Explaining Subdomains, Domains, & etc.

Description: With all those different web slangs, it's hard to remember the difference between them. Learn a little bit about them and figure out which is best for you!

Due to the immense number of different options available for those who want to explore the web-designing world, it can get a little confusing. That's why I wrote this little article to try and sort things out a bit.

There are many ways in which you can obtain a website. Here are some examples going from easiest to hardest:

• piczo.com (free sites with built-in web tools)
• freewebs.com (more advanced, allows you to explore HTML and CSS)
• awardspace and co.nr (read my tutorial)
• subdomains
• domains

Piczo is a builder sites that allows you to use it's tools to drag and move things, upload pictures and edit text easily. It requires no HTML or CSS knowledge though you can start exploring it by using it's HTML boxes, this will help you create more effects.

Freewebs is slightly more complicated. It still includes the web builder tools but it is more advanced then Piczo in the fact that you can now code entirely in HTML and CSS. This is a great site to improve your HTML and CSS skills. The only thing that really sucks about this is it's many advertisements that they've decided to add in.

Awardspace & Co.Nr introduce FTP and it's uses. This is where you start coding hardcore and everything is code, there are no more tools to help you do things. This is not recommended for beginners simply for the reason that it's quite complicated if you don't understand the basics. A great place to really sharpen up your coding and layout skills.

Subdomains is the second last step to being on the top of the food chain in the web world. This is where you're hosted by a domain, it's basically like having your own domain, but you have help. This is great to start PHP and practice and practice your layout skills because you basically have a mentor in your host. You also end up with a name of your choosing since you chose your host. The only thing about subdomains is that if your host closes, your site is also gone.

Domains, the top of the food chain. Domains have the most freedom in everything. You can now host people, you control how long your site stays open, you answer to no one, and you have as much space as your host allows. This is the ultimate goal of all web-designers, to own their own domain.

Hopefully this cleared things up a bit and you are able to see the steps that you take from novice to master. Figure out what level you are and start from there :)

Tags: domain, free, intro, subdomains, understanding

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 11:24 PM and is filed under Articles, Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.