Web Hosting Guide for
Beginners
So you would like to start publishing your site on the web, but you are not sure
what web hosting is and where to start? This article points out to you the resources
for beginner.
What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is simply the allocation of your website on a web server that is
connected through the internet. In another words, web hosting allows your website to be connected to the Internet at high speed via a
web server so its information can be viewed globally through a browser. Because the nature of the Internet allows anyone
from anywhere connected through an internet computer to view your site, your web
server must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
How is this possible when owning
and maintaining a Web server can be very expensive, as well as
technically intensive? This is where a Web hosting Provider comes into
the picture to provide you with the hardware and software that allow this to
take place at an affordable cost. In order for a web hosting provider to offer
you hosting service, the provider usually needs to house its web servers in
a data center configured on a high speed network infrastructure and
connected to internet backbones. These internet backbones are long-haul
backbone fibre connections capable of transmitting data at extremely
high speed.
Web Hosting Service and domain name
If you want to publish your website on the internet, you need web
hosting service. Alternatively, like some corporations, you can own your
web server, line and networks to start publishing your website. We don't
recommend the latter, because it is very costly to run and maintain. I will
explain to you some of the terms that are essential for you to know
before you begin to find a suitable host for your site.
Data Center
A data center is a collection of database, servers, computer networks
and software widely used to deploy and support hosting services and
computing application services. Because a data center can be very
expensive to maintain and upgrade. Companies are increasingly looking to
outsource these routine operations so that they can focus on higher
priority technology projects like e-commerce and customer relationship
management.
Click links below to read more
about data centers
Domain name
A domain name is a unique alphanumeric name used to identify a
particular host (computer) such as a Web server or Email server on the
Internet. In another words, it is the main part of what is known as your
site's Uniform Resource Locator (URL) on the World Wide Web.
Domain names allow Internet users to type in a name, such as www.hostpulse.com
or www.aboutwebhost.com, to
identify a numeric address such as 207.21.231.111. The main purpose of
domain names is to allow web users to connect to the Internet and find
websites or send email to addresses with familiar names such as "email.com"
or "eudoramail.com" without having to memorize the IP
addresses.
A domain name and a web site,
connected together allows you to have a web presence on the internet and
allows you to manage email addressed to your domain. The capabilities
and features of your web site and your email will depend on the web
hosting provider.
Usually, to start hosting, you need to register a domain name first.
Domain name registration cost from US$8.00 to US$35 per depending on the
domain registrar. We recommend that you register your domain names
with an ICANN accredited registrar
Point your browser to the few
links to read more about domain name registration.
IP Address
The address of a particular computer on the Internet, used to
identify it uniquely for communications purposes. Every computer that
sends or receives information on the Internet must have an IP address,
expressed as a 32-bit number, which is attached to every message and has a
return address to which it can reply if necessary. Some host provide
with a you
a unique IP address to identify your domain name. This allows you to
manage and start publishing to the location even before your domain name
is transferred.
Click the few links below to
read more news about IP Addresses
Web Server
A computer that provides World Wide Web services on the internet. It
consists of a network host that acts as an HTTP server, and includes the
hardware, operating system, web server software, TCP/IP protocols and
the web site content (web pages).
Click the few links below to
find out more about the various web servers.
DNS
A DNS (Domain Name Server) resolves a Domain Name to an IP address. If
someone, for example, wants to access hostpulse.com, the DNS will
translate the domain into 207.21.231.111 which will allow to locate
hostpulse.com server.
Click the links below to find
out more about Domain Name Server
Shared and Dedicated Hosting
These two terms are widely used on the internet to describe the
services that a web hosting provider can offer you. Shared hosting is
multiple web sites residing on a single server/computer. Shared hosting
is sometimes referred to as virtual servers, and definitely cheaper than
dedicated host, because your site is residing on a server that also
hosts other websites. A normal web server usually can accommodate up to
250 websites. On the other hand, a dedicated server is a computer that hosts
only your site. Dedicated servers provide more hard-drive space and
greater autonomy and flexibility, including choice of software,
operating systems, and database management systems. A dedicated host
often costs from US$99 per month to US$500 per month.
To choose between a shared and a
dedicated host depends on the volume of traffic to your site and the
amount of control and flexibility that you want on your hosting account.
In a shared environment, other sites on the same server that you host
are competing to use the server resources, and if your site has high
traffic, it is wise that you switch to a dedicated server that can serve
your web users faster without sacrificing any other hosts.
However, if you are fairly new to
web hosting with a limited budget, shared hosting is the recommended
solution for your site. The primary advantage in choosing a virtual
server over a dedicated server is significant savings in setup and
operating costs. Shared hosting prices usually start from US$8 per month
to US$50 per month depending on the features, software and hardware that
a host can provide you.
Click here to view a few examples
of shared hosting services
Click here to view a few examples
of dedicated hosting services
Next, read my next
article about choosing the right hosting service for your site.
