STUDENTS
arnold on Sep 01, 2018
***Updated 6/4/2021***
Setting Up Free Website Hosting On 000WebHost
We are going to set up a place to host our website. A website is essentially a bunch of files and style sheets loaded from a database or server. When you create a website you want people to be able to visit it, so you have to store it on a web-server. There are many different places you can buy hosting for your website. The cost generally ranges from $1 for basic and slow hosting and goes up to around $30 a month for better WordPress hosting.
We are going to set up hosting with 000WebHost which is a great option for hosting that will let you get a barebones hosting setup for free.
To get this free hosting you need to go to the following link:
https://www.000webhost.com/
Then Click “Free Sign Up” under the Free Web Hosting Option:
Next you will have to enter an email address. A gmail address is preferred and they will probably not accept a .edu email address. If you need a gmail click here to create an account:
https://accounts.google.com/signup/v2/webcreateaccount?
As shown in the screenshot below enter your email address and a password and click “Sign Up”
You will get a screen that waits for you to confirm your email.
Go To Your Email and Verify Your Email.
It will take you back to the website. Once Verified Click “Get Started”
Then Click “Other” in the next screen of options as shown below:
The next screen will recommend Google Chrome. It is better to use Chrome for 000WebHost but not imperative. You cna download it at that screen or click the “Skip” button. If you run into problems later and are not on chrome then try the application on chrome instead.
On the next screen you will need to give a website name. The name does not matter here (it is more of a username) but make sure there are no spaces. Then put in a password for your account and click “Submit”
Once your website is created you will be given some new options. We want to install a WordPress website. Click that option as shown below:
You will need to pick a username and an admin password. WRITE THESE DOWN! Do not lose this login or it will cause you a lot of work to reset everything. The password can be a little finicky. I had to add a 0 and a ! to get it to accept my password. Once you enter this information click “Install” to install WordPress into the website. 000WebHost will get everything set up for you. It may take a couple of minutes.
You should get a “Congratulations, It’s Ready” message as shown below. We now want to connect our URL from namecheap to our website so that we have a proper URL. Click on “Tools” on the left sidebar and then click “Set Web Address”
Then click on “Connect A Domain You Already Own”
Then you will select to “Park Domain” and click next.
You will then need to enter the URL you obtained from namecheap. Enter that into the domain name box. It will have a .me instead of the .xyz as shown in the example below.
You should see a screen similar to the screenshot below:
(Read the following paragraphs carefully. There are a few quiz questions in the content below):
We now need to let the Internet Service Providers (ISP) know where to find your websites when people type in your URL. To do this you have to enter your DNS on your domain name registration site so the ISP’s know where to look.
DNS is short for Domain Name Server (or system) and DNS is essentially the address of where your website is being hosted. So we need to attach the address of where your website is hosted to your domain name (which is being managed by NameCheap) so that ISP’s (Comcast, Your Cell phone Internet provider, etc) know where to find your website.
The DNS for 000WebHost is: ns01.000webhost.com and ns02.000webhost.com.
We now need to go to Namecheap and enter the DNS settings for 000WebHost so that when someone types in your url, they will see the website you created at 000WebHosting.
To enter our DNS we must go back to Namecheap and make sure we are logged in.
Click on the dashboard and you should see something similar to this:
Click the manage button next to your URL.
Next find the nameservers and select custom DNS
Enter the nameservers from 000WebHost. Then click the green checkmark to save as shown below:
Now your nameservers are now pointing at your new hosting. However if you go to your URL and check for a website there will probably be nothing there. You may see a screen similar to this:
The reason for this is that we need to wait for the DNS to propagate across all the ISP’s. Essentially, your Internet Service Provider doesn’t have the resources to check the DNS every time someone types in a web address. So they store the addresses and only update their database every few hours.
Depending on who your ISP is, you may have to wait to see your website. One thing you can do is to check your URL on your phone. Since your phone has a separate ISP and you probably never accessed your personal website from your phone before, then it will need to check the DNS before finding the website. You will be able to see your new website about 90% of the time this way.
If you did this assignment on a laptop or computer just wait a few hours and your site will show up if you did it correctly. If you see anything related the Namecheap then you need to keep waiting. Hit refresh a few times to check. If you see anything related to 000WebHost or anything related to WordPress then you know your DNS has propagated.
You can also check your DNS in 000WebHost. Click on “Manage” and then “Recheck Nameservers.”
It may take a few hours but this is what you should see:
If you see this screen then your WordPress is set up. You can continue on to your next set of instructions where you will be making a website with WordPress.
