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 What is Hosting?-
Simply put... Web sites are made up of digital files (pictures,
text, and sometimes special scripts) and these files need a digital
home- a physical location that has a specific digital address
so it can be found easily, and is accessible 24 hours a day.
Hosting companies maintain the server space that web site owners
put their web site files on. This space is measured like the hard
drive on your PC, in megabytes, anywhere from 1 meg to 8+ gigabytes
if you need enough space for say a corporate web site. Hosting
companies do not provide you with dial-up service, such as AOL
or a local ISP.
When you contract with a hosting company (pay their monthly fee)
you're initially given an IP address (internet protocol) that
looks like an ugly phone number (217.196.24.etc.). The IP address
is the specific digital locator for your specific digital plot
on the web and can be used interchangeably with your domain name,
once your domain name has been registered with one of the domain
name registering bodies. Then it's just a matter of uploading
your web site and waiting. Or starting a marketing campaign...
Domain name? The www.yourname.com that you see everywhere is a
domain name (technically, without the w's). Once you register
your domain, instead of having your visitors try and remember
a string of numbers and dots they can just type in: www.bobsboots.com
and find your site. For more info go to the Domain Watch page and read about recent changes.
Most hosting do more than just house your web site, though. They
can provide extra features that add more functionality to your
site. Such as:
Additional email accounts:
Say you need 20 individual email accounts for your small business.
Database Support:
You want to be able to keep records of transactions, etc.
Secure Socket Layer:
This is the environment that most sensitive operations (credit
card info, corporate info, etc.) can be transacted in an encrypted,
secure manner.
Shopping Cart Software:
If you want an ecommerce site you need cart software/scripting
to keep track of a users purchases and taxes, etc. Some companies
provide shopping carts, um, for free, at a price.
Hit Stats:
A great thing to have if you want to know how many people are
visiting you site. Most of these programs give raw numbers for
page views and where people came from. Just place a banner ad
with another website? This feature will tell you how well it's
driving traffic to you site. Want to know which search engine
is sending you the most hits? This is a tool for monitoring your
marketing strategies.
There are many other features that hosting companies will provide
their customers depending on the company, the package plan, and
the needs of the customer. For more see Definitons. |
