Simply put, to have a web page that will show up in a web browser, you need a correctly-formatted document, stored on a computer which runs a special program, has a connection to the internet and can be located using a central directory. If you understand that, you understand how a web page works.

To use this information, you'll have to translate it into the language of web hosting. This means that "a correctly-formatted document" will be called "an HTML file", a "special program" is a "web server", the "location in a central directory" is actually the result of "leasing a domain name" from a "domain registrar" and then creating a "DNS entry" which points to the "IP address" of your internet-connected computer.

Now we're getting somewhere. Here's your new shopping list:

• web page in HTML format
• lease a domain name from a domain registrar
• use of a web server program to serve your HTML web page
• a DNS entry, which will connect your domain name to the unique location of your domain at the web server's computer