Beginners guide to web hosting
If you're completely new to web hosting, this guide should answer any nagging doubts that you may have. Please feel free to contact us at any time to discuss your requirements.
We'll start by defining a few jargon terms and work our way up to a full explanation of all the cogs and wheels that fit together to produce a web site and email service.
What is Web Hosting ?
If you own a laptop or desktop computer, you'll know that the disk inside it contains your files and folders. You can share files by sending them to other people through the email system, but sometimes it makes more sense to publish your files on a web page where the rest of the world can read or download them.
A group of published files on the web is called a web site.
To publish a file as a web page, the file has to be stored on a computer that has a permanent "always on" connection to the Internet. This type of computer is sometimes called a web server. Your home computer can be set up to publish web pages too, but there are some drawbacks. You would have to leave it on all the time, putting up your electricity bill. The speed of home broadband connections is generally much slower in the outgoing direction than incoming, so if a lot of people want to see your web page at the same time, your computer will not be able to push it out fast enough. In this situation, someone trying to view it may have to wait a long time.
Put simply, web hosting is the storage and publication of files on a computer (web server) that is always connected to the Internet through a very fast connection. The files are always available to view from anywhere in the world by anyone with a web browser.
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What is the difference between free and paid-for web hosting ?
Home and Business Broadband users will generally have a contract with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as Virgin Media or BT in the UK. Sometimes ISPs provide web space for free as part of their packgage of services. Let's say you want to use this space for publishing some of your own web pages. Here are a few of the issues that may come up :
- The amount of disk space (web space) that my ISP provides is not sufficient to hold all my files
- When I upload a file, my ISP puts their advertising banners on it
- I can't get my domain name to stay in the address bar when people visit my site - instead I get the address of my ISP followed by some folder names.
- I want to have a forum or a blog but my ISP doesn't have the tools to do that.
To build a professional-looking web site that is fully integrated with your business identity, it is vital that you have plenty of web space to host it and that the web server can deliver the full range of rich content found on the modern Internet. By its nature, "free" web space is limited in terms of what it can deliver for you.
Paid-for web hosting gives you more flexibility, more space and the computers that store and publish your files will be faster and more reliable in terms of uptime.
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What is the difference between the various web hosting packages ?
As with many things in life, you get what you pay for. The pricing of hosting packages reflects:
- The amount of disk (web) space available for your site. If your site has lots of pages with photographs or video clips then you may find yourself running out of space.
- The bandwidth which is the the number of pages per month that your site can deliver.
- Whether your web hosting provider uses shared or dedicated hosting. Shared hosting is generally considered to be inferior in terms of bandwidth, particularly when other web sites in the same shared environment are getting a lot of traffic, or using up a lot of the web server's resources.
- The web server's operating system. Your home desktop or laptop computer will probably have either Windows or the Apple Mac operating system. Web server computers also have an operating system, but it is much more likely to be Linux. If your web site is designed to be hosted on a computer with Windows, you'll need a Windows hosting package. We use Linux on our web servers exclusively, although we can help you to source a competitive Windows hosting provider if you are tied into that. Alternatively, we can make an assessment of whether your web pages can be converted to a format that is platform independent i.e. able to be published on any kind of hosting package.
How does email work with web hosting ?
The three key elements of your online business are :
- Your domain name
- Your web site
- Your email address
If you already have a "free" email address (hotmail, gmail etc) then why would you want another ?
The answer is that if you are trying to establish your business presence on the web, it makes sense to have a consistent identity across your stationery, business cards, web site and email address. When your clients see your business identity as part of your email (me@mydomain.co.uk) they are reassured that you are who you say you are. It shows that you've made some effort, rather than relying on a free address to promote your business.
We find that our clients have their own preferences when it comes to sending and receiving email. Many like using mail client software such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Entourage etc. Others prefer to use their web browser and sign in to web-based mail systems such as Hotmail, Googlemail or Yahoo. Whatever your preferred method, we can support it. Our web-based mail system may look slightly different to Hotmail or GMail, but has the same functionality. If you prefer to use dedicated mail software such as Outlook, our mail system allows you either to download the mail to your computer using POP or to manage all your mail remotely using the IMAP
What do I need to get started ?
If you or your company are completely new to the web, the first step should be to consider what domain name you would like to register. We recommend that you give us a call or an email to discuss this crucial stage, as your other services are underpinned by the name that you choose. You can place an order with Verinote without committing yourself to anything. Let us review your identity and requirements and advise you on the next steps.
If you already have a domain name and a web site and are thinking about developing it further, optimising it for the search engines to improve your ranking and attract more business, or simply to make it more interactive, please call us.