Would anyone like to talk to an idiot (me) ?

[Mighty Melvin]

Okay, I'm writing up a site consisting of a few pages and a dozen or two links out.

I registered a couple of domains (I could rant about that but maybe later).  All the instructions I've been able to find say that the next step is to "get a hosting service".

Okay.

Then what?

Do I send them money and the names of my domains?  Do they have a form that I fill out for all that information?  Is there some kind of transfer procedure between them and the company with which I registered the domains?  Am I supposed to have some evidence that I own the domains, which I don't think I have?  What if I just want to use the space to park files for others to download until my pages and their links are all set up?

Basically, what are the things that happen between someone telling me to "get a host" and me having a working site?

I realize that this is a stupid question but honest, I searched for the answer for hours and couldn't find anything at all.

Thanks

MM

[SergeyS]

Ok, so first of all i would recommend you to take a look at http://forums.webhostdir.com/showthread.php?t=7957 (they have some usefull stuff there, maybe whrforums.com has something like this too, but i had the link above right next to me:))

As you have registered the domains, by now you should have the domain control panel (the one in which you can configure the name servers for the domain and so on).

So the next thing you do is Purchase a Hosting account. You choose a company (any that you like).
When you purchase the account they ask you what domain you would like to use for it (this is the main domain, with which the hosting is associated). Some companies offer free domains that they register for you free of charge, some don't. But this is not an issue for you as you have the domains already. So you specify which domain you would like to have as main for hosting.
Then the hosting company (after you have paid), sets up you account. Then, after the setup is complete they send you information (it is the IP address of the server your account is situated on, the username, and password and so on). Usually the management of hosting is done via special control panels like cPanel. You can search for it in Google to try the demo of it. The other thing they tell you is the name servers (domains and IPs – usually look like ns1.domain.com and xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, where x are numbers). Name servers are the servers that contain information about where to look for the content of the domain yourdomain.com (i.e. on which server the content of this domain is hosted). So as soon as you get your information about your name server you go to your domain control panel and specify the name servers. Then wait for 24-72 hours (this is the time of DNS propagation – time during which all the internet gets to know where to look for content of yourdomain.com). As soon as the propagation is done – you can view your site in the browser and so on.
Ok tried to do my best to explain this stuff

 Feel free to ask if you have more questions.

[Mighty Melvin]

Hey, thanks.

I never got anything from anybody when I registered except a receipt, so I guess I have to ask them about this control panel.  Which I dread because I already asked them for evidence that I had actually received something, and they didn't seem to know how to deal with the question.  But they might just be bureaucrats....

M

[ldcdc]

Some tutorials on how to change nameservers at various popular registrars: http://onlinesupport.org/tutorials_dns.php

Even if you're not using one of those registrars, watching a tutorial should be of some help. Your current registrar may be a reseller. http://whois.domaintools.com could help you determine who the upstream provider is, and they may be willing to help you out.

Good luck!

[vivithemage]

whenever you sign up for hosting, you will need to use your main domain name to sign up with them.

When they accept your sign up application, typically they will email you your nameservers, in which you just update your registrar (godaddy.com, namecheap.com, etc) to the nameservers that you were emailed.

ldcdc has a nice list with quick videos on how to update your registrar's nameservers.