Wide Web is worldwide, there is no reason not to host a web in the U.S., the cheapest and most easily accessible location. The only drawback to a U.S. host is that you cannot use the domain ending in "co.jp".
Please note that ".com" is for individuals and companies, with ".org" for non-profit organizations. You have to be accredited to get ".edu" now. This will all change soon, with new suffixes like ".nom" for individuals coming in the next few months.
After months of search consultations with my friends of the computer club, I chose an Internet web host called aitcom.net. They have very flexible options, run their server with Linux, and allow for virtual domain hosting. By virtual, I mean that my domain sits on a small part of a very large hard disk instead of on its own machine. There is no difference to the end-user between the two.
There are many different levels for Web hosting at aitcom.net. I got the basic package with a special interface for a Web authoring software I have, called FrontPage. With it I can edit things on my Web site as easily as using a word processor. A slightly larger package without the FrontPage add-ons will cost you about twenty dollars a month.
I subsequently registered jalcall.org and jalt.org with aitcom.net and have found that the service there is exemplary. I will be transferring jalt.org over to Junko Fujio at the JALT Central Office, and could have made a profit selling the name, but didn't. Soon jaltcall.org will move into the hands of one of the officers of the CALL SIG.
Now, even if my Web host goes bankrupt, I just transfer the domain to another provider and keep all of my addresses the same. Did I forget to mention that most domains have unlimited email addresses as part of the hosting package, and free FTP accounts as well? The Web host will do everything to get your domain name registered except pay the fees. Please do take a look in the magazines, as things change so quickly.
At twenty dollars a month you can't go wrong. And if you can't afford that, just buy your own domain name for $70 (for two years) and park it for free. You only have one name.