Setting up my own website and I don't know squat about it (1 Viewer)

[Jon_Are]

I'm fairly computer knowledgable, but I've never messed with setting up a website before. I am interested in creating a very modest family-centered site. My ISP provides 5MB free space with more available at a price.

Lots of questions, but I'll start with these...

Apparently I need an FTP application which will allow me to upload data to my site? For my simple needs, are there easy and reliable free or shareware programs for this?

I'm pretty proficient in Microsoft Publisher, which includes templates for web design. Once I've created my masterpiece in Publisher, how difficult is it to transfer it to my website? Or do I need Frontpage?

Thanks,

Jon

 

[SethH]

You should be able to do it without FrontPage, although it would probably be easier with FrontPage or something similar. For an FTP client, I use WS_FTP for free, but I think it's only free because I get it through my college. You can simply use your web browser to transfer via FTP, but it's a little easier to use an FTP client.

Oh, and it shouldn't be difficult to transfer once your done. Just transfer your main page into the /index file and you're good to go.

 

[SteveA]

FileZilla is a nice, free FTP tool.

 

[DaveF]

FTP is easy. WS_FTP has a free version. It's ugly, but works very well. There's lots of other free or cheap programs. You can also FTP with IE. I believe you just type in the ftp://ftp.domain.com address and it will prompt you for your login info. My experience is that it runs slowly, but it's easy.

MS Publisher might even have a FTP client built-in to help you upload your files.

You can also go to Start->Run->FTP to get a console FTP program. You can do some research to learn how to do FTP the old fashioned way (I since forgotten the particular commands)

The important details are: the ftp address and login information (from your ISP). The FTP program will let you browse your local harddrive and the web-server and then click on the files to upload or download from one location to the other.

 

[Jon_Are]

Thanks to all for the advice.


I didn't even think of that, Dave. I checked and, sure enough, Publisher has that ability.

I went ahead and bought Frontpage for Dummies; now I have to decide if I should return it and just publish from Publisher, or if I should hang on to the book, read it, and possibly spring for Frontpage.

Although I'm planning to build and maintain a small, very informal site, I would like to have the ability to create more professional, more complex sites (I foresee that I'll need this skill in a year or so).

Any thoughts?

Jon

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Don't bother with Frontpage. You can create a perfectly good homepage with the free FrontPage Express provided with Windows, or even the old Netscape Composer (free).

FrontPage is generally considered to produce quite bloated web pages. Dreamweaver is given more credit, but it's a more expensive product.

Of course, you could always just learn HTML.

For free FTP clients, FileZilla is the best by a league.

 

[Mike Fassler]

hehe everything is free if you know where to go j/k
Flashfxp is one of the best ftp programs out there. HTMl is easy to learn you could do it in a short amount of time.