Short notes from my lecture today (18th October 2011) on registering a domain name and setting up a server to self host a wordpress blog. The lecture was for University of Wales Newport Graphics students.

1. Setting up your website

2. What you need… Domain Name www.yourname.co.uk / com / etc Web Space Provided by a web host

3. How it works Domain registrant provides DNS for your domain name Web host provides your ‘web server’ Some companies provide both services

4. How it works You put your web content into your web server space Domain registrants DNS ‘points’ your domain name to your web space

10. Web Server Structure You have a ‘Root’ or ‘Home’ folder / directory In that you have a ‘public html’ folder public_html www_html web_home Etc….

11. Where to put your stuff You upload all your stuff to your webspace via FTP or using the web hosts Control Panel Everything goes in your ‘public_html’ folder ‘Home’ page usually called index.html / htm Server is configured to always serve this file to any incoming requests

12. What happens behind the scenes Someone types in www.yourname.co.uk in their browser The DNS ‘resolves’ this name to the location of your webserver (using info from its datatabse) The web browser is directed to your webserver Your stuff is displayed in the browser. Demo…