Many of my customers are small businesses. These are businesses run by people who are experts in what they do, but not necessarily experts when it comes to information technology. This is the driver behind this blog post – helping small business owners better understand what each of pieces in the web site puzzle, and why each piece is important.

I have broken down this post into the following sections, with each leading relevant information into the next…

  • Some History – a brief history of the Internet.
  • What is a Web Site? – How the internet evolved into a something used for distributing information.
  • What is a Domain Name? – What a domain name is and how the name is used to get to your web site.
  • What is a Domain Name Registrar? - How domain names are registered and how the information about a registration is used.
  • What is a Web Site Hosting Provider? – What is a hosting provider and how is one used for web pages.
  • Putting it all together! – Bringing all of the above together in a simple scenario.

Some History

Any topic that involves the Internet requires, at least, a small bit of history about it.

Way back in the 50′s there was dedicated communication channels (“networks”) established for specific purposes. These channels of communications were typically used for military purposes. For example, a main frame computer would be at one location, and then a few dedicated communication links (phone lines) were used from other locations to link to the mainframe.

In the 60′s and 70′s, these communication links started to evolve – probably more so because of the start of the cold war than anything. The U.S. needed to isolate their networks in the event of a nuclear war (Lookup “ARPANET” in Google). Before long, higher learning folks started to leverage some of these concepts to create their own “networks” to share information between each other.

Networking research grew and by the early 80′s a large and very precarious infrastructure was beginning bulge, creeping out the seams of the then primarily network of universities and research labs. It was in the mid 80′s that access to this network was made more mainstream and accessible to the joe public – partly because of the uncontrolled growth of the now termed “Internet”.

There is plenty of information about the Internet on the…Internet. Google “History of the Internet” and I am sure you’ll find something. As an alternative, I recommend a book titled, “The Cookoos Egg”, by Clifford Stoll. It’s a non-fiction story about a fella who tracked down a computer cracker via the relatively new internet, back in the day. It’s an entertaining way to learn about how things are put together on the net.

What is a Web Site?

The reason for the history lesson is because it gives you a perspective on why there are web sites in the first place. A web site is basically an end point on the internet. More specifically, it is an address on the internet where stuff can be viewed.

When universities and research labs wanted to share information, they needed to somehow let people know where to get at the information. Before the mid 80′s there were now web browsers. Instead, users of the network would log into other remote network locations; poking around and locating what they need. The technical knowhow of using console type green screen commands was, for most part, time consuming. And so, by the nature of demand, some folks got together and created what is called?Hypertext Mark-up Language(“HTML”). ?HTML provided a standardized way to display shared information on the Internet.

There’s a lot more history to HTML then just that, however it’s one of the more significant and relevant terms we need to know when talking about web sites. Because HTML was created as a “standard” way of presenting information over the internet, it didn’t take long for some enterprising people to create tools that would interpret and display this HTML in useful ways. Hence, the Web Browser was born.

With a web browser, an person can go on the internet and display the HTML that is stored on a remote location. While there were many different tools that were used early on, it wasn’t until the Netscape web browser exploded onto the scene in the late 80′s. From there, things took off, most notably from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Today, we see several web browser tools such as; Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, and now Google Chrome. Although each browser offers something a little different, the all do the same thing; which is interpret HTML and display it in a meaningful way.

So back to the question. What is a web site? ?A web site a collection of files that are primarily made up of HTML content, or?web pages. Most web pages contain links to other web pages. In essence, the collection of web pages referenced in a single location can be considered a web site.

What is a Web Site Domain Name?

A web site domain name is the name given to your web site address on the internet.

Let’s go back to the history of the Internet for a second. When different locations wanted to talk to each other on the internet, they needed to know where they were going to go. Remember that the internet is a “network” of computers and not a single line of communication from one place to the next.

In the early days of the internet it was recognized that each place on the internet needed a unique address, kind of like a phone number. Again, because the internet was open to all (for the most part), a standard way of addressing was needed. A standard set of rules was created – a protocol. Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”) were created. TCP is used for managing the transmission of the information, and IP is used for addressing where the information is travelling to and from. And that’s enough about TCP/IP. I’m not going into any more detail about TCP/IP because that alone is huge subject.

The import thing to understand here is that a web site is located somewhere on the internet. It is the IP information that gives a site its unique location address.

A Domain Name is basically a name that is connected to the IP address. An IP address is a combination of numbers, which would be very difficult to try and remember for all the web sites out there. The Domain Name is way easier to remember.

When you type in a domain name in your web browser, your web browser goes out on the internet to resolve the name you entered into an IP address. Your computer then sends out a request to the “internet”. The request says something like, “Here’s an address on the internet, now get me the content from that address.” Just like dialling a phone number is bounced through a bunch of exchanges until it gets to the right phone, your internet request is bounced around servers until it gets to the right computer. That IP address will tell all the computers along the way where it is supposed to go and where it is supposed to return to.

That’s a very simplistic view of what is actually happening, but none the less accurate.

What is a Domain Name Registrar?

A domain name registrar is like an agent for the internet. When you have a name that you want to use for a web site address, then you need to register it so that it will not be used by someone else. Think of a registrar as the traffic cop on the internet. Registering your name gives you permission to use that name in your very own proprietary kind of way; your domain. A registrar makes sure that you are the owner of that domain, and that only you can use it.

There is standard information that is attached to your domain name registration. Things like the name of your company, contact and address information, and most importantly, the specific locations on the internet where your domain name can be mapped to the address of where your web pages are located.

To resolve a domain name to an address on the internet (IP address), a special system is used. This system is called a Domain Name System, or “DNS“. Most internet service provider companies have special computers, or “servers“, that are specifically used as DNS computers. It is these DNS servers that contain the mapping between your domain name and the IP address where your web site is located. Interestingly, is that DNS servers push information to each other. They “replicate” the mappings to all other DNS computers on the internet.

DNS information is important because it is used to establish the link between your domain name and the location where any internet requests and responses, for your domain name, should go to.?When registering a domain name, there is typically a couple of places to enter the name of the DNS servers to use. This is critical in making sure your web site appears in a web browser when someone enters your domain name in the browser.

What is Web Hosting?

A web hosting provider is a company that will rent you some space on their computers so that you can have a place for your web site. Pretty simple really.

Some companies charge more than others. Depending on the technology used and the licensing that those companies have to pay for the software they use themselves, pricing can vary dramatically. For example, some software is free because of the “open source” movement while other software can cost an arm and a leg. It’s not surprising to even find hosting providers that offer?free hosting services. Mind you, you generally get what you pay for.

These days you can find a good hosting provider that can offer you a great deal of services and features for a very good price. Here are my top 5 pointers for looking for a hosting provider…

  1. Understand your own needs and requirements. Before looking for something, you need to know what you are looking for. Determine what features you’ll need from your hosting today, and in the future. Do you need a database, fancy scripting for dynamic web pages, or maybe an ecommerce shopping cart application? No need to pay for more than you actually need.
  2. Pound the pavement of the information superhighway. Do your due diligence in looking at what’s out there. Start with a Google search on “Web Site Hosting” and see what comes up. There are thousands of web hosting review and rating sites. Spend some time flipping through their sites and you’ll soon see which providers stand out.
  3. See what others are saying. You’ll get a lot of mileage out of other people?s opinions. The most successful hosting companies don’t become great because of cheap pricing, they become great because of the trust they have developed with their customers. WebHost4Life and GoDaddy are a couple of the biggest hosting providers in the world. You’ll see lots of opinions on both sides of the fence for these two companies; however what constantly stands out is…their customer service. Just be open minded when reviewing comments from others. It’s true you only hear the bad things however some people have good things to say, and I see it more often for these companies than most others.
  4. Dig deeper. Once you narrow it down to a few potential providers, start getting down to some very specific performance metrics. Check out things like uptime stats, security, backups, and support options.
  5. Don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions. If you don’t understand something, then ask. Don’t assume that the hosting provider can do something for you when in fact they can’t. I often leverage the live chatting features that some providers make available to customers. It’s a good way for me to measure their commitment to me as a customer. When I ask a question that I think might be a silly one, if the operator comes back with a clear and courteous response, I know I have their respect.

Once the decision is made, and you have access to the online tools used to configure your new site, three things need to occur (typically). The first is to update your domain name services provider (sometimes the same as your hosting provider) with the information that tells the internet where your web site is. Next is to?upload your web pages to the file system that the hosting provider has allocated for you. Then, assuming you have a hosting package that includes email, is to set up your email. I’m not going into detail on any of these because they are too big of a topic each.

Putting It All Together

So now that you have an understanding of each of the parts required to have a web site, lets try and put it all together in a simple scenario…

You’ve decided that you need a website or a blog that you can use to market your products and services to people via the web. You decide on a funky web site name; let?s say “funcystuff” is the name. You check for the availability of the?domain name of funcystuff.com and it is available so for $10 you register funcystuff.com for a year with an internet?domain name registrar.

Within minutes your?domain name registrar has notified you of your successfully registered “funcystuff.com”?domain name. You then begin the hunt for a?web hosting service provider. You do your due diligence and settle on a provider named “HostWithUs” (yes a fictional name). You sign-up for a simple hosting package that meets your needs and costs you about $100 for a year of hosting, and within minutes you receive confirmation of your order and information about your new account.

With your new account you log into an administration application on your hosting provider’s web site. The administration panel happens to be called “cPanel” (yes, this is a real name). From this administration application you then proceed to create email addresses. You also then upload files that you created for your web site.

Now that your web hosting is configured and you have your web site uploaded. You log into your domain name registrar account and proceed to update the account with information from the hosting provider. The information you update is the name of the?domain name services servers used to point to your new web site.

All seems good so far, so now you want to test it all out. After first spending some time having lunch and a coffee, you come back to your computer and open your web browser. At the top of your web browser you type “http://www.funcystuff.com” into the URL address bar and press the go button. What happens next is;

  1. Your computer sends a?request to the?domain name services (“DNS“) servers used by your current internet service provider. The request includes the name “funkystuff.com” in it.
  2. The?DNS servers respond with the?IP address of the server at your?hosting provider that has your web site on it (remember, DNS updates are replicated to all DNS servers in the internet).
  3. Your computer then sends a request out to the internet. The request says, “get me the web site at location?IP address“.
  4. Your request is routed around the internet and directed to its destination – the?web hosting provider server.
  5. The?Web Server on the?web hosting provider has a number of web sites on it, so the server then determines where in the file system is the files for the “Funckystuff.com” web site.
  6. The?Web Server then sends a?response out that contains?HTML from the default page on your web site.
  7. Like the?request, the?response is routed back through the?internet and onto your computer.
  8. Your computer listens for the?response, and when received, the?web browser renders the returned?HTML onto your screen.

Voila, your web site is working.

There are a?lot more complexities around all this, but for the sake of understanding what is involved in creating and publishing a web site, the above should help. The point is that you should really take some time to better understand how things are put together for something like web sites. A better understanding will help you make more informed decisions, and save you heartache and pain in the end.

Hope you find this helpful,

If you have an comments or questions, feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email.

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