DEV Community: Jesse Akoh

How to Host your Website/App on Netlify from GitHub

Jesse Akoh — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 23:21:51 +0000

"Netlify is a web developer platform that multiplies productivity. By unifying the elements of the modern decoupled web, from local development to advanced edge logic, Netlify enables a 10x faster path to much more performant, secure, and scalable websites and apps. A powerful server less platform with an intuitive git-based workflow"
-Netlify

Basically we can say Netlify is a platform in which developers can easily host their web applications, right from their git/GitHub and configure the deployment/build settings to their taste.

We are going to look at hosting simple websites and web Apps on Netlify.

Create a Netlify Account

Go to Netlify's website https://netlify.com and click on sign up or go directly https://app.netlify.com/signup so sign up and create a netlify account.

Click to sign up with GitHub, then enter your username and Password. Then verify your mail

Now you are signed in

You are then taken to a redirect page, your home account page

Upload sites from your GitHub repositories

In order to do so, click on the 'new site from Git' button, then choose the Git provider where your site’s source code is hosted. Which is GitHub

Choose the repository you want to link to your site on Netlify. When you push to Git, Netlify runs your build tool of choice on their servers and deploy the result.

Build Settings

After you've chosen the repository you want to host on netlify, you would have to configure your build settings. Like what Branch of the Repository you are deploying and the basic build settings if you are using a Static site generator e.g. Gatsby, Hugo, Jekyll etc.

Note: For hosting without a build tool or static site generator, Deploy without inputting any basic build settings

Once that is done, your site has been successfully deployed to netlify and you are taken to the dashboard of your newly deployed website. On the dashboard you'll find the URL to your site. Click on it to view your site.

Most times netlify gives you a default domain. Now you can change the site name by clicking the site settings and navigating to the change site name button or add your own domain by opening the domain settings section.

So there you have it, your website has been successfully hosted on Netlify.

Building and hosting a static website will help you save money in the long run. Also, with Netlify Edge, your website and applications will be super-fast using global distribution and automated pre-rendering.

So,Enjoy!

How texting works (Basics for NewBies)

Jesse Akoh — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 19:11:06 +0000

Have you ever wondered how you are able to send a text from your device to another device in milliseconds?

Well here is the Technology behind it, via the internet we are able to connect with people all around the globe. The internet is a wired and wireless connection of devices, computers, services and smart objects over a network to share, communicate, store and retrieve information.

So what happens when you text?
Your keyboards are connected to a circuit board, which when you type electrical signals are generated and then converted to analog signals (radio waves), these are sent via the antenna to cell towers (masts).

The messages are broken into packets, and these packets can follow any route to any nearby cell tower.

These cell towers are connected via cables to an SMSC;an SMSC is the portion of a wireless network that handles SMS operations, such as routing, forwarding and storing incoming text messages on their way to desired endpoints.From the SMSC these packets are forwarded to the cell towers closer to the recipient, which now forwards these packets to the recipient's device.

This diagram shows how it works

Texts travel miles to get from a user to another user, a lot of encryption and identification goes on in the background to ensure that the text reaches the right user in the right format in which the sender sent it.

So when next you send a text to a friend, just think of how these radio waves must have traveled from cables to cell towers in seconds.

What is the Internet? (Basics for NewBies)

Jesse Akoh — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 16:19:04 +0000

According to Techterms, the Internet is a global wide area network that connects computer systems across the world.True indeed, but what really is the internet? What constitutes it, can we see it and so many other questions.

The internet is many computers, devices, etc (i.e the advent of the IOT) connected together, sharing Data and information for several purposes.

The Internet is made up of Cables, yes Cables, connected round the world which helps everyone be able to connect to this large network and also benefit and contribute to this Data and Information Sharing Process.

Users around the world, through wired/wireless connections share information and access information from several servers via many Internet Protocols, cell towers, cables connected under ocean and underground, Satellites, and little invisible radio waves which travel fast around us everyday with speeds our brains can't comprehend.

A person can be connected or provided with access into this network via cellular data from service providers (ISP), WIFI, WAP's, Cell Towers, and cables.

An example of how the internet works, our phones. How you are reading this Dev.to post.

Your phone via your service providers (ISP) and your web browsers send requests to DNS servers (Domain Name System) which provides the IP address of the servers that host the Dev.to website/web app and also the specific IP address of the Dev.to web app/ website. Then from the web servers your Browser connected via your ISP's sends HTTP get requests to those servers to retrieve information (the post you are reading now)

In the process of retrieving the information from the server to your device, it establishes a secure connection which encrypts the information it sends back to your device. (Check out SSL, TSL)

You could be miles away from these servers, but how does this happen? bits are being transmitted along Cables(fiber optic or copper) and Cell towers as light and radio waves, and the various devices;servers or phones decode the signals to machine usable and readable information(0s and 1s) which is now transferred into readable and interactable form; pictures, text and videos.

And this all happen in nano seconds, very very minute seconds, data can travel from one end of the globe to another in split seconds, that very much explains how you send texts, stream videos, and read a Dev.to post.

That's really a nutshell of how the internet works, as simple as that, communication in signals happen around the world. And on this simple basic network as a lot of infrastructure and life changing innovations are being born and put into play.

And yes, you can see the internet! the fibre optic cables connecting continents together;

Pictures of people holding the internet

In conclusion, i would say the internet is this big network that allows us remotely share information with people all around the world. Thanks for reading !!!