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Website Hosting : What's it all mean???
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Website hosting. FTP. DNS. TCP/IP.
HTML. HTTP. WWW PHP. PERL.
Domains. URLs. Website names
Website building. RSS
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Yikes!
No wonder newbies get confused when they ask the simple
question, *What's website hosting?*.
They get greeted with a bunch o'gobbledegook and acronyms and
their eyes glaze over ... I know ... I used to be a newbie
myself!
Let me see if I can explain this in a way which makes it clear
to an absolute beginner.
* * * * Why would anyone need website hosting? * * * *
Well, they must either have or want to have a website, and for
the website to appear on the internet, it has to be *living* on
a computer server somewhere in the world - this computer is
where your website is HOSTED [or *lives*].
Think of it this way - let's imagine you want to open a shop.
You will need :
* a business name people will remember [and an address] * a shop
or an office [physical space] * more than one room in the shop
or office * hopefully visitors to the shop or office
So those items translate to these when you think of website
hosting:
* business name = domain name, website name, URL [Uniform
Resource Locator] * shop/office = hosting [the space on a
computer somewhere] * extra rooms = website pages * visitors =
traffic to the website.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
How do I use the website hosting?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
You will need to build a website or have someone do that for you.
When it's ready you will need to *upload* it or *copy* it onto
the computer you use for the hosting. If you don't know how to
do this, the website Hosting Company will generally offer
support on their websites, via email, frequently asked questions
[FAQs], Live Chat or phone. If someone helped you to create the
website, they will also know how to upload your website to the
hosting space.
In general, hosting companies offer lots of great options when
you pay for a year of hosting. Some of these you might use
immediately, and others you may never use - it depends on what
you are using your website for, who your audience will be,
whether you're selling products or services, or providing
information.
If you're not sure what all the options are, check out the
website hosting company's website and read all about what the
optional extras are good for.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
What's included in website hosting?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here are some goodies which might be of interest to a lot of
website builders:
* the most important thing - support - make sure you get 24 hr
support, 7 days a week - this can be a combination of phone
support, email, Live Chat, FAQs
* lots of storage space - this means you have lots of room on
the hosting server to put all your webpages and images; if you
have a lot of photos for your website, the more space the better
* download - the more the better - this means that each time
someone accesses a webpage on your website, it uses what's known
as *bandwidth*; this is part of your allowance for the amount of
website traffic you might expect, and you need to check your
website statistics monthly to make sure you are well within your
allowance, otherwise you will generally be charged extra for a
LOT of traffic using up a LOT of bandwidth
* shopping cart / e-commerce - if you plan to sell a lot of
items, you might be interested in having a shopping cart
* email accounts - you might be offered 5, 10 or 20 email
accounts - think about what you might use them for - you'd be
surprised! How about one for you and one for each staff member
[if needed], info@, billing@, sales@, enquiries@ ... I'm sure
you can think of more which might suit your business and website
* mailing list - if you plan to attract your website visitors to
return to your site, you might consider setting up a mailing
list for a Newsletter; this is good for prospective clients as
well as regular clients
* autoresponders - this is a series of emails which get sent off
at pre-determined dates, e.g. the day someone signs up, two days
later, 5 days later etc; you use these to offer free information
to anyone who comes to your website - something interesting, to
get them to come back
* database - if you're going to collect names, or going to sell
products, you will probably need a database; if your website
hosting has this as part of the hosting package, that's a great
idea
* web builder - an automated website builder online so anyone
[without programming skills] can quickly and easily create their
own website and publish it online - no need to hire or pay a
technical person to help, you can do it yourself - this is also
an excellent feature to look for when researching website
hosting.
There are quite a lot of other features which might make your
eyes glaze over at this point, so I'll save those for another
article ... :o>
Links of interest:
http://www.BuildAWebsiteTonight.com - online web builder
including hosting
http://www.OfficeDocsDomains.com - buy your domain, free url
forwarding
http://www.BuildAWebsiteTonight-Hosting.info - 100 emails, lots
of features
I hope this has made your understanding of website hosting a
little clearer, and has taken away the mystery of unknown
territory in the internet. Whatever you choose to do, have fun
along the way, and everyone around you will benefit from your
enthusiasm.
Now - get to it!
About the author:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
2005 ©Teena Hughes Teena has been building websites, providing
website hosting, web builders and domains and helping people get
their websites online for many years . Visit the Forum at
http://www.BuildAWebsiteTonight.com; sign up for a free
newsletter on building websites and small business topics
http://www.BuildAWebsiteTonight.com/e/
Teena Hughes
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