wp77817a55.png

Teaching It, Learning It, Doing It!

wp2e50109e.png









wp710dc8fc.png
wpc0faa02f.png
wpa23b521d.png

Really Easy Explanation of Web Hosting Terms You Should Know!

 

 

 

I have a Internet Service Provider (ISP), why do I need a Hosting Company, too? What’s the difference?

Your ISP is how the internet gets to your house. Let’s think of it as the road to your computer. That’s the company you signed up with so you could get onto the internet. If you are still using dial-up (our condolences), it’s probably your phone company. We use Comcast (and love it!). Think of the internet as a HUGE city. Your ISP is your personal tollway to the city, and now you can visit all the houses and businesses in that city.

 

 Now, if you want to build your own house or business in that city (your website), you need to rent a piece of land. A web hosting company rents you the piece of land - in that city your ISP led you to - for a monthly fee.

 

Then, what is a Browser?

Let’s say everyone in our “city” speaks HTML-ese. Your browser is a program on your computer that translates all that code into what you see when you view a web page. The most common browsers are Internet Explorer or Firefox. (I know this isn’t a web hosting term, but I get asked this a lot, so I thought I’d include it)

 

What is Disk Space and Band Width?

Disk Space -would be the size of the lot upon you can build on. Web hosts like to offer a lot of disk space because they know you won’t even use a fraction of it. We have 30+ websites and this site you are looking at has close to 60 pages, and we use less than one half of a GB. Our hosting package allows us 300 GB. Disk Space is not something you need to worry about at this point. The number of pictures, videos and sound clips on your site takes the most space.

 

Band Width can be likened to the size of the road to your house, which determines how much traffic can come and go to your house. (a one lane road vs an 8 lane highway) This is not something you need to worry about when you are just starting out unless it’s video-intense. It’s not nearly the issue it used to be. If you are allowed less than 50GB of bandwidth, find out what happens if you go over.

 

Is a domain the same as an URL?

Not exactly. But similar.

 

Your domain is like the name of your business, or house, and is sometimes also referred to as an ‘URL’. The difference between the domain and URL is the domain is the name of your business, while the URL will define where in the business you are at and how to get to it.  If your domain is “John’s Store”, as you add pages to your site, your URL of each page will usually start with the “http://” and then tell people where those rooms are, such as: “http://JohnsStore/electronics” or “http://JohnsStore/furniture/chairs/blue” . If that’s too confusing, just know that your URL is just a more detailed version of your domain.

 

We have the domain, Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com. The URL of this page is http://homeschool-entrepreneur.com/easyterms.html . It would include the http:// AND what room in that house, or page, /easyterms.html  you are on. There’s a little more to it, but that’s really all you need to know.

 

What’s the difference between Windows and Linux hosting? If I have Windows on my computer, do I need a Windows Server?

NO! The difference between these are irrelevant to the beginner, but you will want to buy LINUX hosting if you want to host a Wordpress blog. Unless you have a computer tech relative that tells you to get Windows hosting, get Linux. It’s much more adaptable to today’s needs.

 

Everything else you will need is probably included, but double check that these are included: PHP, Perl, SSH, SSL, CGI, MySQL, FTP. A reputable host will have all of these, don’t even consider ones that don’t. As you grow, you’ll learn more what these are, and very well may need them.

 

The rest of those terms you see under ‘features’ on the hosting company’s page are all the tools and materials you can use to build your “house”. For now, they are relatively irrelevant :) .  As you learn more about web building, it will all make sense little by little. Most online marketers will never know what 75% of those terms mean.

Here’s a simplified explanation of the basic terms you’ll need to know when you go web host shopping. When you understand the basics, it helps when you ask intelligent questions (in theory!).

 

FYI-We have been asked ALL of these questions!

 

wp0f2e9bd2.png
wp2a193eee.png