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Net Gains (Feb 28, 96)
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Na-na-na-na-na-na-naah! I have my own home page ! Most of you don't have one ! Na-na-na-na-na-na-naah!! But being the kind-hearted, generous, soul that I am, I'm gonna let you guys in on how you too could put your home page up on the Internet.
Simply put, a Home Page is like the entrance to your home. It is the starting point for your visitors on the net to get to know more about you. Home pages are an expression of yourself that you offer to the Web community at large. A persons Home page is limited only by his imagination. The best thing about a home page is that you can use it to connect or link to other sites and documents - say about your office, your family, or maybe the sites on the Net that you find really interesting .
For instance, my home page at Tripod, has a brief 4 paragraph description of me, and what I love doing most - writing . At the top of the page is a caricature of what I think I look like, and my e-mail address so that visitors to this page, if they'd like to, can get in touch with me. At the bottom of my home page are links to other pages that I've put up - like, all the past columns of Net Gains. So, once you access my home page, you could take a trip down the archives, and browse through the articles. In each of these articles, there are direct links to the places I've talked about in that article. For instance, if you are reading last week's article about the World Cup, and you want to go to the IndiaWorld or MidDay Online sites I've written about, all you have to do is click on the underlined text, and within seconds, you're there. Is that cool, or is that cool ?! So how does one go about putting a Home Page on the Net ? Simple, really - you first create an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) file, and then put the file on a Web server. HTML is a particluar kind of a language that is used to create documents on the Internet. HTML isn't difficult to learn : a few standard rules, and within half an hour, you can write a pretty good looking Home page. The site that started me off was A Beginner's Guide to HTML. Try it out, it's not at all as difficult as it seems.
Now comes the difficult part - putting your Home page on the Web server. A Web server is a computer that will store your Home page,connect to other computers on the Internet, and show your Home page to those who try to access it. Universities abroad are very generous with their computers, and most students, within a few days of being on the Internet create their home pages - with snaps of themselves, their college, and even their pets ! There are computer servers that allow you to put up your home page for a price, while there are a few that offer their services for free. If you don't have a server at your disposal for putting your Home page on the Net, you could use one of the free servers. They require you to fill in a few details about yourself, and stick to certain rules that they have - like not using the site for commercial purposes, and not putting up vulgar stuff on your home page. In return, they offer you a fixed amount of KiloBytes on their machine which you could use to put up your home page. Tripod is one such site. Once you register, and become a member, you have a password that you use to create your pages, or later on, modify them. The best part about Tripod is that they have a fantastic page builder that even a high school kid could use to create his home page. They take you step by step through the process of choosing the background for your home-page and the pictures and icons you'd like there. They also make it very easy for you to connect to other sites by doing all the conversion of your english file into HTML.
Another site is Geocities. This site is very unique in that it is almost like choosing a home. Once you register as a member, you are taken on a tour of different cities (localities) where you'd like to stay. I chose the city of love, romance, and passion - Paris. Once in the city of your choice, from hundreds of blocks present you have to hunt around till you get a vacant block you like, and occupy it. I chose block 2889. So my home page address on Geocities is http://www.geocities.com/Paris/2889. They give you ten times more space than the Tripod site does, but when you want to put up additional pages, you've got to be more than computer literate, and also know HTML to manage this.
So take your time, visit these sites and choose your Home Page carefully . Remember - you'll be staying there for the rest of your life on the Web !!