Everything about Hosting

How important is having an online presence in today's business scenario? Going by the way the entire industry is blooming, it almost seems like a necessity today. Internet is becoming of the primary medium for any kind of activity, whether it be to gain knowledge about something, or to actually purchase something, either to Sell products or to enroll oneself for various jobs. Very soon we might be witnessing a scenario wherein it might become the sole medium for our day-to-day life. In such a flourishing environment, it therefore becomes a necessity for one to have an online presence, especially if he is into any kind of trade or business.

I agree that to have an online presence, all you need to do is catch hold of a good designer or a web hosting provider and get your work done. But, would you not feel like having some knowledge of it yourself. I mean, giving everything in the hands of a third party would not be very ideal, would it? Personally, if I were to set up my business online, I would surely like to know atleast the basics of how this whole thing works. This is exactly what i am trying to do here. Yes, i completely understand that all of us cannot be net savvy, but what I am trying to do is sum this whole 'HOSTING' funda in the simplest way possible.

Alright, so lets begin...

An example to start off with would be best suited.

Take a case where you want to set up a website for your company, lets assume the company name is (hmm... I am thinking..).. Ok... Shetty Enterprises. Since your company name is this, most probably you would want your Website name also to be the same. Ok, now fasten your seat belts, we are now getting into certain web related, so called technical aspects... this Website name is known as a DOMAIN NAME. Most of us will be aware of .COM, that is because it is the most popular Domain name extension, or a TLD (Top level Domain), ill explain this later. So, since your company name is Shetty Enterprises, you might want www.shettyenterprises.com as your website name.... hey hey, but hold... this isnt so easy... You might not always get what you want... In the world of internet, if someone else has already taken (or registered, to be more technical) this name, you might not get it. So, here you have another option, take something like, www.shettyenterprises.net, or .biz or .in.. there are many other like these... and these are known as TLD's. (hmm... feels like it just hit the right place...). If you do not find this name "Shetty Enterprises" in any TLD, then the only option would be to change the name itself... (i know this is very disheartening, but happens too often with popular names).

Well, we have just finished with our first step... Getting your desired name for the website, lets just recollect, its called a Domain name. Once you have decided what you want, you need to check if the name is available (i spoke about this above)... You can find this out by doing a WHOIS SEARCH. (A whois search will let you know if the name is still available for registration or is already registered by some one else)... Some of the popular websites where you can do a WHOIS are:

http://www.dnsstuff.com
http://www.changeip.com
http://www.whois-serach.com
http://www.whois.net
http://www.whois.com and many more....

You have just got our desired Domain name... So, your website name is www.shettyenterprises.com (yes this is actually available). We can now go ahead and purchase this Domain name...

Now, many people actually think, that once they buy a Domain name, there website is created... but do not get confused... what you just did was only purchase a Domain name, there is much more to it which is first designing your whole website and then hosting (that is the confusing word) your design or the content on the internet...

To design the website, mostly I would suggest that you approach a designer or get the website made from anyone who has knowledge about designing softwares like dreamweaver (very basic), flash, etc... or coding languages... do not bother getting much into the designing details, its a tough job... Alternatively, you can yourself also create a website using some of the free softwares available on the internet...

Let's now get to HOSTING. Your website is ready, you've got your desired name, what now?? This does not mean that anyone who now types your Domain name can see your website or anything about your company... You need to HOST your website, yes it is only then that anyone who types in your Domain name can see your website and know more about you. Hosting your website, just means putting all that you have designed, your entire content on the Internet so that anyone and everyone can visit your Domain name, know more about your company subsequently the awareness spreads thus maximizing your profits.

Again, you need to purchase hosting for your Domain name. Now a hosting package usually consists of the following parameters: (we are getting into technical details again)

• Disk space or Web space: This is the space allocated to your website on the servers which are the gateway to the internet world. These servers are purchased by big companies who in turn sell spaces to individuals.

• Bandwidth or Data Transfer: Now this will be slightly difficult to explain in detail. Let us just understand it in brief. When an individual visits a website, there is certain amount of download. If there is any data which is there to download or some heavy files on your website, there might be a considerable amount of download (lets get it straight here.. this download might not be an action on your behalf, you might not actually click on any download button, but there still is certain amount of download when you visit any website). This is what one means by Data transfer; it is the data transfered to and from the website.

So, when a package is purchased, the package amount is calculated basically on these two aspects- Space and data Transfer.

Space and Data Transfer are the two most important considerations which actually define what Hosting is. Hosting, in essence just means having a space on the internet where you place (host) your content and the bandwidth for the same.

Just to give some additional knowledge... usually a simple website would require not more than around 100 MB space. Judging the Data transfer usually depends on the traffic you experience on your website, so you can judge the Data transfer required only after you monitor your website for certain period of time, however, just to give a rough idea, this would not be more than about 5 GB or 5000 MB.

I know this was maybe little difficult to grasp, but no need to know too much about it. All that i have mentioned above should be enough.

When a web hosting package is purchased for a Domain name, you are usually given a Panel from where you can add your content on the website and make any modifications to it. With the help of this, you can upload your website on the internet and it is NOW that anyone and everyone who puts in your Domain name on his computer can view your website.

Lastly, A final revision to what we just absorbed....

1. To purchase a Domain name
2. To design your website (you can do either of these first, it does not make a difference)
3. And Finally, host your website on the Internet.

This explains the entire procedure for having an online presence. Another important aspect of having an online presence, is to be able to communicate with your clients via the internet, this is email and email hosting. We will learn more about this later... (wait for my next post)

Where to purchase these from: Trust me it does not make any difference to where you purchase your Domains or Web hosting from (India or US, its all kewl)... select your provider based on the Domain rate that they are giving, cause there is no quality issue in Domain names... and choose a good quality hosting provider... believe me do not go for a cheaper hosting provider always, hosting is what is the most important for your website... choose someone who provides good hosting... your website should be up on the internet almost all the time, so your hosting provider should have good uptime...

Alright people, I hope this has given you a fair idea on how to have an online presence... it might be technical, i completely understand... however, knowledge is bliss... whether it be of anything... :)