Publishing to the WWW, part 2. Hosting
"Getting hosting & connecting your domain name to it so your site is fully online"
As mentioned in the vocabulary part, a host or server is essentially a computer that's always connected to the internet. When you use a hosting provider, you are renting/using space on this special computer always connected to the internet. You do this so that when someone types your URL in, this server will offer up your website.
Bahnhof’s nuclear-proof servers (extreme example)
In this tutorial, I'll show two possible paths you could take with hosting. Note that there are many possible hosting configurations you could use, and these are just two. (Note if you have your own setup or want to try something else -- go for it. There is no true way to doing this!)
Option 1. NearlyFreeSpeech
https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net
Pros:
- Straightforward (same setup as Fruitful Portal, access via SFTP, Cyberduck)
- Cheap and reasonable (2–5 cents per day ... and transparent about its pricing ... requires no upfront yearly commitment, pay for what you use)
- Allows non-static sites (Ability to use other dynamic web programming down the line, like PHP and node.js)
Cons:
- Not free
Option 2. GitHub Pages
Pros:
-
Free!
-
Widely used
Cons:
- Learning curve (Not as straightforward — setting up and maintaining a GitHub repository can be confusing at first and takes some getting used to.)
- Size limitation (GitHub Pages sites have file size upload limitations)
- Slight delay (GitHub Pages sites sometimes take a little while to update after you push new code)
- Limited to static sites only (No dynamic web programming, like PHP and node.js)
Pick either one of the above. (Or find your own method.) The path forks here...
Choose one or the other:
3a. Hosting with NearlyFreeSpeech
or
(Don't do both, unless you're curious)
In both of these methods, we'll be covering these steps:
Goals:
- Create or log into your account at a hosting provider
- Set up a new site here
- Connect to this hosting and upload something as a test
- Test that the hosting works on the temporary URL given
- Connect your custom domain to the hosting
- Upload your real content to your site!