Now, this is
something which you may not know (finally something, you would like to hear from
me), Don't worry, this is very normal. Domain name is simply your address, like
a telephone number. You need to have an Telephone instrument to receive calls.
Just like telephone, you need to have a server where you can store you message
to the world. In simple to understand terms - `The server is a computer that is
connected to the internet backbone, configured to understand its language and
dish out the content of your web site to any visitors who requests it to do so.
It can be on any Operating system and server software like Apache for Linux and
UNIX, IIS for Windows and so on.
Some
important point
-
When you
register a domain name, it does not automatically includes web
hosting. Most of the domain name registrars charge extra for web
hosting.
-
Usually,
You receive email along with web hosting. Email is part of a web hosting
server and not part of domain name.
-
www or
any other prefix is a feature of web hosting and not of domain name. A
domain name is plain yourname.com or yourname.co.uk , you can request the
web hosting company to prefix www or even home or business in you .yourname.com
Now there are
two possible scenario for web hosting. First, you purchase your own server,
software, high speed internet bandwidth connectivity from a telecom company or
ISP and pay someone to administer it. Obviously, this is very costly. Another
most common, easy an cheaper method is to share such server with other
webmasters like you. There are many companies offering such services. This is
called shared web hosting and is most common form of web hosting, you might have
generally seen this.
Now, how do
you purchase this, or what all do you need to look for buying this ? This is a
very simple question, but answers have many gray areas. Usually, I am afraid to
discuss this point, but since, I am stuck up with this article, I will make you
read these points.
Speed - In
case of small business and home web sites, this is probably the single most
important issue. There are many technical glibbs like T3 connectivity,
redundancy, uptime, no of sites hosted on server etc etc. Just read through web
hosting companies web sites and you will have them all. Simple advise is - just
ask from the prospective web hosting company to name a few web sites they are
hosting and compare their speed. This is in the nut shell the final assurance of
speed. Usually, your web server may be cheap or it may be fast, but it won't be
both.
Operating
System - Windows NT / Windows 2000 and now Windows XP verses UNIX / Linux.
This question is most common with no definite answers. Both the OS are good with
their own positive and negative aspects. The final answer to selection depends
upon the merits and demerits of every project or what you languages you have
learned and intend to use (Read: Pay me consultancy charges to suggest you
depending upon your requirement). But, the comforting point is both support HTML
web pages and your domain name based email address. This is the basic things
that you can make your web site with. Since Linux Web hosting is cheap, this is
the most preferred option for small business and home web sites.
Features -
There are a number of features associated with web sites. The list can be long,
but, for a simplest and most basic web site you need, make absolutely sure that
you have atleast these, a:
Optional
features that you can do without, but help you in maintaining your web site
-
Multimedia file support
(you may need them in future, not now)
-
Control Panel - atleast to
manage your email accounts - creating or maintaining
-
Visitors Stats - Most of
the web hosts offer it. Although many third part stats services are
available for free and comparably easier to use, your server based stats are
most useful and reliable.
Web space - This
strictly depends upon the type content you are using in the making of web site
you are making. A simple text only content uses minimal of web space, for
example, the our homepage or the index file is 25 KB in size, as of November 12,
2001. The buttons used for navigation are less than 1 KB, the logo of 4eit.com
is 8 KB, But, my photo is 56 KB is size. So, if your web site uses lots of
images, you will need lots of web space. You must also make allowance for the
approximate requirement at the end of the year. Generally though, for a small
business or home web site 10 to 20 MB is enough.
Monthly Bandwidth allowance
- This is the amount of data that is transferred from your web site in a
month. The usual requirement are between 500 MB to 1 GB per month.
Where do you buy this from, as
before, don't ask me. I have
a vested interest in promoting 4eIT.com.