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Launch | Test
| ISP | HOST | Upload
| Domain Name | Promote
Launching
"All I have left to do is the html part."
- Choose a launch date. give yourself a deadline and share it with others.
upload an index page that states your launch date.
- Learn when to stop developing in order to make what you have WORK
[Versioning - 1.0, 1.2, 1.3 etc...]
- Cut your losses, stop developing new pages, roll-overs, animations,
etc, and refocus your CONCEPT so that your intention is clear to your
audience.
Testing and Troubleshooting
"Isn't that link obvious?" or "Wow, the page is so big! You
can't see the text at the bottom without scrolling way down."
- Do as much usability testing as you can. What's obvious to you is
NOT obvious to your users. This is more than testing if the site works
from link to link but does the site work for your intended audience?
Collect a few friends that don't know what your project is about,
sit them in front of a computer, give them the URL to your
site, and watch what they do. Just watch - don't interfere or guide
them - just watch and takes notes. When they are done ask them what
the experience was like. Is it what you intended?
- Test the site on both PCs and MACs, old browsers and new, big monitors
and small.
- Prioritize the problems and fix the top 5 problems first.
In
order to go live with your web project, you'll need an ISP (internet
service provider), Web Server and Host,
FTP Client and perhaps, a Domain Name.
ISP (Internet
Service Provider)
"How do I get
connected to the web?"
You need an ISP to open a 'pipe' between you and the stream of data passing
along the Internet highway from your home or work, via phone or cable
modem. Examples are AOL, Earlthlink, MediaOne, RCN, or your employer and/or
school may provide their own service.
Web
Server and Host
"Where are my
web site files stored?"
Choosing a host depends on your needs in terms of:
- necessary storage space,
- ftp access,
- how many email addresses you want to host,
- streaming media needs, if any,
- database support, if any,
- technical assistance (email? phone? chat? 24 hour?).
There are still
a few free services around or you can pay for a more secure reliable
service.
Here is a list of
Free servers - freeweblist.freeservers
Some popular free
hosts that seem to be sticking around -
Also, check out
TopHosts.Com,
"the world's largest independent Web hosting resource site"
that "objectively" reviews hosts (that's what they say anyway).
Here are some fee
based solutions suggested by a trusted friend:
Uploading
to the Web
"How do I get
my files from my computer to the host's server computer so that my files
are accessable to my audience?"
You need an File Transfer Protocol(FTP) or SecureFTP client.
- Macromedia embeds
and FTP client within its Dreamweaver program.
You can set this up when you define a site. But remember, you
can't easily do SECURE FTP.
- Mac - MacSFTP
- PC - WS_FTP
- We
do not deal with security issues at all in this course -
in the early, friendlier days of the web hacking was less
of an issue. Those days are gone. FTP is NOT a secure method
for transferring data around the internet - user names and
passwords can be lifted by hacking programs. If you are in
charge of large amounts of sensitive data (airport security,
medical records, intellectual property), FTP is not the method
you'd be using - if this is the case, you would want to be
working with a web administrator that understands security
issues, this knowledge needs to be updated regularly as hackers
work 24 hours a day.
Domain
Names
"Why
is my URL so darn long?"
If you want your
own domain name - www.chester.com - rather than http://www.fas.harvard.edu/extension/community/people/~chester
....
you'll have to see if it's available, reserve it and pay a fee.
-
You can register domains through a variety of ways - through the
very first domain name seller networksolutions.com (now
called Verisign). Or, you can go through a "reseller" where
you may get a better price (like Hostway,
they charge 6.95 a year!). Usually, you can also do it through
your web host though they may mark-up the price a bit - beware.
It shouldn't cost your more than 10 - 35 bucks a year to reserve
a domain.
Some domain suffixes -
.com
.net
.org
.tv
.cc
.ws
.biz
and some newly available -
.aero
.biz
.coop
.info
.museum
.name
.pro
-
If you don't need/want your own domain name, you can use your
web host's name (www.geocities.com/yourname/) without paying extra.
-
Each ISP has to have a DNS - Domain Name Server -
in order to resolve the domain name. This means matching the domain
name up with an IP address, aka physical address. For example,
the physical address that corresponds to the "courses.dce.harvard.edu" domain
name is 140.247.197.235. Every machine on the internet has an IP
address. If a webmaster wants to change the machine that hosts
a website she only needs to change the IP address associated with
the domain.
-
U.S. Department of Commerce and the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers operates a web site that has been established
to provide the public information regarding Internet domain name
registration services. See Internic.com >>
-
Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers : ICANN is
the global, non-profit, private-sector coordinating body acting
in the public interest. ICANN ensures that the DNS continues to
function effectively – by overseeing the distribution
of unique numeric IP addresses and domain names. Among its other
responsibilities, ICANN oversees the processes and systems that
ensure that each domain name maps to the correct IP address.See www.icann.org >>
-
As of July 13, 2004, there were 40,588,620 registered domains.
you can look up to check the availability of a domain or who owns
one by using the www.whois.net lookup
tool.
Promote
- meta tags
- search engines
- word of mouth
- postcards
- artist lists and directories
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