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Web Hosting 101


Before creating your website read the definitions of the following terms so you can make an educated decision about where to host your site.

Bandwidth
Data Transfer
Disk Space
Domain Name
Free Hosts - pros and cons
FTP
Hits - Are hits and visitors the same thing
Hosting
HTML -what is it and do I need to learn it
Operating system - which one is best for me
Parked Domain
Redirected Domain
Search engines - How do I submit my site
SSL - Should I purchase
SubDomain
Transfer
Unlimited transfer/disk space - is there really no limit
Uploading your site
Uptime
Visitors - can I tell how many people visit my site
Web Hosting



Bandwidth or Data Transfer:
Data transfer is the total amount of information downloaded from your web site.

Whenever a visitor comes to your site, your web servers send data to your visitor's computer. This data may include web pages, images, videos, sound files, software programs, or compressed files — anything on your site that can be viewed or downloaded. The more visitors you have, and the more complex your web site, the more data transfer you'll use. If you exceed your bandwidth allowance, your webhost may charge you a fee or shut your site down for the remainder of the month.

Bandwidth is measured in Gigabytes(GB) per month.  For most sites 10 GB of bandwidth would be more than enough.  
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Disk Space:
This is the size website's entire content.  This includes every piece of code, character, image, sound, and anything else your site may contain.  The larger the site, the more space you are going to need.  This may be measured in Megabytes(MB) or Gigabytes(GB).
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Domain Name:
Your site name.  For example in the website www.widgets.com  widgets.com is the domain name.  You can purchase a domain name from most webhosts.  It is wise to buy a domain from the place you are going to host your site with because they may give you a discount.
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Free Hosts - pros and cons:
Free web hosting sounds great, but are they really?  The obvious pro is that they are free.  There are some cons as well.  Keep in mind hosting is an expensive business and no one is going to host websites unless there is money to be made.

Most free hosts use forced advertising.  This is where the web host puts there advertising on your web site so they can make money.
Many free hosts also offer a paid version so you don't have to put advertising on your site.  Free hosts also offer less disk space and banwidth than their paid counterparts.
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FTP:
File Transfer Protocol - The simple explanation is that a special program uses FTP to upload your site to a web host.  The most  popular FTP program is cuteFTP.
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Hits - Are hits and visitors the same thing:
A hit is the number of files downloaded from a web site.  For example if you go to www.widgets.com and there are 4 pictures, 3 buttons and 1 sound file that is 8 hits but only 1 visitor.
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HTML -what is it and do I need to learn it:
Hyper Text Markup Language - The programming language used to create web pages.  While you don't need to know HTML, a little understanding of it would help.  There are Programs that can build a web site for you.  The most popular are Microsoft Frontpage, Adobe Dreamweaver,  and CoffeeCup.  Some Web Hosts may also have programs to assist you also.
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Operating system - which one is best for me:
A common misconception is that your need to use the same operating system as you use on your own computer.  This is completely untrue.  It actually depends what databases or languages you are going to use.  The most common operating systems are Linux and Windows.  The only reason to choose Windows as your operating system is if you need to use their products such as MS Access, VBscript, or ASP.  Otherwise choose Linux.  It is more stable, secure, and usually cheaper.  Some web hosts, such as us,  allow you to switch from Linux to Windows and vise versa at no charge.
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Parked Domain:
If you have a great domain name, such as widgets.com, but you haven't finished creating your site you can park your domain.  That is when you purchase the domain without a hosting package.  Many hosts will park your domain for free, some may charge you a small fee.
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Redirected Domain or Domain Forwording:
This is the process of forcing one or more domains to point to another domain.  For example, you own widgets.com.  It is a beautiful site.  you don't want anyone else to own a similar domain so you also purchase widgets.net and widgets.org.  You can have them both point to widgets.com.  Now if anyone goes to widgets.net or widgets.org it will immediately take them to widgets.com.  
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Search engines - How do I submit my site:
Search engines have programs called spiders, crawlers, or robots.  They all do the same basic thing.  They search the web looking for new web sites or new versions of older sites. They may or may not find yours.  You can directly submit your site to most search engines.  Most search engines only use paid inclusion.  In other words, if you want to be listed, you need to pay.  The 2 biggest search engines that accepts free submisssions are google and dmoz.org.    DO NOT submit multiple pages to them, they may consider it spamming and you may be banned from the search engine.

About DMOZ - Most people know google.  DMOZ is far less welll known.  It stands for Directory MOZilla.  It is also known as the Open Directory Project.  Unlike google, Dmoz isn't even a search engine, it is a directory.  Most people never even heard of it.  So why woud you want to submit to DMOZ?  DMOZ as 3 advantages over other search engines:
  1. It's free
  2. other search engines use computer programs to go through web sites.  These programs can't read certain types of sites, such as frames or flash.  DMOZ is human edited.  Anything you or I can see, so can DMOZ.
  3. There is a reason it is called the Open Directory project.  Almost all othe search engines pull info from DMOZ.  In other words, if you are accepted into DMOZ, sooner or later your site will appear  in other search engines.
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SSL - Should I purchase:
It stands for Secure Socket Layer.  It is standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private.  You need to Purchase a SSL certificate if you are going to accept credit card payments or your site requires a user to log in.  Pages that are secure generally have a picture of a padlock at the bottom of the page, like the one at the bottom of this page.  This particular page is not secure, the starfield padlock is just an example.
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SubDomain:
An extension of your domain.  Most web hosts allow you to do this for free.  For example,  you sell widgets and your site is www.widgets.com, you also have a section of blue widgets.  you could create the subdomain www.blue.widgets.com.
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Uploading your site:
This is the process of taking yor site from your computer to the host's server.  Your web host will send you specific requirements on how they want you to upload your site.
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Uptime:
Uptime is a measure of the time a computer system or in this case your web site has been "up" and running.  Most hosts guarantee 99% uptime or better.  If your site is down, through no fault of your own, for more than an hour in any given month ask for a refund or look for a new host.
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Unlimited transfer/disk space - is there really no limit:
This actually takes a lot of explanation.  The following article from findmyhost explains this very well.

The Truth About Unlimited Bandwidth

Web Hosting is a commodity. The main elements of any web hosting plan are disk space and bandwidth. Disk space is the space you have allotted on the web server to store your website. Bandwidth is an amount you have available to transfer web pages from the web server to the browsers of visitors to your site. Web pages and graphics consume bandwidth or capacity on the web. Bandwidth and disk space cost money.

The network lines that carry data around the web (optic fiber, cable, copper wire etc) have a finite capacity. There is a limit to the amount of data that can be transferred at any point in time. Likewise, the hard drive of a web server has a limited amount of space determined by the physical size of the hard drive.

Many hosting companies claim to offer "unlimited" plans (both disk space and bandwidth), but be aware that there are physical limitations to both disk space and bandwidth. Before you buy an "unlimited" plan, know what you're getting into.

The Attraction to Unlimited
When consumers decide they want to place a website on the internet, they are often unaware of the fact that there are limitations. Unlimited is attractive because it requires no further thought. If it's unlimited then I never need to worry about running out right? Although this is understandable, there are risks with purchasing unlimited plans.

The Unlimited Myth
Many web hosting companies offer "unlimited" as a plan feature. It is impossible for any provider to actually provide an unlimited amount of bandwidth or disk space. It's just not possible.

So Why Do Unlimited Plans Exist?
Most websites only consume a very small amount of bandwidth and disk space. Web hosting companies that provide unlimited anything as a plan feature are banking on the fact that you won't use very much. Unlimited is a marketing trick to get your business. The web hosting market is very competitive. Although selling plans that pretend to be unlimited can seem dishonest, it does not mean that the hosting company will not provide good service. Check in the hosting company's Terms of Service: there will probably be a note about what "unlimited" really means.

When Are Unlimited Plans Ok?
If you have a small website and know that it will not consume too much space or bandwidth, then unlimited plans make your choices a bit easier to understand. Most plans that offer unlimited will have some restrictions such as no audio or video downloads. The reason audio or video downloads are typically not allowed in unlimited hosting plans is because these types of files consume significant bandwidth and disk space which exposes the host to the risk of having to add more hard drive space and bandwidth, which costs them more money. If you choose an unlimited plan and you know your needs won't be very intensive then you won't run into any problems.

When Are Unlimited Plans Not Ok?
If you intend to have a lot of visitors to your site, lots of downloads, including audio or video files, do not choose an unlimited plan hoping to get unrestricted bandwidth. You will find yourself with problems. Your web host is not going to run at a loss for long - they could shut down your website or even charge you extra (read the terms of service).

So What Is The Best Thing To Do?
The best course of action is to plan ahead. Calculate what type of bandwidth and disk space you will need for your site (you can use the information and tools on the FindMyHosting site to do this) then multiply it by 2 just to allow for expansion. Remember, you can always buy more bandwidth or disk space if you need - often for only a few dollars a month extra. Look for plans that meet those requirements. 

Only consider an unlimited hosting plan if you know your disk space and bandwidth requirements are very low. If, on the other hand, you have an ecommerce site or a site that you expect to grow in size and bandwidth in future, avoid any plans that offer unlimited bandwidth or disk space.

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 Visitors - can I tell how many people visit my site:
Hosting accounts come with some sort of stats program.  We use our own called Traffic Facts.  Another popular one is Awstats.  No matter what you use, they do the same basic thing.  They tell you how many people visit your site.  They can also tell where they are from, what pages they went to, and a lot more information.
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Web Hosting:
When a company puts other peoples websites on their servers.  It is then the company's job to maintain the files on their servers and make them available to the public on the internet.
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