Website Creation

[OverlordMondo]

I'm gonna start my own website and make it the coolest website in history.

 

Where could I host it? Could I host it at home? What options are open to me?

 

In what ways can I construct such a site? What languages would I need to know? What easy-to-use un1337 programs are there?

[Daeval]

http://www.webmonkey.com

 

Not sure how they are anymore, but they used to have some decent begginer tutorials. All you really need is notepad and an image editor (GIMP should work and is free, or PhotoShop if you have it). You can go the WYSIWYG route, but that's not l33t. (and if you don't know what that acronym meant, it's time to start reading).

 

You can always just google search for some tutorials and stuff, there's tons out there. Start with a basic "I want to make a webpage" article, move on to basic HTML, then Tables and Frames. From there, I like CSS and maybe learn how to incorporate javascript for rollovers and stuff. A lot of people like Flash and Dreamweaver for really fancy things these days, but 90% of the time they just bloat out a page.

[ugenn]

I'm gonna start my own website and make it the coolest website in history.

I doubt it, but all the best anyway.

 

Where could I host it?  Could I host it at home? What options are open to me?

 

On a dedicated 24/7 server with a fixed IP. Yes, but most consumer broadband plans I know of explicity forbid hosting. Many ISPs block of incoming connections to port 80 (the port which HTTP/WWW uses), so you'll need to seek other (and usually more expensive) plans. Besides self-hosting, you can buy server/hosting space from an ISP and put your stuff. You will typically be given a telnet/ssh account to log into to do your work. Advantage of this is that most of technical and setup details are already taken care of for you. Disadvantage is you have far less control than you would from self-hosting.

 

In what ways can I construct such a site?

In order of difficulty (IMO):

- Pay/seduce/blackmail/indimidate someone to do it for you.

- Wizard-type tools that guide you through and allow you to choose from some pre-canned designs (eg Wasy Web Editor http://www.easywebeditor.com/)

- WYIWYG tools like MS front page which allows you to construct a site like a word processor.

- Manually write HTML.

 

What languages would I need to know?

Languages:

This really depends on what you want to do with your site. For a simple website, plain HTML would do. For better visuals, you will need CSS and perhaps some Javascript. But if you need to offer truly dynamic behavior (eg a search function). you'll need to pick up some scripting languages. Popular ones are PHP, Perl, Python, VBScript (ASP). Usually, you will also need to learn some SQL for database manipulation (MySQL is very popular in this area as it integrates very well with PHP). Flash knowledge is also useful for adding fancy (but otherwise almost useless and bandwidth hogging) graphical effects to your page.

 

What easy-to-use un1337 programs are there?

 

None that I know of. I guess you will have to learn it the hard way if you want to make it the coolset website in history.

[someboddy]

Learn PHP, not ASP. ASP is a M$ language. If you will learn PHP, there is a good chance you will find a free host.

[emsley]

Jesus dont blast him with too much tech info.

Use this tool

http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/

Once you can suss that you are ready for the next step.

Learn HTML before any oter web site coding.