For privateers like me, who sit at home with their own computer (don't work for a company which provides its employees with website space), you create the website on your home computer, then upload it to a host computer.
In my case, the host computer is a machine owned and operated by Earthlink. They are my Internet Service Provider (ISP) at a cost of about $25 per month, and they allow you 30 MB of disk space to store your website. I switched over from Netcom, which allowed you only 1 MB of disk space. Since I planned to use quite a few photos, I needed more than just 1 MB.
I have three computers at home (plus two more old ones upstairs, plus one loaned out to Sharon's son, Peter, plus one in the attic, in the Computer Museum). Of these three computers, one is a big desktop Mac, one is a Mac PowerBook (laptop), and the third is a lightning-quick desktop PC.
The desktop Mac is a 300 Mhz Power Macintosh G3, with 192 MB of RAM and 1 MB of L2 backside cache. It has an 8.5 GB hard drive included, and a 9.0 GB hard drive which I added. It has a 17" Sony Multiscan 220GS Trinitron monitor. There is also an HP ScanJet IIc color scanner, and an HP Deskjet 970cxi color printer. I used this desktop Mac computer for about 95% of the website creation work.
The HP printer is also attached to another computer, a 1.7 GHz Sony PC with 256 MB of memory, with a 60 GB hard drive standard, plus another 60 GB drive I added. It has a 17" monitor also.
The laptop is a 400 MHz Macintosh PowerPC. I connect. I have both Macs and the PC on a local area home network, which is tied to the internet via DSL, for high speed.
I did all of the work to create the website. For the original website, which featured a text-only front page, I used Microsoft Word, saving the files in text format. For this new version, I used Dreamweaver 3, a fairly expensive but easier-to-use program, once you get familiar with it.
For the graphics, I use Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and later Adobe Photoshop Elements.
My browser is Netscape 4.5 (on both Macs) and Microsofts IE 5.0 on the PC.
I created the main graphic by scanning in our truck license plate. The bird on the left is a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, the one on the right is a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Both pictures were taken from the National Geographic Society Field Guide, Edition 3, using a scanner and Adobe Photoshop.
For learning how to create web pages, I used "Teach Yourself Web Publishing
with HTML in a Week", by Laura Lemay, Sams Publishing, 1995. Then later,
I used "Dreamweaver for Windows & Macintosh", by J. Tarin Towers,
Peachpit Press/Macromedia Press, 1999.