MATERIALS NEEDED
What Hardware and Software Do You Need To Construct
a Website?
You need to have some basic hardware and software – and
you need to know how to use it. This is usually the “Achilles
heel” of website construction. For every piece of hardware that
you use – you also need to know HOW to use it’s software.
It’s a steep learning curve to put up your own website if you
are new to computing. To construct a website you will need the following:
1) A computer with an Internet connection. The computer
must be fast enough to handle the speed of the Internet connection
that you are using. If you are going to include a number of photographs
and large files (if you are going to post your newsletter on your website
for example) you will probably want an Internet connection faster than
dial-up.
2) You will need a website host provider. A host is
a computer where your Internet site is stored and is the computer where
other people actually go to access your website. I use a company called
Dreamscape (Northland Communications, http://corporate.dreamscape.com/)
for the WGTA website and Network Solutions (http://www.networksolutions.com/)
for this website, as well as my other business sites. Prices,
terms and size of the website that you can post vary by provider. Check
carefully before you sign up. Some Internet providers have pricing
plans which limit customers in the website size and access speed. Don’t
pay for more access than you anticipate needing. If you exceed
the space that you initially sign up for you will be notified and can
increase your access plan. A number of additional website host providers
are listed below:
- ICDSoft.com - http://www2.icdsoft.com/
- StartLogic - http://startlogic.com/
- Yahoo! Web Hosting - http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting/
- Easy CGI - http://www.easycgi.com/
A list of the top 25 web hosts (at least according
to tophosts.com) can be found at: http://www.tophosts.com/top25-page1.html.
3) As discussed previously you should get your own
domain name. I “rent” the WebData.us address through a
company called Network Solutions and they charge $35 per year ($29
per year for two years, and as low as $9.00 per year if you sign up
for 100 years!). They also have “deals” where you get the
domain name for free if you sign up with them to be your Internet host.
These costs, and what you get for what you pay, can vary greatly by
provider so check carefully.
4) If you are going to build your own website you
will need a website construction program. This program allows you to
put words, pictures and files on web pages and see what it looks like
before you post your pages on your host provider. These are “drag
and drop” programs (although you can also learn HTML programming
language and program your own website!). I am currently using a program
called Dreamweaver CS4 (http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/).
You may not need a website construction program if you are going to
use a company that provides you with templates (more on that later).
Here are some links to other website design software programs:
5) Dreamweaver CS4 comes with it’s own uploading
program which sends your web pages to the host. It’s called an
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program and it sends files (like your
web page and photos) from your computer to your host computer. I prefer
to use a separate program called Fetch: (http://fetchsoftworks.com).
There are also other FTP programs.
FTP Programs for the Mac:
FTP Programs for PC:
- FTP Voyager - http://www.ftpvoyager.com/
- AdminPro - http://www.craigrichards.com/software/adminpro.html
- CuteFTP - http://www.cuteftp.com/
- WS.FTP Pro - http://www.wsftp.com/products/ws_ftp/index.asp
6) Your Webmaster will also need to know how to produce
Adobe PDF files (PDF = Portable Document Format, a method of showing
the same document the same way to different computer users) -- it is
an exact duplicate of the paper copy. Without PDF this is very difficult
to do. The good news is that making a PDF copy is usually easy
to do if you have newer software. If not, then you have to buy another
program (http://www.adobe.com/).
7) A printer.
8) If you are going to put photographs on your website
you will need, preferably, a digital camera. Along with the camera
you will need software that will allow you to load the photos into
your computer (which usually comes with the camera) and a program to
manipulate the photographs. Most photos need to be resized (to take
up less memory) so they will load faster when accessed on the website.
You may also need to crop photos as well as change the colors, tones,
sharpness, etc. Mac users have iPhoto that works well. Photoshop
is the industry standard but has a steep learning curve; Photoshop
Elements is a less expensive version and a bit easier to use (http://www.adobe.com/).
9) I have found that a scanner is also useful. There
are times when I need to post something on the website and all I have
is a paper copy. Scanning it in makes the process much easier.
10) A "hit counter" that records how many
times your website has been accessed by visitors is a great way to
get an idea of how many people are visiting your site. A free (really
free!!) counter can be found at StatCounter.com (http://www.statcounter.com).
Not only does StatCounter count the number of visitors your site receives
they can also track where they came from, how long they stayed, which
pages they visited, and more.
Other website hit counters are:
- CyberCounter - http://www.cyber-counter.com/index.html
- Amazing Counters - http://www.amazingcounters.com/?ref=gad024
- Easy Counter - http://www.easycounter.com/
- RiteCounter - http://www.ritecounter.com/
Check out the fine print before using any of the above
counters – sometimes “free” isn’t really free!
11) Back up your work – either on a CD, DVD
or a separate hard drive. Once you have hundreds of hours invested
in a website it would be terrible to lose all your work on a crashed
hard drive. While you do have a copy stored on the host computer, a
large website might have 300 – 500 pages, images, files, etc.
stored on the host computer. Downloading them all would be a pain,
but could be done. It’s easier if you have everything backed
up at home. I have my work backed up on two external hard drives, a
flash drive, and a separate standalone (not connected to anything)
computer.
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This page was last updated on November
15, 2011
WebData.us
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