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Running a website from scratch on your own domain
Running a website from scratch on your own domain

n this article, you will find information on how to start a website from scratch on your own domain

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Written by Support
Updated over a week ago

What is a domain?

Domain (domain name) is a site address, consisting of a set of characters or numbers, unique to a group of domain names. A group of domain names means special zones like “.ru”, “.com”, “.org”, “.net”, etc. The domain is displayed in the address bar of a browser.

What is a domain registrar and what are the criteria for choosing it?

A domain name registrar is an organization authorized to create (register) new domain names and renew existing domain names in a domain for which registration is required.

The main criteria for choosing a domain registrar:

  • Russian-language support (support);

  • 24/7 support;

  • Russian-language interface;

  • informative FAQ in Russian.

Where to buy a domain?

The principle of operation of all domains is identical, so where to buy a domain is completely unimportant. But we advise you to choose Reg.ru, as it is the largest domain name registrar in Russia.

Buying a domain in the Reg.ru registrar

  • Go to the Reg.ru website and register.

  • Find the “Registration” block on the website and click the “Register” button, enter the email address and click the “Register” button, then you will receive a letter about successful registration by email, open the letter and follow the link specified in the letter, confirm the registration and the account will be activated. It is advisable not to register an account with a temporary email address, as it will receive notifications of any changes related to your account.

  • Go to your Reg.ru personal account, click on the "Protect" button and link your phone number. Be sure to protect your account so that malicious code does not appear on your site, other content, or intruders do not steal your money.

  • Then fill in the basic questionnaire. A basic questionnaire is needed to buy a domain in the “RU”, “SU” and “RF” zones, as well as to recover the password from the account. If your account is hacked or stolen, technical support will request a photo of your passport, and if the passport data you specified in the basic questionnaire do not match, then you will not be able to restore your account.

  • To buy a domain, you need to top up your balance. Go to the “Balance” section, enter the required amount, click “Next”, select the payment method “Money comes immediately”. Check the balance.

  • Go to the “Domains” section and enter any domain, for example, “lucky-test”, check the boxes “RU” and “RF”, since we have completed the basic questionnaire only for these domain zones.

  • Press the button "Find", select the received domain, click "Register" and pay for the domain.

  • Go to the “My Domains” section and check if our domain appears in the list. If the domain appears in the list, the domain has been purchased and you can use it. Now go to the selection and purchase of the hosting.

What is hosting?

Hosting is a service of hosting your site on a server, that is, disk space where the content of your site is located.

How to choose the right hosting?

You need to choose a hosting according to the following parameters:

  • good reputation;

  • Russian-speaking fast support;

  • protection against DDoS attacks;

  • free help with site transfer;

  • fault tolerance of the system as a whole.

Top hostings:

Hosting types:

All hosting services are divided into three types: virtual hosting, VPS / VDS and server.

  1. Virtual hosting is a server with many sites, the owners of which have the same rights and responsibilities. This is the cheapest hosting type.

  2. VPS / VDS hosting is an autonomous dedicated server and fixed resources with maximum privileges. This hosting type allows you to install your own operating systems and software.

  3. Server is full ownership of a server with a separate operating system and software.

Buying virtual hosting on Fornex

  • Go to the Fornex website and register.

  • Find the “Registration” block on the website and click the “Register” button, enter the email address and click the “Register” button, then you will receive a letter about successful registration by email, open the letter and follow the link specified in the letter, confirm the registration and the account will be activated. Then fill in the basic questionnaire.

  • To buy hosting you need to top up your balance. Go to the "Balance" section, enter the required amount, choose a convenient payment method. Check the balance.

  • Then go to the "Orders" section and click on the "Order more" button, select "Virtual hosting" and the tariff. When choosing a tariff, pay attention to the fact that php, protection against DDoS attacks, preferably a test period, FTP / SSH access are included in the tariff.

  • Select a tariff, location, put a tick “Test period” (this hosting has a test period of 7 days) and click “Order”. The order is formed within a few minutes. Check the order.

How to check that the hosting has been purchased?

  • Go to the “Orders” section and click on the “Manage” tab, where you can add sites. If this tab is not there, then the order has not been ready yet.

  • Next, go to the "Settings" section, where you can enable two-factor authentication for the security of your account and set up notifications in Telegram so as not to miss important tickets from technical support.

Don't forget to renew and pay for hosting.

How to connect your domain name to your hosting account

  • The domain and hosting have been purchased, now you need to connect the hosting to the domain registrar.

  • On the Reg.ru website, where the domain was purchased, go to the “My Domains” section and click on the domain.

  • Find the section “Domain Management”, and add “DNS servers” and “A record”. “DNS servers” is a “program” that stores a table of correspondences of the form “domain name” - “IP address”. When registering a domain, the “DNS server” is indicated automatically, therefore, when buying a domain, we do not make any changes to the “DNS servers”.

  • Go to the "Zone Management" section, where you need to add an "A record". The A record is an address record that is required to connect the domain to the domain's IP address.

How to add the A record?

To add an “A record” go to the Fornex website (where the hosting was purchased):

  • In the “Orders” section, click on the “Manage” tab -> “Add a domain”.

  • Copy the domain from Reg.ru and paste it into the “Domain name” line on the Fornex website. Click the "Add" button.

  • After adding the domain, you get the IP-address, copy it, go to Reg.ru in the “Zone Management” section, click on the “Add an A Record” tab and paste the IP-address of the hosting into the “IP Address” line.

  • In the line “Subdomain” put the symbol “@” - this means that the IP address for the domain is being written. Click “Add an A record”.

All changes made will become active within 15-20 minutes.

Choosing an FTP client

To log into the hosting, you need an FTP client.

An FTP client is a program with which you log into a hosting.

  • The most famous FTP client is FileZilla.

  • FileZilla is a free FTP client that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

  • The next FTP client is WinSCP. WinSCP is a free graphical File Transfer Protocol for Windows.

  • Total Commander is a closed source file manager that runs on Windows and Android platforms.

  • FAR Manager is a console file manager for operating systems of the Microsoft Windows family. When moving files from a computer to a hosting, the files are moved via FTP.

  • FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a network file transfer protocol.

  • SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is a more reliable secure protocol. It It is a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management over any reliable data flow.

Launching a website using the FileZilla FTP client as an example

After you have connected the hosting to the domain, and have selected an FTP client, you can go to the test launch of the site:

  • Go to FileZilla, open the interface, - there are files stored on the computer on the left, there are files on the server on the right.

  • To enter the hosting you need to fill in the “Host”, “Name” and “Password” fields. To do this, go to Fornex, go to the "Orders" -> "Management" tab, open the "Access" tab, copy the "Host" -> "Name" and "Password".

  • Insert all data into the corresponding lines in FileZilla.

  • If you connect via FTP, then in the “Port” line, indicate the number “21” and click the button "Quick connection".

  • When you first log into the hosting, a window will appear in which you need to accept the key. Click “Yes”.

  • Next, find the file “public.html”, which stores all the files from the hosting. Go into the folder and find our site “lucky.test.ru”, launch the site.

  • When trying to start the site, an error occurs because the file is empty. In order to successfully launch the site, copy the test file “index.html” and paste it into the folder where our test site was located, and update the page with the site. The site is successfully launched.

How to edit a text file?

To edit the text file “index.html” you need to use a text editor.

Text editors for beginners:

  • Notepad ++ (Windows);

  • Sublime TEXT (Windows + macOS);

  • Atom (Windows + macOS);

  • Coda2 (macOS).

You can use any text editor you like.

To set the default text editor in FileZilla, you need to:

  • Go to the section "Editing" -> "Settings" -> "Editing files" -> "Use the next editor"

  • Next, select the desired editor from the list, switch to "Always use the default editor" and click "OK".

  • Return to the text file “index.html”, right-click and select “View / Edit”.

  • In the window that opens, you can make the necessary changes and save them.

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