After registering a name and finding a host, you can start populating the site. Uploading a file is the process by which you store a file in the computer server that is holding your site. There are three main ways this can be done: you can upload the file(s) using a web page (called Control Panel) created specifically by your web hosting company, you can use a software product, or you can use a web editor application.

When you establish a hosting contract with a company, among the services they give you, they usually create a web page referred to as a control panel. Normally, you should check with your hosting company: don't think you are ignorant; they had set up your account and they should tell you how to use their system.

Most of the time, among the links on a control panel page, one allows you to upload your files. For some companies, it is referred to File Management. If you click such a link, you would be presented with a new page. Once again, you should inquire from your host because, in some cases, you must open a folder called WWW. In some other cases, you must open a folder named public_html. One of the rules is that you must put your files and folders in either the WWW or the public_html folder. Another rule you must find out from your host is that one of your files must be called index.htm (or index.html), or default.htm, or home.htm (but it is usually index.htm or index.html). Your host may have created such a default file announcing Web Site Under Construction, or something like that. This first page (index.htm or index.html) is called the home page. It is the first page people see when they come to your site.

After uploading a (few) file(s), most importantly the home page, you can check the site by typing your web address in the browser and pressing Enter. If either nothing comes up or the default page created by the host still comes up, go back to your file manager and check that you had uploaded a file named index.htm (or index.html). If you don't have it, first add it. If you have that file but your web site doesn't show what you designed, then it is time to contact your host.

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