There are many reasons to have a website. Everyone expects a business to have one. An online presence is now as important as a listing in The Yellow Pages may be more so. Professional people use personal websites to post their credentials, resumes, and other important information to advance their careers. And it's common for families to maintain small websites, where they can post photos and news that friends & relatives can access from anywhere in the world. (Now that's keeping in touch!) 

Getting Started
You can begin by simply using your domain email address without actually building a website! This is an ideal startup strategy for a small business. For example, you can set your business email to be , and you can have other accounts such as and   You can build your website later whenever you choose. 

What's a server?
A website must be hosted on a server, which is simply a computer that's turned on 24 hours a day and dedicated to hosting websites. Of course, there's a limited amount of capacity on any one server for websites. So you rent room on it for yours. Room is measured in MB, which are initials for millions of bytes. The larger your website, the more MB you need. 

How much capacity do I need?
You might already have enough! MHTC provides space for your personal or business website on its servers at no additional charge as part of all DSL and most dialup Internet accounts, up to 100MB depending on your service package. For a small personal or family website, 5 MB is more than enough. And depending on the size of your business website, you may only need 25 or 35 or 50 MB. Contact to find out what you need or what you might already have! You can also call 1.800.843.5827. 

What's domain name' hosting?
The association of your new website's IP address with its domain name has to live somewhere on a server. Here's how it works: Every website must have a numeric IP address. You can think of it as your website's phone number, and it would be difficult to advertise or remember. So, the IP address of a website is always associated with a domain name. For example, if you were to type http://216.180.192.200 into your browser's address bar, you'd get our website. Happily, if you were to type in its domain name, MHTC.net, you'd get the same thing! The domain name you choose to be associated with your IP address will likely look something like this: www.youchooseaname.com. 

What is domain name' registering?
Two websites cannot have the same domain name. So, your domain name must be registered with a recognized authority. This way, no other person or company can claim it once you've declared it yours. MHTC will register your domain name for only $15 per year. That makes one less thing to keep track of, and ensures your domain name will never be lost to someone else. 

What's a secure server (SSL)?
This is nothing to worry about for a personal website, or if you're simply building a business brochure site that's limited to offering information & advertising about your company. But it's crucial if you intend to solicit contact information from visitors, or if you're building an enterprise site, where people can order your product with a credit card. Learn more. 

What's the benefit of a secure server (SSL)?
People generally will not submit personal info or place orders online unless they are assured that yours is a secure site. And they can tell by looking at your I.P. address. It will begin with https if it's secure or with an http if it's not. Learn more. 

What's does a secure server (SSL) actually do?
It establishes a special folder on your website into which sensitive information is routed. The information is encrypted when it goes in and has to be decrypted when it goes out. In other words, it would appear as unreadable gobbledygook to anyone else but you. Learn more. 

How much does a secure server (SSL) cost?
MHTC does not charge extra for a secure server, but it must be certified by a recognized network authority that issues and manages security credentials and public keys for message encryption and decryption. Contact for help and more information about secure servers, or call 1.800.843.5827.

• MHTC's Web server is case sensitive! That means that if you name a file using all uppercase letters, it must be typed that way in the URL, too, and vice versa. Therefore, it is wise to stick to all lowercase letters when naming HTML files.
  
• The default file name for the main HTML document should typically be "index.html" or "index.htm" because that is what MHTC\'s Web server looks for if a URL does not specify a filename. So, by naming the main HTML file "index.html" you can refer to that file with an abbreviated, more convenient URL. In other words, "http://userpages.mhtc.net/username/" and "http://userpages.mhtc.net/username/index.html" are equivalent.
• Customers who wish to host a ".com", ".net", or a ".org" domain name must read and agree to ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy located here and the OpenSRS End User Registration Agreement located here.
  
• Customer who wish to host a ".info" domain name must read and agree to ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy located here and the Form of Registration Agreement located located here.
  
• Customer who wish to host a ".tv" domain name must read and agree to ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy located here and the Form of Registration Agreement located here.
  
• Customer who wish to host a ".us" domain name must read and agree to ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy located here and the Form of Registration Agreement located here.