Digital World

Finding Podcast Hosting

For anyone who wants to begin creating a podcast,

podcast hosting is the most important part. Before

anyone can begin distributing a podcast, they need a

place to store the files and keep the feed file that will

tell their subscribers about the new episodes available.

The first thing required is a domain name where the site

will be located. Many domain registrars are available

who will help one register a domain name for a small

fee. Once the domain is registered, hosting is required,

and again there are many different companies willing to

do the hosting for a small fee. One of those is

bluehost.com, but many others are available. When

looking for a host, the most important thing is to make

sure that a lot bandwidth and storage space is available

and cheap. Since podcasting deals with large media

files, a lot of disk space will be taken up storing the

files and bandwidth will be eaten quickly when they are

downloaded by the subscribers.

After podcast hosting has been acquired, it needs to be

used and the site needs to be set up. The DNS addresses

of the site need to be set to the addresses that the host

provides you so that the servers that underlie the

internet will know where your site is. DNS addresses

can be set by going to the domain registrar that was

used to acquire the domain and inputting the addresses

provided by the host. After that is done, it will take a

few days before the master list the domain registar

updates will be shared throughout the internet and all

name servers know where to find your specific domain.

You can then go about setting up your own podcast.

Using the podcast hosting you now have, you will need

to look at the disk space allocated to the site using

something called and FTP browser. The host may

provide one as part of their hosting plan, but if not there

are many available free to choose from. Using the FTP

browser, log on to the host and upload a file called

dircaster.php after editing it to fit the specifics of the

site. Dircaster.php is an easy to find piece of coding that

generates a feed file by looking at the contents of its

directory or folder. The individual episodes to be

podcasted can then be uploaded to the same folder as

dircaster.php for cataloging. Make sure that all the meta

data, or information about the mp3 file is correct before

doing so.

The podcast hosting you now have will allow you to

distribute a podcast. It would be best to upload more to

the site, such as an index page that tells visitors about

the podcast and provides the address of the file

dircaster.php on your site. When they subscribe to that

file, the podcast client thy use will access it and recieve

information about the latest podcasts available.