The Newbie Series - Part 2 - Hosting 101

Jul

admin

When I was a young boy building my first website I was under the belief I would have to set up my own computer with my website and have it connected to the internet so everyone could access my site. Obviously this isn’t the case so I have compiled a beginners guide to help any aspiring webmasters.
What is it?
What better place to start then defining what I’m actually talking about. Web hosting is

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own websites 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, typically in a data center.
So for us non dictionary folk it is a company that host your website on thier computer so that people can access it via the internet.

Types Of Host
There are many different types of host many you will probably never use but I have compiled a list here from wikipedia.
· Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
· Shared web hosting service: one’s Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
· Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers’ accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a collocated server.
· Virtual Dedicated Server: slicing up a server into virtual servers. each user feels like they’re on their own dedicated server, but they’re actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space.
· Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
· Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
· Collocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the collocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client’s machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
· Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization.
Choosing A Host
Ok now we have done the high school stuff lets become more applicable. When choosing a host there are 3 main things for beginners to look at:
1. Price: Price is obviously very important. You should never pay more than what is necessary. 2.
2. Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the amount of data usage your site can have. The more usage the more date you will need. Generally only larger sites will require more bandwidth than the basic packages. 3.
3. Features: This is most important to the functional operation of your site. If your site has any special code php, asp, .net etc you must make sure that the host will support these functions.
Now there are free host out there but they generally want something in return. Some will place you on their sub domain, some will require advertising, whatever it is, it looks unprofessional and should be avoided, particularly because hosting is so cheap. Personally I choose a company called 3ix they cost $1 a month have all the features needed for beginner sites and I have had no problems to date. Whoever you choose I wouldn’t pay more than $5 a month unless you are getting a dedicated server or something else that’s special. And I doubt you will need such a host if you are reading this article.
So how does this work in the real world?
Now if you have never set up a host and website before here’s what you do:
Buy a hosting account. If you buy a domain name with the account it makes it a lot easier. If you purchased the domain separately you will have to go to the domain registrar and enter the DNS details of your host. (they can be found in an email your host should send). Don’t worry about the terms it’s a simple cut a paste job so far.
So after 24-48 hours your domain name should now be hosted by your chosen host and its time to upload your files so that they can be viewed on the web. There are two options upload through the host or through ftp (file transfer protocol) software on your computer.
· If you choose to do it through the host you will need your username and password login details which should be in a welcome email. The host will also give you a web address to access your control panel where you can do a whole heap of things (but that’s another article for another time). One of the options is file manager (in cPanel anyway) and it will let you browse your computer and upload relevant files. You must upload your files into the public html for it to be displayed to visitors to your site. Also its important to remember your host will tell you the name of your home page. Generally its either index.html or welcome.html. So make sure when designing the site you give your home page the right name.
· The second option is to use a software program on your computer. This is much quicker and easier than uploading one file at a time through cPanel. I recommend smartftp, which is free for personal users and has lots of tutorials on how to use the program if needed. Again the same rules apply you will need a username, a password, your home page has to be the correct and of course internet connection. When you upload simply place in the public_html folder again.
Congratulations you have your first site up and running for everyone to see. Hopefully you have a cheap hosting account promoting your site. Lastly your host should have excellent 24/7 support. If you find they are slow to respond or they don’t respond in a sufficient matter I would recommend finding a new host.