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Tag: domain name

How to set up a new website – Step 3 – Set up your hosting and WordPress shell

Situation:  I want to make the outline of my website at my hosters

  • I’ve registered and paid for my domain name
  • The registrar has alerted me by email that it is ready for use
  • I have pointed my domain’s name servers to my hosting service and set the name servers on the hosting side (this time I did nothing because the hosting service were also the registrar and they did everything.)
  • While I was waiting, I registered a Google Apps account for email.

Step 3 Fireworks by Jason O'Halloran via FlickrTask:  To register for Google Apps

Now I want to tell the hosting service to host my site.  I will also confirm that I will be using Google Apps for email.  And I will set up a WordPress shell which I will use as the scaffolding for my website.

Steps:

#1 Log in to the hosting service

  • Find it via Google!
  • Find the login link – never obvious
  • Recall the email address and password used for login and ‘access to the cpanel’.
  • Look for “Manage domains’
  • Select the new domain
  • Make sure that the check boxes for [both http//www.domainname.com and http://domainname.com] and Google mail are ticked.
  • Have a good look at everything else [without touching].
  • Choose full hosting [this may be different for other hosters].
  • Double check by going back to Manage Domains. Does it seem that the hosters know they are hosting the domain?

#2 Now load up the WP shell

The reason for loading up WP now is that when you are asked to load it up, you are reminded to have no files in the ‘domain space’.  So I want WordPress in place before the link up to Google.  Maybe, one day I will experiment with doing it the other way.

  1. Go to one click install and choose WordPress
    1. Chose CUSTOM install despite your sense that you want a SIMPLE install.
    2. Choose your domain
    3. Enter your username and email as requested.   The WordPress shell will contact you via your email and you can complete WordPress stuff later.
  2. You can try typing http://yourdomainname.com in a browser and seeing if it comes up.  If it doesn’t, that could be because the name hasn’t propgated around the internet yet (meaning your internet service provider cannot convert a bland request of get http://yourdomainname.com into action because there is insufficient common knowledge to pass you along from service to service to your website.)

Progress you have made to launching your site

  • You know have a domain name registered and pointing at a hosting service
  • You have told the hosting service to host this domain name (to make space on their servers)
  • You’ve told it to recognize your name with or without www
  • You’ve told it to will be using Google Apps for email
  • You’ve loaded up a (CUSTOM) install of WordPress and your hoster has done the few additional tasks such as make your database and install the WP software.  You can fix up your WordPress later.

Next – fetch code from Google

And upload it to your website so Google is authorized to run your email

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How to set up a new website – Step 1 – Get a domain name

Step 1 Fireworks by Jason O'Halloran via FlickrSituation:  I want to set up a new website

  • I’ve already mocked up what I want on a local (WAMP) server on my PC (not necessary to complete this step but I have done).
  • I’ve thought up a domain name which I am happy with.
  • I’ve already checked on Domainr, or a similar service, that my name has not been taken (is available.)

Task:  To buy a domain name

And have its nameservers pointing  at my hosting service, i.e. so customers who ask the internet for my domain name are set to the computer where my website will sit (be served).

Steps to get a new domain up-and-running

#1  Registrar

First, I must choose a registrar where I buy the domain name and renew it annually.  A registrar is a telephone directory or index for internet.  There are many and they cleverly cross-reference each other.   The best know is GoDaddy.com.

To make my choice

  1. Does the Registrar cover the address that I want?  A Registrar covers a  limited range of TLD or top level domains.  For example, a registrar in the US may not cover .co.uk addresses.
  2. How easy is it to point the Name Servers that will be listed with my domain name to the computers that will be hosting my website?  Have I got clear instructions from both ends – the registrar service and the hosting service (or Posterous or WordPress.com – the place where my website will physically sit)?
  3. If I have more than one registrar on my shortlist, is there any difference in their prices and reputation?
  4. Do I want to use my hosting service as my registrar or is it better to have ‘two suppliers’?
  1. My hosting service might give me a discount on the domain name (a few pounds or dollars) but now they have more power over me (they have my site and my domain name under their administrative control).
  2. I may have to buy my domain name elsewhere if they don’t offer my preferred TLD (top level domain – like .co.uk).
  3. If I buy (and renew) my domain name with a separate registrar to limit the power of your hosting service over me but then I must remember to  my domain name on time and to pointing the name servers listed at the registrar to the IP address of the hosters where my  website physically sits.
    1. I must enter the data of the registrar at your hoster and your hoster at the Registrar!
    2. Adminstratively, I must have two sets of commercial transactions that I must diarize 1-2 years ahead and coordinate.

#2 Buy your domain name

Now I have chosen my name and my registrar, I must buy my domain name.  I chose to buy a domain name through my hosters.  That means I don’t have an additional task of pointing the name servers to them.   If you choose to split the hosting and the registration, you will need other instructions.

  1. Get the right credit card (business or personal)
  2. Go to the online home of the Registrar (and probably set up an account.  I used my hosting service and I already had an account.)
  3. Find the right page and click whatever button to buy a domain name.
  4. The registrar tests whether the name is available. (If they don’t, clear out fast!).
  5. When they have confirmed the name is available (a few seconds), they ask for credit card details and an email address.
  6. They also suggest that I list my address at their office rather than display my full address on the internet.  I don’t know the pros and cons but I chose to list their address because I am tired of spam.
  7. When money has changed hands, they promise me an email and tell me to patient.  It takes a day or two for the network of domain name servers to gossip among themselves that my domain name isnow taken and that anyone who asks for it should visit my hosters.
  8. Finally, a job is not finished ‘until the money is in the bank.’  Print two copies of their email and put one in the expenses file for the accountant and one in the file holding all the details about this website.

#3 Test the domain name

Type in the new domain name to the browser bar (not Google – the browser bar) and see if it comes up.

This one worked quickly but don’t panic for up to three days.

PS The name does not show up in Google and should not show up in Google. Their search spiders don’t know the site is there and we don’t want to be found yet.  There is nothing to see.

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