ACCESSING THE WEB
GETTING YOUR PRESENCE ONTO THE INTERNET

CONTENTS

How Can I Get A Web Site?

Registering Your Name

Hosting Your Site

Getting Exposure

Domain Name Services

1. HOW CAN I GET A WEB SITE?

There are four basic ways to get a set of web pages onto the Internet in Australia.
  1. Use the free space provided by most Internet Service Providers (ISP). This is space (usually up to 5MB in size) that comes with your access to the Internet. Most Australian ISP's have this available to theri clients. The web address is usually something like this

    www.your.host.com/users/yourname

    The disadvantage of this name is that many search engines rank such sites as quite low in importance

  2. Find a host site that will put your pages up for a sum of money. This can range from FREE (Sites such as geocities.com) where you have to accept their advertising as a part of the deal, through to specialist sites that have been set up by groups with common interests. One such site, available for businesses in northern NSW, is www.nnsw.com.au. In this case your website will usually look like this

    www.your.host.com/yourname

  3. Sub-Domains. These have similarities of both b. and d. in this list. They are hosted sites where the organisation sets up, for a minimal price, a webiste that is a sub-domain of the host. Your web address will look something like this.

    http://yourname.yourhostname.com

    Note that when writing such addresses the http:// part MUST be included. This site is an example of a sub-domain site.

  4. Domains. These are where you have your very own site. This has the advantage that your name is your Internet address. Another advantage is that most hosting sites will also give you Email access for your very own Email address. It has the disadvantage in that you will have to pay for space to put it and for the domain name (see 2. below). Another disadvantage is that you will still need your ISP for access to the Internet Your address will be similar to the example below.

    www.yourname.com

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2. REGISTERING YOUR NAME

If you are planning to set up your own website (as opposed to having it on your free space provided by your Internet Service Provider - see part 1d above) the first thing you will require will be an Internet address or, as it is correctly known, your Domain Name.

For Australians, there are two options. The first is to obtain a domain name that has the suffix .au at the end of your name. There are some pretty strict conditions on obtaining such a name including the fact that you must have a registered business name and that business name must be reflected in your domain name. They are also quite expensive (by comparison to the rest of the world) and you can expect to pay between $30 and $50 per year, depending upon who you register it through (there are 3 or 4 companies that can do this). In this case your Internet address would look a little like this:

www.yourname.com.au

The second option is to just register a straight domain name (it won't have the .au at the end) with an overseas (usually USA) domain name service. Here the fee can be as low as $US5.00 per annum.

Choosing a domain name now involves a fairly comprehensive choice of extensions, including the following:

.com, .biz, .org, .net, .shop

The options will be displayed when you register. A list of some of the Domain Registration sites will be found at the end of this document.

Once your name is registered then you are ready for the next step.

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3. HOSTING YOUR SITE

If you have used the first three options from section 1, then hosting has already been determined as you will use the location that your provider allocates.

For those who have opted for a Domain Name of their own, then you will need to find someone to host your site. These come in a variety of formats and most of them will also provide you with up to 5 Email addresses associated directly with your domain name. For example:

youraddress@yourname.com

There are those who will justifiably say that this can add a certain professional look to your communications and this can have some advantages.

Again, for Australians, there are two basic choices.

You can use an Australian host company (and there are quite a few around). The advantage of this is that if you need to talk to the host for some reason, then you have a relatively cheap phone call to talk with a person about the problem. The disadvantage is that they are generally quite expensive compared to the rest of the world and you can expect to pay at least $35.00 a month for a 50MB of space.

If you are comfortable with using an overseas host site (and there is generally nothing wrong with such sites other than the expense and time difference of phone calls if they are ever require) then they are plentiful and such host sites can be found for as little as $US1.00 per month (usually minimum time lengths of at least 12 months) for 100MB of space. The aspect here is that they are Credit Card Only sites, that is you must pay by credit card so if you don't like using a credit card on the Internet, then these are not available.

A list of some such sites is found at the end of this document.

Once you have signed up with the site they will provide you with all your access codes and details. If you need special items (such as CGI and FTP services) on your site, you may need to include these in your application with the host. For those who need these (forms generally use CGI, for example) be sure you have access to the facilities.

Once you have all this then you can access your site to set it up and then the world is able to access your domain. The set up can be done by you or through an Internet management service.

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4. GETTING EXPOSURE

One you are up and running then you need to let people know where to find you. If you do print and media advertising, be sure to include your Internet address in your advertising. That way people will know where you are.

You should also get yourself listed with Internet Search Engines. This is a process you can do your self or there are services that will do it for you (for a fee).

One way that does appear to be useful in getting exposure is to get other sites to provide links to your address. Some will do this for free, otherwise for a small fee, whilst others require a reciprocal arrangement (that they will link to you if you link to them). For businesses in the northern part of NSW, free links are available by simply supplying your location, business type and Internet address to webmaster@nnsw.com.au

Linking can also increase your ranking with search engines as they will list you higher in searches if you have many links to your page from other domains. I am told there are web sites out there that will actually do this for a small fee.

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5. DOMAIN NAME SERVICES

These links will open a new window with the site. If you know of other sites, we would welcome the information. These are just a few - there are many others. The inclusion here in this list is not an endorsement or recommendation - just links.

Australian

International

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