Getting Connected

This might be apparent, but sometimes it pays to state the obvious: Although you can create Web page files in any plain text editor and view them in any browser, you have to decide how you are going to store the files. You already know that you can't surf the Net without having an Internet Service Provider (ISP). In the same way, you need a Web Presence Provider (WPP)or your own Web serverto store your pages before they can be viewed from the Web. Other ways to view Web pages also exist. Table 1.1 describes the methods you can use to store your files.

Table 1.1. Storing and Viewing Your Documents

If You Store Your Files On	They Can Be Viewed by People with Access To
Your own computer	Your computer (or an intranet)
A disk or CD-ROM	That disk or CD-ROM
A Web host server	The World Wide Web

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

A company that provides you with access to the Internet.

Intranet

This is like your own private Internet in that it uses the same HTTP as the World Wide Web, but it is accessible only by people within your own network.

Web Host

A company that stores (hosts) information that can be accessed from the Internet using the HTTP. A Web host may also be called a Web Presence Provider (WPP).

In this lesson, you've learned:

• HTML and XHTML are markup languages that define the structure, rather than the format, of the text elements in your documents.

• HTML is platform independent. As long as they have a browser, your Web site visitors can see the same Web page on a PC, a Macintosh, or a UNIX computer.

• XHTML, the latest version of HTML, requires more structure than HTML.

• You need a Web server or a Web Presence Provider to store your pages before they can be viewed from the Web.