Here we describe basic operations with CgiWebHost service. I choose it among the other free host services mainly because it supports Python scripts, which may be important for many of our users. If you prefer to use PHP - then you have far better choice of hosting providers.
Go to http://www.cgiwebhost.com/ and register your account. You may choose any username since it needs not be the same as your "domain" name. You will receive confirmation letter via e-mail you provided - click the link it contains to confirm your registration.
I've found that the site can decline some e-mail addresses with certain free e-mail providers, so you may try different e-mail if necessary.
After registration you will be able to login via this page (accessible from main one via menu).
Domain name is, basically, your web-address. The base url at which your web-pages would be accessible.
If you do not own your own domain (like mywonderfuldomain.com), you will need to use one of "free subdomains", which
is quite OK for learning purposes.
After login into the cgiwebhost you are redirected to Control Panel. If you ever get lost there, click "Dashboard" to get to where you have started.
Now find Domain Manager (in the submenu or widget Hosting tools). Click it to open domain names settings.
Switch to Create a free subdomain tab. Here you can:
atwebpages.com);rodiongork.atwebpages.com).After you click Create button, your subdomain is created and shown below in "Subdomains" tab. You can follow the link "Open Website" from there to see your page. Mine looks like this: http://rodiongork.atwebpages.com.
I suspect that you will see some default home-page with ads. We'll learn how to put your own stuff there in a minute.
If you will want to register your own domain (like john-doe.com) avoid using it via form of the hosting. Find
any domain registrar you like and do it in proper way. Then you will be able to attach it to your hosting.
The main reason for this is that otherwise you, probably, will not be owner of your domain name which may
create some troubles when you want to change the hosting.
Any website consist of pages. The pages are basically just files uploaded to server so that it can send them to any user of the site according to requested address.
For example if user requests http://somesite.com/page-one.html - then the server at somesite.com will search its
files for page-one.html and send it as a response.
By popular agreement if no specific page is requested, server will send one with the name index.html.
So open your Dashboard and find File Manager - either as an icon in widgets or an item in menu. Click it.
You will see something like file explorer opened at the folder like /home/www. There should be subfolder with the
name exactly like your chosen domain (i.e. /home/www/rodiongork.atwebpages.com) - switch to it. This is the place
where your pages should be stored.
I expect you to see index.html here. You may want to substitute this file with your own. For example, open
text editor (on your machine) and create plain text file like this:
<h1>Hello, World</h1>
<p>I am PutYourName Here</p>
and save it as index.html.
Now switch back to your File Manager in the Control Panel and click Upload. Click icon to choose file from your machine, then click Upload it and when all is done, click Cancel (to hide the upload form). If you are replacing existing file you will be asked for confirmation.
Now visit your site - and see whether your new page appeared here. If it does - my congratulations. You are ready to solve our web-related problems.