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Creating your own website can be a daunting task.  We've created this guide to help our customers get started building their own presence on the World Wide Web.  Everyone who has service with Ethixs Online has 5Mb of server space for your own personal web design.  After reading this, it should be a lot easier to put it to use.

A quick background--
It's quite a bit easier to make a website when you understand how one works.  The Internet is a worldwide network of computers that allow anyone with access to view web pages from anywhere on the planet.  Since the early nineties we have taken gigantic strides in the way we are able to make this work.  

Here's a quick run-down of the important parts:  It is impossible to view any web pages stored on other computers  unless you have Internet access.  That's where we come in, Ethixs Online is an ISP (Internet Service Provider).  We're like the doorway you have to go through to get to the web.  Once you're connected, you can view pages on any computer that is acting as a server and is connected to the internet.   A simple web page is actually nothing more than a text file that contains certain code (HTML) that tells your browser what to show you.  Simple HTML is fairly easy to learn, and more straightforward than any other programming language.  Your browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) reads this file and displays the appropriate material on your monitor.  

The technology behind how all this works can get pretty extensive, so for now, it's just important for you to know that it does it......if you want to know more about why it does it, check out some of the stuff on Webmonkey.Com, it's full of information and reference materials. 

Getting Started--
The first thing you need to do is decide what sort of program you're going to use to create your website.  It is possible to create one using nothing but the notepad program in windows, however, "web authoring" tools such as Microsoft Frontpage and Netscape Composer make it a great deal easier.  These programs work much like a word processing program, only they save the information as a web page. A wide selection of tools can be found, many for free, at Download.Com; just search for web authoring tools.  

Once you've made your web page, you have to figure out a way to get it on our servers.  You need to download an FTP (file transfer protocol) Program.  These are also available at Download.Com.  WSFTP_LE is the name of one of the easiest of these to use, and is available for free.  Once you have this, call or email our office, and we'll set up your website account and tell you how to connect to our server.

Click HERE to download WSFTP_LE for Free!  

There are just few notes to mention on how to actually construct web pages, since the web authoring tools do a lot of the technical work for you, and how the page looks and works is entirely up to you.  You do, however, have to follow a couple of rules.  

Basic Design Rules--
1)All web page files must have the .htm or .html file extension.  Browsers won't be able to read them if they don't.  Most of your web authoring tools will take care of this for you.

2)The first page of your website should be named "index.htm (or .html)." The file with this name is the first one a browser will come to.  

3)If you want your site to load quickly, then keep the pictures to a minimum.  Also the smaller the picture, the faster it will load.  If you're using some sort of image editing software (Image Composer, Paint) saving the pictures at 72dpi resolution will keep file sizes low and quality fairly high.

4)The best way to learn how to make web pages is to find a reference of some sort, (we've only scratched the surface here) and get to work.  There is a great deal of trial and error involved in the process, and the best way to learn is to get your hands dirty.  Feel free to call or email us here at the office, and we'll do our best to help you out.

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If you can't find what you need here, feel free to contact us, our technicians will try to fix any problem you might have.
270.247.5555
1.800.548.3877
email: richard@ethixs.com