What is hosting?

[Jayne]

Hi,

I checked out Matrixx's web site (Very Posh! Has a bird in a pool, Very original for a bloke?). Way over my head for a novice. Firstly what is a Host, what do they do and how do they earn money from doing it?. What is a Domain? And is there any good FREE web sites that would teach me more about this stuff! I need to know the basics before I do a course, don't want to feel stupid around the computer geeks! :D

Thanks

Jayne

[Rob Holmes]

Hi Jayne,

Glad you liked the pic of the pool ;)

I've also taken on board your comments about too techie for beginers and will do something about it. Frankly I've resisted the urge to ask for comments about the site on the forum for fear of the wrath of Webstuff and Epiphany unleashing them selves full pelt at my site ;)

Heres a couple of definitions that may or may not:

Web Hosting: Web hosting is the process of storing a website on a web server to it accessible on the Internet. This service is usually provided by your ISP or a specialist hosting company (like Matrixx Hosting). It requires a permanent Internet connection and Web server.

Domain Name:
Your Domain Name or web address signifies your own address on the Internet. It is a unique alphanumeric name used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet.

As no two parties may ever hold the same Domain Name at the same time, it is a truly unique identifier of you or your company. It is how your customers will remember you and find you among the millions of other Web sites on the Internet.

Hope this helps a bit (or maybe confuses more)

Rob

[chris1317]

A host is somebody that offers webspace on their servers which are permenantly on for people to put their website on. You could host your own website but when you shut down your PC your website would disapear and if you were downloading on the internet it would reduce your websites performance and make it slow. They make money by leasing the space to people on their servers.

A domain name is something like google.com or msn.co.uk, when you buy space on a webserver you are asigned an ip adddress e.g. 81.25.63.54, you could type this into internet explorer and bring up your page but it is not the most memorable. So you buy a domain name and asign it to that ip so when someone types in www.yoursite.com it points to the ip seamlesley in the background.

There are lots of good sites on the net for info, Il try ande find a few and pm you.

Chris.

[chris1317]

I obviously took too long to write that, Rob got in there 1st

Chris.

[Rob Holmes]

I obviously took too long to write that, Rob got in there 1st

Chris.

LOL - yea but on reflection once again mine is too techy!

Rob

[Jayne]

Two brains are better than one Chris!

Most of it went in....Is a web server a piece of computer equipment you have to buy or is it like borrowing someone elses on there computer? Got a bit confused with that.

Thanks

Jayne.

[MinuWeb]

Matrixx, like myself runs a web hosting company, we own the web servers that are located in the datacenters and manage them so the websites on them are always working.

Basically, our clients just rent a small amount of space on one of our servers.

A web server is just a flashy name for a PC that has software installed on it so peoples websites that are on it will work (as well as e-mail, databases etc)

(trying not to be techie :D )

[Jayne]

Think I've got it now...

The Domain name is the xxxxx.com sort of name you pay for. A Host looks after you web site when you go to bed and switch off you computer, also re-directs any email. A web server is like putting all your stuff on there computer, which the host looks after.

Is that about right

Thanks

Jayne

[MinuWeb]

Just about,

Getting a bit more techie, but hopefully not too much.....

Domain names started as a way to make it easier for people to remember web site addresses. All web sites use IP addresses in for format 111.222.333.444 which you can imagine would be difficult to remember.

When you type a domain name to your browser, a chain of events start that locate the actual IP address used by your website, locating and contacting the server that the website is on (which happens very fast) and a change of information takes place that results in a page being displayed in your browser.

Luckily, most people do not have to do anything or know anything about this part :D

When mail is sent to you@yourdomain.com it is also sent to the server where your domain is hosted. You then retrieve the mail by setting up a mail program like outlook with the correct information to it can connect to the server and check for mail, if it finds some it will download the mail to your PC

If you have the knowledge to setup and configure web server software such as "apache", mail server software like "exim" and a whole bunch of other bits that are needed you could host your own websites on your PC at home, but as already mentioned, if you turned it off your site would not work.

[annethedonn]

Where does the woman in the pool fit in to all this? Is she the web hostess with the mostess?

[Jayne]

Thinks she's Robs dream girl?...Check out Matrixx's web site! Very Blokey!

Bye

Jayne

[MinuWeb]

Where does the woman in the pool fit in to all this? Is she the web hostess with the mostess?

Maybe she manages Rob's IP pool :D :D

[annethedonn]

LOL, well I don't see the connection myself - but if it keeps the simple creatures happy ha ha.

[Webstuff]

Jayne, maybe toying around for a few days with a free host would help you get used to running a website? I'm sure people here can provide plenty of addresses for free hosts...

Anne;

...but if it keeps the simple creatures happy...


I'm hurt :( That was too accurate to be nice.

[annethedonn]

Ah well the truth usually does!

I didn't actually specify who the simple creatures were.

I am nice really, I'm only joking - I'm sure you guys have plenty to say. I have lots of ladies on my website too which I'm sure the guys will like but I couldn't find any dishy men to put on there - well not relative to business services that didn't involve an x-rated pic. anyway!

[epiphany]

I try my best not to be harsh ;) Not that there is anything negative about your site matrix :P

[Jayne]

Hi,

I've found a great web site that learns you about web pages. html, <> them things. I now know what Html means (Hyper Text Markup Language), what tags are, I've just done my first html title page. I'm so chuffed with myself...Watch this space!

http://www.w3school.com/html/default.asp this is the web address if any more novices need it...it's free!

Bye for now

Jayne

[Webstuff]

I used that when learning SVG ;)

[chris1317]

Theres a lot of good info on there, I used to know heaps of sites but I cant seem to remember the names of them now.

Il ask one of my mates and get him to remind me as he pointed me to a few

one just came to me justnow as I was writing that

www.devguru.com

Chris.