Chances are if you're reading this part, you have a web page and you want to get it out there in the real world where anyone and everyone can see it. This is a good thing. Really. And you've come to the right place.

In order to get your work on the web, you have to have what we like to call a "host". The host is a company that owns a big ugly computer called a "server". What they do is store your web pages on their computer, give the pages an address, and then make them available at this address 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Or that's the idea. Sometime they aren't all that reliable, but usually most of them are pretty good.

You're probably wondering why you couldn't do that from your home. Well, there's a couple of reasons. First, you home computer probably couldn't handle the strain, and if you use a dial-up connection it could be very, very impractical. Also, you need to register a domain name and such in order to actually give an address [unless you're fine with a nasty string of numbers]. This costs money, and unless you're obsessive like me, chances are it's money you don't want to spend [I own my domain, but not my server, so I have to pay for domain registration and hosting fees, but it's cheaper in the long run than owning and administrating a server].

If you don't want to pay anything at all, then that's cool too. There are plenty of free hosts out there. Most of them will make you put some kind of advertisement up on your page, but there are a few that won't. I used http://free.prohosting.com to host my site until I bought my own domain [then they started making you put up advertisement - but the cool thing about owning your own domain is that you're already paying for space, so you don't have to put up with any ads at all - and I still use http://www.prohosting.com to host my domain]. I'll list a number of free servers in my resources section.

Some of these free servers give you what's called a File Manager. I'm guaranteed a File Manager, but that's one of perks of paying for the space. If you use a free server, you may or may not get one. What the File Manager does, is allow you to upload you files and manage your directories through the company's website. They will give you a username, password, and url to go to. The upside of this is you can manage your site from any computer you can get to go online, so long as you remember your username and password.

If you are being hosted by your Internet Service Provider [Dryden Internet Services is a popular local one - they usually provide you with bannerless space] then you will probably have to use a File Transfer Protocol. That's a nifty program you get out there on the net [if you are using your ISP, then they should offer one from their downloads page]. It will let you upload to your account in more or less the same way a File Manager will, except that you run it through a program instead of a File Manager. They are all a little different, so if you are having problems I suggest you ask your ISP for help.

And in all these cases the company that hosts your pages will tell you what the address will be. You can only set your own address if you are either a) really good friends with your host, or b) buying your own domain name like I did.