Your Website Address on the MCSD Web-Hosting Server

MCSD school and center websites can be hosted on the MCSD web-hosting server.  Your website address will follow a standard pattern:  school.mcsdga.net.  If your school has purchased a domain name, it can be "pointed" at this address; for example, Britt David's current address of www.brittdavid.com will "point to" brittdavid.mcsdga.net.

Your Website Address on a Geocities Free Web-Hosting Account

Suppose your name is Sam Somebody and you want to create a website for your science class at Podunk High School.  You would want your website address to include one or more of these words: podunk, science, and your name.  If your website is hosted by Geocities on the free plan and you have already set up your account in the user name of ssomebody, your website address is www.geocities.com/ssomebody.  Too bad if you want your website address on that account to be www.geocities.com/podunkscience.  You will have to create a new account and user name to control the address (URL) of your website.

Your Website Address on an ISP Account (Included with paid Internet access)

If your website is part of an ISP email account, your website's address will be based on the user ID in your email address.  For example, if your email address is myname@earthlink.com, your website address could be www.earthlink.com/myname. Too bad if you want your website address to be www.earthlink.com/mulliganscience.  You will have to create a new user name, and that process is not always easy.

Your Website Address with a Registered Domain Name on an ISP

If your website has a registered domain name, the pattern is based on the name you have "bought."  For example, the address of the TechCenter's website is www.mcsdtechcenter.org.  It doesn’t matter if your account is hosted by Geocities (paid option) or Earthlink; you could buy the domain www.podunkhigh.org (if it’s available).  Although most web-hosting companies provide domain registration services, these prices vary widely.  The domain prices on my website domains range from 8.95 to 35.00 a year.  You can check the availability of a potential name for your website by going to any web-hosting company, for example, GoDaddy.  The next step is to register the name.  (Get out your credit card.)  The next step is to ask your web-hosting company to configure your domain name with your webspace.

If you know you want to use a registered name, you will want a paid web-hosting account.  The monthly charges for my websites range from 7.95 to 49.95.  (The cheapest price I've seen is 3.95/month, at GoDaddy.  In addition to allowing you to use your own domain name, paid accounts usually provide more storage and access to special features, like webforms, FrontPage extensions, and detailed use statistics.

The purchase of a domain name is a school-based decision and must be paid for with local funds.  There are annual fees for renewal.  Companies with pornographic websites like to buy expired school and church domains. These people are actually buying your customers' bookmarks to your site.

Name of Your Homepage

The host server will normally look for default titles for a homepage; the default is usually index.htm (or .html) or sometimes default.htm (or .html)  If you use a default name, your address would be school.mcsdga.net or www.earthlink.com/podunk.  If the document name for your homepage is not a default name (if, for example, you name it podunk), your website address would need to be specified as podunk.mcsdga.net/podunk.htm, or www.earthlink.com/podunk/podunk.htm.

Setting up a free web-hosting account for this class (Word Document) if you don't already have a website account.