1. Required Programs to create your own web page

Anti Virus
Firewalls

Requirements

• A Web authoring Packages or HTML editor to write your web pages.
• Web browsers To view the pages
• Internet Service Supplier ( ISP ) is required to provide a service that allows your computer access to the World Wide Web (WWW). Some ISPs will provide space on there servers to host your web site.
• A Modem, to connect your computer to the telephone line, and convert the digital computer generated data to an analogue signal that can be transmitted along the telephone lines.
• A Hosting service that will store your web site, this may be done by your ISP.
• Books or tutorials and reference material to assist you.
• Graphic Programs to create and amend graphics for your website.
• For your protection up to date anti virus software and a firewall to protect your PC from being attacked whilst connected to the web.

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Web authoring Packages or HTML Editors

HTML code that you write to produce a page on a web site is only a text file and can be written in the simplest text editor, like Notepad, which comes as part of Microsoft Windows.

In a text editor such as notepad all the code must be entered either by hand or copied from tutorials such as this and pasted into the text editor. This is called hand coding and an excellent way of learning how to write the HTML code.

Life can be made easier for the programmer by using better editors or Web authoring Packages, which will automatically insert HTML code for you, this is often achieved by selecting an icon in the editor. Students using these better web authoring packages should ensure that they look and learn the code produced automatically by the program.

In theory it is possible to create an excellent web page or site using these packages, without understanding any HTML code. In practice, from time to time, things do go wrong and you are required to go into the raw source code to rectify the problem.

Students of the Open University courses T170 and T171 should note that some HTML editors can cause problems with the ETMA system if used in there default format.

Follow the following link for more information on HTML editors, use the back button to return to this page.

Useful information and List of Web authoring Packages and HTML Editors.

Web Browsers

Web browsers are programs that display web pages. The files that are displayed can either be on your hard drive or can be downloaded by the browser from the Internet. Because you are reading this page you probably already know that that you can download this page by entering the following URL into your browsers Location: box.
http://www.tutorials4u/html/editors.htm

Files on your hard disk can also be displayed. Often when you are surfing the web the page displayed on your screen was downloaded on a previous visit to that web site and stored in a cache on your hard drive. The stored cache page is displayed, a much quicker method for the browser to perform. For students visiting their Universities web site to obtain the latest course information can be fooled by this cashed display.

To avoid this possible problem, either:

• Make use of the browsers Refresh (IE) or Reload (Netscape) button.
• Change the settings in your browser, to always download, although this will slow your browsing experience.

You will soon learn how different browsers will display a web page differently. The HTML that works in one browser will not work in another. It is therefore essential when you are testing the appearance of your web pages that you do so in various web browsers, the main ones are listed below.

Microsoft Internet. Explorer

Latest version 6.

IE is by far the most popular web browser, accounting for approx. 80% of all traffic on the web. Some people are having problems upgrading to version 6.

www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/

Netscape Navigator

Latest version 6.1. Standards compliant. Complaints of bugs in earlier release version 6.

http://browsers.netscape.com

Opera

Latest version 5. Claims to be the fastest browser in the world. Good W3C compliance. No Java in the default package.

http://www.opera.com/download/

Mozilla

Latest version 0.9.3

www.mozilla.org

Amaya

Latest version 5.1. The official browser and authoring tool of the W3C. Excellent for debugging for non compliance. Terrible user interface.

http://www.w3.org/Amaya/ Home page
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/Amaya.html overview
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/BinDist.html Download
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/Manual.html Manual

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Internet Service Supplier (ISP)

An Internet service providers (ISP) is required, who will provide you with access to the Internet.

Program

The ISP usually provide you with a front end program that will connect you to the ISP.

The computer operating system such as Windows 98 has built in programs that can do this, possibly faster than that provided by the ISP. Although usually the setup is not as easy as the program supplied by the ISP.

Costs

There are 2 main costs with surfing the web. ISP charges, and telephone charges.

ISP charges

You can now find ISP that do not charge a monthly fee. They will provide you with a telephone number that is the equivalent of a BT local call. Check on this. The ISP will bill you for calls to this number rather than BT.

Other ISP will charge a monthly fee. Usually connection speed and the service provided are better with a pay ISP.

Help charges

A free ISP usually provide help via premium charge telephone lines, these can be expensive, such as £1 a minute.

A pay ISP usually provide a free help service. Do check the small print.

Telephone Charges

You must ensure that you connect to the Internet. Via the equivalent of a local number. Most ISP will charge you for calls on this number,and BT will not charge you. You should make sure you understand how charges will be made.

All Inclusive

Some ISP charge an all inclusive fee a month and provide you with a free telephone number to connect to them. I use AOL who charge £14.99 a month for this service. This is cheaper for me than local calls via the minute.

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Hosting Service

After careful consideration of the hosting market this site is hosted by 1&1 Click the link for details.

A hosting service allows you to store your web pages on their server. When you first obtain a service it will probably be as a shared hosting. This is where numerous Web sites are shared on one server.

This service may be provided free or you may have to pay. Note that some free site have a bad reputation. If your site becomes commercially viable you may find that you have lost copyright of your material, to the service. Read the small print, before accepting the service.

If you wish to use your own Domain name, such as tutorials4u.com you will have to pay for web hosting.

Many ISPs provide a hosting service.

You may require your hosting service to provide some extensions so that your web site can be enhanced. Such as:

• FrontPage extensions
• Server side scripting.
• Active Server Page (ASP).
• Common Gateway Interface (CGI).
• Database support.
• Multimedia streaming.

Not all hosting services can provide these extras, or may charge for the service.

Some hosting services charge for bandwidth. The busier the site the more you pay. Usually measured in GB a month, with possible individual daily maximum totals for downloads. This is often done with "Adult" sites. An alternative way of dealing with large bandwidths without paying extra is that the site works very slowly and may grind to a halt. For the general run of the mill personal site, this is not a problem, but if you think you will have a winner of a website, then you will have to look further into this possible problem.

List of Hosting companies

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Firewalls

A firewall prevents unauthorised access to your computer through the ports that connect you to the Internet or network. A firewall can be hardware, usually used by businesses, or software used by home users. If you are using the Internet then a firewall is a must.

Firewall FAQ

ZoneAlarm

Free to use for personal use

An excellent free to use for personal use. Simple to use with fairly basic configuration options.

www,zonelabs.com

If you wish to check ZoneAlarms log files then an analysis tool such as Zonelog is required.

www.zonelog.co.uk

Norton Personal Firewall 2002

Price Guide £29.99

B00005OB54

Simple to set up with 3 levels of protection. Experienced users can use a more flexible set of rules. Will protect against potentially risky Active X or Java components.

Check for the latest price and additional information with Amazon.

Link to us

I hope that you have found this site useful. Please help by spreading the word and by linking to us from your own website.

Modem

A modem converts digital signals used by a computer to analogue signals that can be transmitted along telephone lines.

If your computer does not have a built in modem, modems are available:

• On a card that can be placed into a slot inside your computer case.
• As a PC card typically for notebooks with a PC card connection.
• As an external box that plugs into one of the computer ports.

Speed

• Do not purchase a modem of less than 56K. The speed of the modem is crucial in the speed of your connection.
• Connect the modem with as short a cable as possible to the telephone wall socket.
• The quality of your telephone connection. Have a word with BT to check the line, and if required increase the gain. Be persistent they always say the line is OK.
• If you have telephone extensions around the house, speed is sometimes improved if the other telephones, answer machines etc. are unplugged.
• The amount of traffic on the Internet during the UK evening and night (American day and evening) times are the worst.

Alternatives

• If you are in a cable area you may have alternatives available.
• Newer telephone services such as ISDN.
• T1 connections