What is Web Hosting.
Web hosting is the process of putting your web site on a web server or web host, so everyone connected to the Internet can see it. If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you could host your web site on your own computer, but that is in general not a good idea. A good web host is a real server in a datacenter with a fast high bandwidth connection to the Internet. And, to make sure you can move your web site to another web host, if necessary, you need a web hosting provider that supports domain hosting.
What is Domain Hosting.
Most Internet Service Providers (or ISP) will give you a free web site when they provide you with access to the Internet. They do this because they don't want to give you a permanent IP address, which is what you need if you'd like to host a web site on your own computer. Unfortunately, most ISPs don't support domain hosting with their free web sites. Hence, the URL of your web site is an extension of the URL of your ISP. So what happens when you change ISP? You will have to change the URL and nobody can find you anymore.
The use of a domain name for your web site is absolutely necessary for a professional web site, and to host your own domain you will need to find a real web hosting provider with domain hosting. Many web hosting plans actually include the price of a domain registration, so don't register your domain before you have chosen your web hosting company.
What is a Subdomain.
A subdomain is an extension of a domain name that normally points to a subdirectory of a web site. Instead of using the URL http://www.how-to-guides.com/faq/ , which points to the directory faq on my site I could have created a subdomain http://www.faq.how-to-guides.com/ to point to that faq directory. In this particular example the subdomain is not that more attractive than the original URL, but in some cases a good choice of a domain name and subdomains can result in a big improvement.
What is Shared Hosting.
In shared hosting a single web server can host hundreds of different web sites instead of just a single web site. As a result, the cost of web hosting is reduced drastically. If the load on the server is properly managed, there is no reason why shared hosting can not be high quality hosting.
Shared hosting will also normally imply that you share the same IP address with the other web sites, and there is some concern that a web site that does try to spam a search engine may get that IP address blocked. I have used shared hosting for several web sites for many years and never encountered any problems. I must assume that the search engines are clever enough to realise that most web sites use shared hosting. However, if you like to avoid this potential problem you might consider virtual hosting with your own IP address.
What is Virtual Hosting.
Virtual hosting is often used as a synonym for shared hosting, e.g. you host your web site on a web server with hundreds of other web sites and you share the IP address with these web sites.
The term virtual hosting should imply, however, that while you share the web server it looks from the outside world that you are the only web site on that server. That means that with virtual hosting you should not only have your own IP address, but also a dedicated bandwidth to the Internet and a dedicated slice of the computers processing power. So, if a web hosting provider uses the term virtual hosting, have a close look if these features are offered before you decide on paying a premium price above standard shared hosting.
What is Unix Hosting.
Unix hosting is the predominant form of cheap hosting based on servers running a Unix like operating system. Unix (or its free cousin Linux) is an alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating systems and has become very popular because of the availability of a many free or low cost tools and applications such as the Apache web server software.
Whether your hosting provider uses a Windows server operating system or a Unix operating system is in most cases not important for your web hosting situation, but does reflect in the price. So, even when you run Microsoft Windows at home, you can still host your web site on a Unix server to save money.
What is a Good Web Host.
A good web host is one that offers reliable hosting with superior support and whatever other features you need for your particular situation. And, of course, most of us webmasters want this also at the lowest price possible.
The only obvious first distinction between the good and the not so good web hosting plans is the bandwidth they allow you to use. The more bandwidth, the more visitors your web site can have. Any web hosting plans with less than 5Gbit of bandwidth allowance per month (or with unlimited bandwidth) are simply not worthy of your considerations.
Most hosting providers now a days offer very similar web hosting packages at very different prices. And while some of the very cheap web hosting providers, under about US$5, have to cut corners to provide you web hosting at that price - which will reduce their service and reliability - many of the more expensive web hosting companies don't necessarily provide better support or service. Believe me, I have seen some bad ones.
What is Bandwidth.
Bandwidth is a measure that reflects how much data can be transferred over a data communication channel.
In web hosting plans the allowed bandwidth generally indicates how much data can be downloaded from your web site per month, and therefore indicates how many web pages and pictures your visitors are allowed to download. If the average amount of page views per visitor is assumed constant, the allowable bandwidth restricts how many visitors you are allowed to have per month.
Just as important, however, is how fast the communication channel between your web host and the Internet is. The amount of data that can be transferred per second is also called the bandwidth of this channel, and this bandwidth is shared by all the web sites hosted by the same provider. If this bandwidth is insufficient, you'll sometimes notice a slow down in the display of your web pages. In most cases, however, such a slow down is more likely to be caused by an overload on the web server itself.
What is a Web Server.
A web server is either a special computer or server for reliable hosting of web sites, or the software application that runs on that server. The two main web server applications used by most web hosting providers are
Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) for windows hosting and Apache for Unix hosting. Both use the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to transfer web pages to your web browser.
What is FTP or File Transfer Protocol.
FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a way of transferring files between computers. Most web hosting companies also implement an FTP server on their web servers to enable you to upload your web pages and image files to the web server. You will need an FTP client, such as the WsFTP program, on your computer to connect to the FTP server, or you can use a web authoring environment that has an inbuild FTP client to "publish" your web pages. Many web hosts also support an alternative called frontpage extensions, which allows you to use Microsoft's Frontpage web development program to create and publish web pages.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
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