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How Do I Upload My
Website to the Internet?
Once you have your website built, and have a web hosting
account you want to put it in, you can proceed to upload your website for
everyone on the internet to see. How you go about doing this depends on what
software program(s) you used to build your website. This article explains the
two most popular ways to upload your website to your hosting account.
Typical Uploading Method
The typical way to upload your website (which is actually a collection of
files and folders) to your hosting account is to use an FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) program. An FTP program simply provides you with an easy way to
select files on your computer's hard drive, and copy them over to your hosting
account (which is essentially another computer). An FTP program will typically
have two main "windows": one that shows the files and folders
located on your computer, and one that shows the files and folders in your
hosting account on the server. To upload your webpages (or website's files)
and other associated image files to your hosting account, you have to select
the files and folders you want to upload from your computer in your computer
window, and then "drag and drop" them over to the server window,
essentially copying them to the server (and more specifically, to your web
hosting account).
That is a very simplistic explanation of how to use an FTP program to copy
files from your computer to the web hosting server. You can actually use an
FTP program to copy files from ANY computer, to ANY OTHER computer, provided
you have access to both machines. One of the most popular FTP programs is
WS_FTP by ipswitch (www.ipswitch.com).
Using an FTP program is the best (and easiest) way to get files uploaded to
your web hosting account, no matter what program(s) you use to create your
website..... with one exception: Microsoft Frontpage.
Uploading with Microsoft FrontPage
If you use FrontPage to build your website, then you do not need an FTP
program. In fact, you should not use an FTP program because FrontPage
works a little differently than most other website design software. Instead,
you will need the FrontPage Server Extensions installed in your hosting
account (if you need these, we provide them free of charge), and you will use
FrontPage's integrated "Publish" feature (visit Microsoft
FrontPage's home
page) instead of an FTP
program. Just because FrontPage is different, doesn't mean it's better or
worse than any other publishing method.... but FrontPage is probably the most
popular website design software in use today, mainly for it's ease of use, and
similar look and feel to Microsoft's other highly popular software titles like
Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint.
To upload (or "publish" to use Microsoft's terminology) your
FrontPage-built website to your hosting account, first make sure the FrontPage
Server Extensions are installed. Then, simply click the Publish
button, and enter http://www.yourcompany.com.
You will then be prompted for your username and password (which you get from
your web hosting provider.... if you order one of our web hosting accounts, we'll email your username and password to you once your account is
setup). Once you enter those, your website's files and folders will all be
copied (or uploaded, or published) to your hosting account, and immediately
available for the world to see.
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