FAQ - Web Hosting
Web Hosting Overview
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is a service that allows individuals and organizations to rent out space and bandwidth through a company so that their web site is accessible via the World Wide Web.
Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity.
What is shared web hosting?
A shared web hosting service or virtual hosting service refers to a web hosting service where one's web site is placed on the same server as many other sites connected to the Internet. Each site occupies its own berth in the server to keep it separate from other sites, ranging from a few hundreds or thousands. Typically all domains may share common server resources such as RAM and the CPU. This is generally the most economical option as many people share the overall cost of server maintenance. The features available with this type of hosting can be quite broad.
What is virtual dedicated server?
Virtual dedicated servers (also called Virtual Private Servers or VPS) are servers which do not interface directly with the hardware that they are running on, nor do they interface with each other. Unlike shared hosting, a virtual dedicated server performs and runs exactly like an isolated stand-alone server. The virtual server allows full access to freely administer your server with minimal interference from hosting providers.
Virtual dedicated server plans feature very high performance and available disk space and bandwidth. They are particularly useful for companies and individuals that run higher-traffic Web sites or complex applications and thus need the bandwidth and high performance as well as flexibility of a virtual dedicated server.
What are the basic features that one must look for in a web hosting plan?
You must look for the following basic features in a web hosting plan. Disk Space: Disk space is the amount of space allocated to your account. Select an appropriate plan once you ascertain the amount of disk space you will need. Bandwidth: Bandwidth/Transfer is the amount of traffic your server will allow to occur between your web site and the rest of the Internet. You will need to know the size of your page and how many visitors visit your site to decide on the bandwidth. Domain Name: This is the name that identifies one or more IP addresses. Many hosting companies offer a free domain name with their web hosting plans. Email Account: Your hosting company must provide you with POP 3 and SMTP mailboxes to access your mail using Outlook Express, Eudora. FTP Access: Your hosting company must provide FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access for transferring files from client to server
What is disk space and bandwidth/data transfer?
Disk space is the amount of space allocated to your account. It is the size your web site can be. Every single letter on your web site has to be stored somewhere on your web host's server. Each letter is one byte, and a megabyte is approximately one million bytes. HTML pages are normally very small, but it is the extra images, scripts, and even databases that can take up large amounts of disk space. Each 100 megabytes corresponds to approximately 5000 files.
Bandwidth/Transfer is the amount of traffic your server will allow to occur between your web site and the rest of the Internet. Transfer is usually measured in gigabytes - billions of bytes. A host may shut your site down for the remainder of the month once you go over your monthly limit, or it can charge you 'overage.'
Why don't I just go with the cheapest hosting?
You may come across web hosts who offer great deals and amazing features at a cheap price, backed up by excellent performance and service. However, you should look very closely at their terms of service (TOS) and acceptable use policy (AUP) documents. Your host can try to limit the activity of the customer using these documents. Some hosts may compromise on the quality of bandwidth and overall performance to give you cheap pricing. Web hosts offering low prices may also not be up to the mark in terms of customer support.
You can do some research on web hosts, before deciding on one, by visiting www.google.com or www.myhostingcompare.com for a feedback on a host.
What are subdomains?
Subdomains are an extension of your domain. To take an example, www.example.com is your domain. Subdomains could be 'support.example.com' and 'guide.example.com'. Subdomains are usually dealt as separate sites from the main domain site.
What is the difference between Windows and UNIX hosting?
Your choice of an operating system depends on your needs.
If you need to support Microsoft products such as ASP, MS Access, or VBScript, then Windows hosting would be better.
You may have a Windows system at home, but that will not affect your ability to communicate with a UNIX server.
Linux is much more common with web hosts due to its high stability. Linux is also free and hence Linux hosting is normally much cheaper than Windows.
If I use a Window PC, should I choose a Windows-based server?
The type of computer you use has nothing to do with the type of software that the server uses. Linux based servers will run without any problems on web sites developed using Windows software. However it is easier to run scripts on your web site using the same software as the server uses.
What is server uptime?
Uptime is the time which your computer is functioning or available for use. It is often used as a measure of computer operating system reliability and stability. It is the amount of time a computer can be left unattended without crashing or needing to be rebooted.
The best uptime is 100%, but because things can break, many hosts can offer 99.9% uptime guarantee. Depending on the hosting company's terms of service, you can be reimbursed for non-accessibility.
What is a control panel?
A control panel makes it easy to control your hosting account. Most web hosts offer a control panel to users. The control panel can be used to modify and add important parts of your web site like Email accounts, FTP accounts, SQL databases, password change, park and add domains, ability to back up your data, assess visitor statistics and support subdomains.
What is an E-mail address?
An e-mail address refers to an electronic mailing address to which e-mail may be sent and received.
What are E-mailboxes?
E-mailboxes are basically e-mail addresses that you can use to communicate with your customers. You can use e-mailboxes to promote yourself with personalized e-mail addresses like orders@mydomain.com. E-mailboxes usually come with an address book, virus and spam protection, Web Mail, POP and SMTP access, e-mail aliases, e-mail forwarding, and much more.
What is E-mail forwarding?
E-mail forwarding allows you to receive email address sent to multiple addresses without creating multiple POP3 e-mail accounts. Your control panel features can be used to create redirect for other addresses and send all mails to POP3 accounts of your choice.
What do you mean by E-mail Aliases?
"Aliases" are made-up email addresses that deliver email to your primary e-mailbox. E-mail aliases are simply forwarding e-mail addresses. They are additional, disposable incoming e-mailbox addresses that you can create for special or short-term uses. All messages sent to an alias will be delivered to your primary e-mailbox. There may be times when you may not want to share your primary e-mail address. This is when you can use an e-mail alias. For instance you could have "info@mydomain.com" listed on your business card, but this would deliver email to your you@domain.com inbox.
What is an Autoresponder?
A message sent to an e-mail address with an active autoresponder is automatically replied to with a pre-written message. Such messages are usually used for an Out of Office message.
What is POP3 email?
POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol. It is the name of the method used to download emails from a server to your computer. This protocol typically transfers all mail to the PC's local hard drive. This implies that a user will not have access to their mail from multiple computers. A mailbox is also called a popbox. An advantage of a POP email is that you can work offline. It will also be easy to refer to them anytime since the messages are stored on your local computer.
What is IMAP email?
Internet Message Access Protocol (or IMAP ) is a standard protocol of accessing electronic mail that are kept on a possibly shared mail server. That is, it permits a "client" email program (on your PC) to access remote message stores as if they were local. For example, email stored on an IMAP server can be manipulated from a desktop computer at home as well as a notebook computer while traveling, without the need to transfer files back and forth between these computers.
FTP
What is FTP?
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the method used to upload files. While some web hosts offer the ability to upload files through a control panel, most file uploading is done using an FTP client who connects to your web host, establishes a connection, and allows you to upload files within the disk space allocated to you.
Popular FTP clients include CuteFTP, WS_FTP, and Absolute FTP
What are FTP Accounts?
To use FTP or File Transfer Protocol you would need an FTP client software and create FTP accounts to connect to your web site. They are used if you would like to grant someone permission to upload and download files from certain location on your web site. You can then set different bandwidth quotas for your users. Every account will have user name and password. FTP accounts can only access folders that match their login name. You can create, modify and delete FTP accounts from within your control panel.
Other Web Hosting Services
What is domain parking?
You can buy a domain and then have a 'Coming Soon' or 'Under Construction' page on it. This may be done with a view of reserving the domain name for future development and protect against the possibility of registering, trafficking or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.
How do I upload my site online?
You can upload your site in many ways, the most popular being FTP.
You should have been provided an FTP when your hosting account was created. Softwares such as CuteFTP and WS FTP can be used to log in to your host. You can then drag and drop files onto your web host. These files become live online instantaneously.
Other ways to upload your site would be by using SSH or uploading files through your browser.
What is an SSL certificate?
When you connect to a secure web server, the server authenticates itself to the web browser by presenting a digital certificate. This Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate creates an encrypted link between a web site and a visitor's web browser. This link ensures the security of all data passed between the Web site and the browser.
You will have used SSL if you have shopped online or used a credit card to pay what you have bought. An SSL certificate will contain the domain name for which the certificate has been issued, the owner of the certificate and the domain name, the physical location of the owner and the validity dates of the certificate. It thus provides a proof of your web site's identity.
You will need SSL if you offer a log in or sign up on your site, process sensitive data, accept online orders and credit cards, need to comply with privacy requirements and expect visitors to trust you.
Perl? Flash? What are these?
A web site may use many programming languages that the host supports. The programming languages can be split into two types, client-side and server-side. Java and Flash are examples of client-side programs. PHP and Perl are examples of server-side programs. The type of web site that you will be running will decide if you will need the support for these.
What is MySQL?
MySQL is the most commonly used Open Source SQL database management system. Open Source means that it is possible for anyone to use and modify the software. The SQL part of 'MySQL' stands for 'Structured Query Language.' Its connectivity, speed, and security make MySQL Server highly suitable for accessing databases on the Internet. MySQL can run on UNIX, Windows and Mac OS. MySQL is an open source RDBMS that relies on SQL for processing the data in the database. MySQL provides APIs for the languages C, C++, Eiffel, Java, Perl, PHP and Python.
How would I know how many people visit the site?
There can be a variety of reports offered by most web hosting companies that track real-time traffic and visitors to your web site. You will also be able to see how may different pages they viewed and the length of time they spent looking at a specific page. This report can help you fine-tune the site to increase the length of stay and traffic to the site.