The web (and "surfing" the web) works by connecting lots and lots of special computers all around the world and enabling you to speedily travel from one to another electronically. When you type in a web address, you are really going to read a file that someone has put on a big computer somewhere.

What this means for you and your web page is that you have to "upload" your file from your little desktop PC (personal computer) at home or in the lab and put it on Earlham's big computer so folks can find and read it. This can be done with a program called FTP (File Transfer Protocol, but you don't need to know that). The program takes the files you made and puts them on the web at an accessible web address (ie. www.earlham.edu/~your username/filename.html). But more about that later…