We are a group of web hosting professionals. This website was developed to help inform non-technological users about web hosting and to help them find the best web hosting company. We love talking about web hosting and are always glad to hear from others who love talking about web hosting too. Feel free to get in touch with us about posting any web hosting related news or topics you might have. We also accept guest authors who have something important to say about web hosting. Below is a short summary about the very basics of web hosting. These are fairly basic principles that you will need to know when searching for a web host.
Web Hosting Basics
Web Hosting
What is web hosting? If you have a website, you’ll need a web hosting account. Why? Well, a website is essentially a bunch of files. When a web designer builds your website, he saves these files on his or her computer. If the files stay only on that computer, they will only be visible to people using that computer. To get these files (your website) viewable to everyone, you must make it accessible across the internet. And that’s what web hosting does. Essentially web hosting is a service that allows you to lease a server (or part of a server) where you can store files (your website) and make it viewable to anyone who has an internet connection.
Domain Names
What is a domain name? Simply put, a domain name is an addressing system that allows you to give your website a human recognizable name. For example, if you were to type in www.microsoft.com in your browser, it would direct you to Microsoft’s website. A domain name is separate from hosting. But it can also be bought directly with your web hosting. Its best to buy a domain name from a domain name registrar, such as GoDaddy or Domain Cheapsters. Once you buy the domain name, you will need to log in to your account and change the name servers to point to your web hosting account. This is basically how you tell your domain name that it should be associated with your web hosting account.
FTP – File Transfer
Now that you have a web hosting account, you will need to upload your website to it. Remember, your website is a bunch of files that were created on your web designer’s computer. If your web designer just handed these files over to you, you will need to upload them to your web hosting server. To do this, you will need to FTP them. FTP is simply a method of uploading files to a server. Many web hosting accounts provide some form or method to upload files from your computer to the server, but this way is usually not always the best. Its simpler and easier just to download a free FTP program, such as FileZilla. After you download and install your FTP program, you will need to enter your FTP information so you can connect to your web hosting server. This FTP information can usually be found somewhere in your web hosting account control panel. Once you enter the information, your FTP program can connect to your web hosting server, and you finally upload the files (your website) to the server where it will be visible to everyone with an internet connection.