Publishing your Web Page

You can create a Web site in a directory on your hard disk and view and test it with any Web browser. Your computer does not have to be connected to the Web. This can be very useful. But to put your pages on the Web you need two things:

1. A computer that is permanently connected to the Internet.
2. A Web server program running on that computer.

Typical home users do not have either of these. You can download a free Web server program (such as Apache), but it will not be useful without the Internet connection.

Usually home users get both (1) and (2) through their Internet service provider (ISP) such as AOL or MindSpring. If you sign up for such a service, they will provide you with instructions about how to put your pages on their site. Sometimes an ISP will expect you to use their software to create your Web pages. Others expect you to use a commercial package such as FrontPage or GoLive.

University students often can publish Web pages on their university's computers.