Introduction
Tools to Create Your Web
Finding a Host for your Web Site
Web Design
Advanced Techniques

        Creating a web site is easier than you might think.  If you've used a text editor such as Microsoft Word, then you can practically type your whole web site into the computer using commands you'll find familiar.  Then there are a few extra things you'll need to do, such as linking your pages together, but you can do that by dragging and dropping them.

        The tool I used to create this web site is Microsoft FrontPage.  If you use the Microsoft "Office" suite of desktop software, then you'll find FrontPage very easy to learn and use.  It comes with a "personal web server" that lets you store your web on your own PC, and then serves the pages to your browser (either Netscape or Microsoft) just as your "host" will (see next paragraph for more about hosts).  It might be helpful for you to understand that FrontPage maintains all information about your web in the web itself.  In other words, there is no distinction between "source code" and "executable code" for your web.  Whatever you create using FrontPage is stored directly into the web you're creating.  If you don't want people to be able to browse a half-finished web as you're creating it, then you should have a "test version" and a "production version" of your web.  Whenever you want, you can copy the entire "test version" of your web onto (overlaying) the "production version".  FrontPage is smart enough to copy just the changed pages (unless you ask it to copy the whole thing).  FrontPage uses the word "publish" to mean copy, so don't be confused -- publish and copy are exactly the same thing.

        After you create your web site, you'll need to find a "host" for it -- that is, a computer that is always connected to the internet that will store your web site, and respond to requests from anyone in the world with a browser.  If you understand the difference between an "internet service provider" and a "web hosting service" then skip to the next paragraph.   If not, here it is: the former is the on-ramp and the latter is the off-ramp of the information superhighway.  The Internet Service Provider connects surfers to the Internet.  The Web Hosting Service connects Web Sites to the Internet.  Often, the same company provides both services.  But there's no need to use the same company for both services -- you should shop around and choose the best provider for each service.   Also, pick a web hosting company that offers POP3 email accounts.  Then you can have your web site and email all part of the same domain, which will be less confusing to people who want to reach you.  Also, and perhaps this is more important: if you ever become dissatisfied with your Internet Service Provider, you can change without changing your email address.  Similarly, if you become dissatisfied with your hosting company, you can move your domain name over to a new hosting company without changing domain name or email address.

        I did a pretty thorough search for hosts that support webs created by FrontPage in March, 1998.  At that time, I found that the least expensive hosts charged start-up fees ranging from zero to $35, and charged monthly fees as low as $10.  Some cut-rate hosts offered 5 megabytes of disk storage while others offered as much as 50 megabytes.  Additional megabytes of storage ranged from 20 cents to $2.  Some hosts limit the amount of data transfer.  Of all the low-cost hosting services, SoftCom Canada (now to myhosting.com) had the least restrictions, so I chose them.  This brings up another point.  I'm in California, so it makes sense that my Internet Service Provider should be a local company.  The hosting company, on the other hand, can be anywhere in the world that has fast access to the Internet.  So the fact my host is in another country doesn't bother me.  (Except that all time-stamps generated by the host server are in Eastern time, but I can live with that!)

Features that were important to me included:

        Features offered by some hosting companies that I didn't care about include: web design services, web commerce tools such as shopping carts, on-line credit card verification, and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which allows customers to feel secure in giving their card numbers over the Internet.

        "Advanced techniques" is a section at the bottom of this page that includes a more thorough examination of HTML (Hypertext Mark-Up Language), which is the language in which every web page is written.  To see the HTML for this very page, choose View, Document Source right now from your browser.

The Internet Toolbox is one of the many useful pages presented by Howard Wolinsky, a newspaper reporter, in what he calls the "World Wide Wolinsky Web".

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