This Website

As noted on the Caveman’s Story page, the idea for this website was born out of regular inquires about what I was doing to keep busy in my retirement. My days at Union Gas gave me some insights into the general concepts of a website and its components, but there was much to learn.

I had originally thought I would be completely self-contained, that is, I would host the website on local computer as a web server and serve up content directly. This was quickly dismissed as a long term solution for one very important reason; my Internet Service Provider (ISP), like most others, assigns Internet Protocol (IP) address dynamically, meaning that I couldn’t register a domain name to a static IP address to guarantee that the outside world could always visit my website. Requesting a static IP address is an expensive option.

Instead, I opted to look for an inexpensive hosting service where my content would be stored and served up (and backed up, made faster, and stuff). My research led me to Hostinger. It offers a hosting service for modest requirements such as mine very inexpensively ($66 for 4 years).

Next, I had to figure out how to construct content, e.g. web pages, links, graphics, media, etc. For this, I opted for WordPress. It’s free for my type of use, and offers a wide variety of authoring tools and themes, and can integrate easily into Hostinger. On top of WordPress, I added Elementor which augments WordPress native capabilities and allows easier and prettier creation of content.

Last but certainly not least, I needed to find and register a domain name. Keeping with the the theme of cheaper is better, I registered markvanpraet.ca through Google Domains for $17/year. Opting for the ‘.com’ extension would have been more money. Plus patriotism.