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Domain Name
FAQ's
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: Web Hosting Guide FAQ
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We have created this guide to help
you avoid the stress associated with
choosing your new website hosting
company. We have been involved in
the Internet industry since 1999,
and over the years have heard many
horror stories which we do not want
you to go through. We have therefore
created this simple guide to Web
hosting so that you know what you
need to get your site online with as
little fuss as possible!
General Questions
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a unique name that
is registered to you, and only you
are allowed to have a web site and
receive emails in this name. Domain
names are paid for and registered
for you by web hosting and domain
name registration companies. Domain
names are allocated to you for a
certain period of time from 1 - 10
years, and after this period they
are renewable. If you want to keep
the name then you must pay a renewal
fee.
What is a web hosting company?
A web hosting company, provides you
with all the services you need to
publish and maintain a web site on
the Internet. A basic service should
provide you with web space to store
your site, a domain name (such as
yourname.co.uk) and email
facilities. DNS Hosting is an
example of a web hosting company.
What is a web server?
A web server is a computer that is
permanently connected to the
Internet. One of the uses of these
servers is to host your web site.
What is an IP address?
IP addresses are numbers such as
272.255.193.177, that are allocated
to computers. They are very similar
to your house or flat number, in
that the postman knows where to
deliver your mail, computers can
deliver information to other
computers depending on the unique IP
address.
What is a browser?
A browser is a piece of software
that enables us to browse the World
Wide Web. Examples of browsers are
Microsoft's Internet Explorer and
Netscape's Navigator.
What is a domain name server?
Most people are not able to remember
large amounts of IP addresses, but
we can remember domain names.
However, computers cannot read
domain names. A domain name server
(DNS) changes the domain name, that
we enter in our browsers, into an IP
address and then forwards us to the
web server that hosts that web site.
What is web forwarding?
If a site or domain name has web
forwarding set up, then visitors
will be automatically redirected to
another web site. This is useful if
you want to have a domain name, that
you own, redirected to another web
site, without the visitor having to
do anything.
What is email forwarding?
Email forwarding will redirect email
for a specific domain name to your
ISP account. This is useful if you
have multiple domain names and you
only want to set up one ISP account
in your email software, such as
Microsoft's Outlook Express.
What is Domain Parking?
Parking is where your domain name
registration company will store (or
park) your domain name for you,
until you have decided what to do
with it.
What are Naming Authority Fees?
Through out the world you have
various naming authorities. These
companies are responsible for the
managing of the domain names that
are registered in that country. In
the UK, Nominet is the naming
authority and they charge a fee for
each domain name that is registered.
What are transfer fees?
If you want to transfer your domain
name from one hosting company to
another, then either company may
charge you a fee to do so. We do not
charge you to transfer your domain
away from us.
Whats the diffrerence between
Windows and Linux?
If you are new to hosting and are
wanting to upload html files it
doesn't matter if you choose Windows
or Linux. However if you are wanting
to use more advanced features it
will make a big difference. For more
information
click
here.
What is a POP3 Mailbox?
A POP3 mailbox is similar to your
letterbox at home. It is a specific
area on your hosting company's
server, that stores the email that
you receive.
What is an email alias?
An email alias is the part of your
email address before the @ sign.
i.e. info, sales, webmaster, john,
peter etc.
What is a catchall email alias?
This is where any email received,
with any email alias, is stored in
one POP3 mailbox. This saves having
to set up multiple POP3 mailboxes
for different aliases.
What are auto-responders?
An auto-responder is a system that
will automatically reply to people
that have sent you emails, with a
preformated email message. For
instance, if you are away on
holiday, you could set up an
auto-responder that tells people
that you are away, and that you will
deal with their email when you
return.
What is web space?
Web space is where your web site is
stored. It is an allocated amount of
hard drive space (i.e. 50Mb), on
your hosting company's web server.
What is a cgi-bin?
A cgi-bin is a directory on your web
space, where you can store and
execute CGI scripts.
What are Perl, C++, ASP, PHP and
Java?
These are all programming languages,
that can be run on a web server.
Programs or scripts written in these
languages, can provide your web site
with additional functionality and
higher levels of dynamic content.
What are Server Side Includes (SSI)?
SSI are HTML tags that are inserted
into HTML pages, and when this page
is opened in someone's browser,
these tags are executed. Some of
there uses are to log statistics or
run other programs, such as an
advert banner rotation script.
What are Frontpage Extensions?
These are only necessary for users
of Microsoft Frontpage. They are a
set of programs that are loaded onto
the web server, that enable you to
publish your web site from within
FrontPage and take advantage of all
the web site features that are
included within the software. These
features include animation, site
searching and forums.
What is ODBC Conectivity?
This allows you to connect various
Microsoft aplications (Access, Excel
etc) to your web pages. This is a
standard feature of our Windows
packages.
What is mySQL?
mySQL is a very fast and efficient
database system and is normally used
on a Linux platform.
What is MS SQL?
MS SQL is a very fast and efficient
databse system and is normally used
on a Windows platform.
What is a Secure Socket Layer (SSL)?
You may have noticed that when you
visit some web sites, that the URL
changes from http:// to https://,
and a padlock appears in your
browser. SSL is a system that
enables you to obtain confidential
information from visitors, in a safe
and secure method. SSL encrypts any
data that is entered and is
therefore more difficult for
potential hackers to intercept.
What are Password Protected
Directories?
If you only want paid customers or
site members, to enter a certain
part of your web site, then you can
password protect this area. When
visitors try to enter this protected
part of your web site, they are
asked to enter a username and
password, and only if they enter
valid details are they allowed to
proceed.
What are Graphical Web Site
Statistics?
Your web hosting company should be
able to automatically log visitors
to your web site. If they can, they
should be able to provide you with
detailed statistics in a graphical
format. You should be able to see
statistics such as, the amount of
people that are visiting, what
countries they are coming from, what
search engines are sending people to
your site, and lots, lots more. We
provide Matrix statistic as an extra
feature. Matrix statistics are well
known for being the market leader
and provide you with graphs etc to
analise your traffic.
What is FTP?
FTP stands for File Transfer
Protocol. Its the method used to
transfer files from one computer to
another.
What is a Web Control Panel (WCP)?
A WCP, is a service that should be
provided by your hosting company,
and enables you to manage your
hosting package form the web. You
should be able to set up features
such as email forwarding, additional
users, set up and auto-responders,
as well as doing a range of other
things.
What is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth is described as the speed
or capacity, and is the amount of
data, that can be uploaded or
downloaded a telephone line or
network cable in a given amount of
time. For instance, if you have a
64K line, then 64,000 bits of
information can be passed down this
cable every second. If on the other
hand, you have a 2Mb line, then
2,000,000 bits of information can be
passed down this cable every second.
So, obviously the 2Mb line is
faster.
What is SendMail and SMTP?
These are programs used by your web
site hosting company to send you
email
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