Basic Understanding of Web Hosting

The Web is the hugest gallery existing ever of mankind creation. The difference between taking a web hosting plan or not is the difference between being a "user" or being a "creator".

This article is one of a series of articles in which I explain to non professionals some of the basic facts and secrets of the Web and show them that they can too interpret the underneath of this Matrix and use it productively. In this specific article I explain the very basics of hosting plan so you can make your first steps of moving from a position of just being a "user" to the position of being a web "creator".

Lets start by the well known term Website. What is actually "Website"?
Here is a metaphor: Think of Website as bundled collection of pages, images and other resources (see my article: Why should I learn HTML?) that form together a kind of virtual newspaper. To get this newspaper you write some text on your Web Browser, which point to an "address" where you can get access for reading the newspaper. Once your browser shows you this virtual newspaper you can browse its pages. This is of course very sophisticated newspaper that can link you to other newspapers (other websites), generate interaction between you and other software located somewhere else (by using form fields), and let you run various programs that do various things, as an integrated part of your overall experience of using this virtual newspaper.

If a Website is some kind of virtual-newspaper then having a website is your move from just being reader to becoming an editor and owner of a newspaper. This is where you make the change from passive to active, from "user" to "creator". Finally to get into our point, to have a website what you should first do, is taking some hosting plan.

Let me show you some very basic concepts about hosting plan and uncover the mystery attached to this term:

Server Farms: There are firms that own server farms. Server is a computer connected to the Internet that serve for some purpose, meaning run software that do something for someone. Server Farm is therefore a place where there are many computers connected to Internet. This is usually a secured place with special arrangements for cooling and power supply and other things intend to keep servers working and connected to Internet all the time.

IP Address and Domain Name: Each server has an IP address. This is a unique number that identify the end point where commuter is connected to the Internet. For example: 93.172.78.59. There is a special system on the Web that helps human to access some address by doing the translation between the IP Address number and some text. For example: http://www.rhizome-networks.com. This system is handled by special servers on the Internet that do the mapping from the human reading text to the actual IP address.

URL: Unified Resource Locator is a text that point to some page (or other resource) located on some domain. For example the URL: http://www.rhizome-networks.com/index.html is a URL that point to "index.html" page located on some end point on the Internet defined by the address "http://www.rhizome-networks.com"

Website: Website is bundled collection of pages and other resources. To access specific resource on a website, one should use a specific URL that contains both the basic address and the reference to specific resource behind this address.

Web Server: Also known by the term HTTP Daemon, is a special software installed on the server computer, that know to do one simple task: to get request for some URL and to return the related page (or resource) as response.

Web hosting plan: by its very basic Web hosting plan is a service, offered by some company, that supply website owners with this very basic package: Some server computer, that has some IP address translated to domain-name. "Web server" software is installed on this computer that response to URL requests by returning pages or other resources. The owner of the website prepare web pages, store them on some directory, which is a memory area offered by the hosting plan, and this actually construct its Website. Website is controlled and managed by some dashboard or control-panel, which is in itself a website (managed by the provider) that let you manage your resources from within your Web browser.

What I just described above is really the basic of the basic of what is included by hosting plan. In actual plans you will see that basic hosting plans share the same server computer. This is handled by special programs call VPS for "Virtual Private Server". Those software imitate for you the existence of a dedicated server but practically you share the same computer with other subscribers. This is perfectly fine for basic and even advanced websites. This way hosting plans can become much cheaper since the provider manage single resource for many websites and many hosting plans.

In actual web hosting plans you will also see an offer of other resources:

• Email server that let you run and manage your own Email boxes. For example, you can assign unique Email address for your friends and family, so they can enjoy Email service you manage yourself.
• FTP server that let you perform interaction between your home PC and the hosted server, so you can upload and download files. For example, if you prepare Web pages off line with some software on your home PC, you can upload the files to the server and make them part of your website.
• Website builder: Many plans offer you special kind of application-generator where you select some template of Website, and it help you to shape your website so it will look professional.
• Various packages and extra programs that can be used with your Website. You will see for example that PHP based packages are very common. You should not understand the purpose of these packages immediately, unless you are an advanced subscriber that look for something specific.

Once you will start to look for an hosting plan you will see that there are many hosting providers out there, offer you many things. This is really confusing because they are all present you with large lists of features that instinctively force you to start running complex formulas in your head, trying to calculate what is actually better. Here are my few suggestions:

If you are looking for some specific feature in a plan, then focus on providers that supply those specific features. For example, when I choose my hosting provider I searched for one that supply with support for running Java software. Accordingly I choose EAapps which is great for those that come at first with Java background and supply all the mentioned above.

However if you are newbie or beginner for this subject specifically, don't be dazzle by the list of features. What you actually need is the basic features that I showed you above, and these are provided by by any hosting plan. To my opinion you should look for the following:

• Check for provider that seems to have good support so you can get some help when you need - and you will. Good support include both Knowledge base, documentation and Ticketing System that let you open support tickets.
• See if the provider supply with different packages for different levels from personal up to corporate needs. Think of it like this - a provider that take the responsibility to handle corporate websites can not be amateur. Yet while being able to take care corporates, provider should still provide good support for those with personal level (that pay much less of course).
• If someone offer you "FREE Domain Registration" this is even better.
• Make sure that Email feature support POP and SMTP so you can connect with various Email clients. Email should arrive with Anti Virus and Span protection.
• Finally make sure that provider offer you with control panel and FTP for website management. Advanced users that deals directly with scripts on the server should make sure that provider supply SSH support for connecting with the server.

Managing and operating hosting plan is something really a challenging that will take you to new heights once you will learn how to cope with it. As I always say, do not expect everything to come easily. Be ready to read and learn. Be ready for new exciting experience. There are amazing things you can do once you have you own website, and this is all start by learning to run an hosting plan. So when you do it do it with love.

Finally, some of you probably ask: "why should I have a website if I already have Facebook (or similar)" . Well, once you will have a website you will understand that your Facebook profile is not more then a limited section, assigned for you (the "user") by other "newspaper's owner". The question is whether you want to play in someone else playground, or create your own playground. You can do them both of course and even perform an integration between the two (that will be discussed next on this book)...