Setting up your own Internet Site

I of course also maintain several websites including this own. I learned it all from a evening 'How to write Webpages' course at my local Technical College. Plus trial and error, 'the bare bones of the internet' sheet which details all HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) commands, you can view the HTML source code simply by going to the Menu: View -> Source. This might not work on complex interactive pages as they probably use Java an Internet Programming language to do the complex things. Open files as text and call them .htm.

I recently found an excellent programme to edit Webpages called NoteTab Pro. It spell checks the document, high lights control TAGS, Email's, URL links, and loads images calculating the WIDTH + HEIGHT characteristics itself. It also opens a copy of the page in Windows Internet Explorer just by pressed the F8 key. It was a bargain at only $30!

Webpages and ZIPs can be sent up to the web using a FTP programme (File Transfer Protocol). I use CuteFTP which you can download but have to pay for if you want the full version. At $70 it is worth it as you can send multiple directories, and record the locations and passwords or multiple account. it's very easy to use.

There is a simpler FTP called ftp.com free with Windows/XP that you can find using Start -> Search 'ftp.com'. Just click copy it to your desktop using right click... then click on it and type 'help' or '?' for a list of commands. If you've hacked the MS-DOS prompt you should able to figure out how to use this.

There our also Web Design tools such as DreamWeaver that allow you to create a page without knowledge of HTML but I don't do enough internet work to justify buying and more importantly learning how to use applications like this. Windows used to have FrontPage Express for free, but no longer does. It can still be downloaded from the web. I found it put too much superfluous HTML in the code, making loading times slower, and using up memory. Not so important with the capacities of modern computers. But if you wanted to make a small change using HTML it became very difficult. Buy NoteTab Pro for quick and simple editing on HTML text code.

HTML was developed by English Tim Bernards-Lee Programmer at the CERN Atom Smashing Particle Accelerator on the Swiss/French boarder, which used about 100 different computer types and a dozen European languages thus needed something for the computers to talk to each other. He was given time off to pursue the project, and a couple of programmers to help.

The internet existed many years before as the arpanet: a system of command and control for nuclear weapons that works even it half the sites are knocked out by re-routing the 'packets' which are small bits of data, each with it's own address. They are re-assembled at the other end to make the complete message. Any lost bits are re-requested. They don't always use parity to check every byte as modern telecommunications are quite reliable, and 256 characters are generally required instead of 128. But they do use CRC (Concurrent Redundancy Checks). A complex mathematical algorithm that checks an entire packet.