ARTICLE - WEB HOSTING BASICS

Thinking of creating a web site?

Having your own web site allows you to:

� Share ideas with an audience 
� Meet people who share common interests 
� Provide advice or support to visitors and clients 
� Give your company a more professional image 
� Market products to an international audience 
� Provide a wide range of information based services 

Those are but a few of the opportunities that the World Wide Web offers. Whether you choose to share your website with friends and family, or with millions of visitors, the possibilities are infinite.

How do I get a web site?

In order to make your information accessible from the Internet, you must have a place to host (store) your files, called a server. Web hosting companies such as ThinkHost allow people to make their ideas and products available to millions of people around the world by renting out space on their servers, providing connectivity to a global network and tools to build their sites

What is a Web Host?

A web host is a company who makes your website accessible via the Internet. The host does this by storing your web site on a powerful computer (a server) which is connected to the Internet via a data connection capable of transmitting and receiving information at a rapid rate. As all servers are connected by similar means, when a web surfer wishes to see your website, the server sends them the information they requested through a complex network of telephone cables, fibre optic cables and even satellites. Although the connection to the computer which stores the web site you wish to view may be many thousands of miles away, this request only takes milliseconds!

Maintaining a web server is a difficult and time-consuming task. By working with a web host, you no longer have to worry about that aspect and can focus on building and promoting your website. Essentially, you will be renting space on the web host's server for your web site. This not only saves you the headache of running your own server, it is far less expensive than purchasing one!

How do I decide what hosting I need?

The first thing you probably want to do is take a quick crash course in the basics of hosting lingo:

• Space/Storage - The amount of disk space your website files will use.

• Bandwidth - The amount of data (from files) transferred to web surfers when they visit your website. Usually measured in megabytes or gigabytes

• Hit - A file sent from the server to someone viewing your web page. A page may be composed of many elements - for example, the page text, images and scripts. If a page has 4 images and a script, each time it loads (viewed), that would be 6 hits

• Page view - A statistic associated with how many times pages are requested from people visiting your site

• Domain - The web address used to access your website (e.g, www.ThinkHost.com)

• Mailbox - An email account that receives email for an address at your domain. (ie. yourname@example.com)

• FTP - A method used to transfer files directly to the server.

• (Server Side) Scripting - Applications such as blogs and forums created with a variety programming languages

• Server - Computer that stores your web site

• MySQL - A type of database - many popular blog and forum applications make use of a MySQL database

• HTML - The basic programming language of the web

• PHP - A more advanced programming language that allows for scripting

• Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, Apache - types of operating systems used on a server

These are the basic terms you should be semi-familiar with when selecting a package. 

 Establish Your Presence

Setting yourself up online is easy!

Get a Domain Name

If you don't already have a name chosen for your web presence, now is the time to do it! With thousands of domains being registered everyday, the domain you want might not be available tomorrow for you if you delay the registration.

A domain should be easy to remember and describe the subject of your site e.g. example.com. This is what's known as a TLD (Top Level Domain) name. If you have difficulty thinking of a name, you can always skip this step and think of a name while you are working on your site. ThinkHost offers TLD registration services at a reasonable rate and also unlimited free subdomain names with each account - so you can have a name such as you.thinkhost.com at no cost whatsoever! ThinkHost also offers support for unlimited domains - whether you build one site or a thousand, it won't cost you any extra to add the names.

If you do register a TLD, you'll need to then "point" it to the hosting service you've selected - this is an easy task and your domain name registration service will provide you instructions for doing so.

Choose a Hosting Package 

Selecting a hosting package for your web site can be a difficult and often confusing decision. To make this process easier, ThinkHost has a single plan to meet the needs of almost everyone - from beginner through to advanced. It offers not only substantial space and bandwidth plus unlimited domain and database support, but also a variety of free tools and applications such as a point and click site builder (no HTML knowledge needed), forums, blog, shopping cart and photo gallery software.

Build Your Site

Building a web site is easy, and there are a few ways in which you can do it. The first method is to use a web page editor like MS FrontPage or DreamWeaver. These allow you to use your mouse to "draw" your website as you would like it to appear. There are also a number of free web development software packages available. Your other option is to code it in HTML (the basic programming language of web pages) using something as simple as NotePad or NoteTab.

If that sounds too difficult, then you can always build your presence using one of the many professional templates available as part of ThinkHost's SiteBuilder package; included free with each hosting account. This solution allows you to build a professional looking site in minutes without having to know any HTML or programming whatsoever! You don't need to install anything on your computer as it's all done via your web browser.

SiteBuilder is as easy as using any word processor or simple desktop publishing program. If you have ever used Microsoft Word, then you will be just as able to create a professional web site with ThinkHost SiteBuilder.

Promote your Site 

Once your site is built you will want people to see it. With so many web sites now around, it is no longer a case of "build it and they will come" - you need to actively promote your site. A good way to start is by submitting your web site to search engines - and ThinkHost provides information on that aspect too!

If you've always wanted to start your own site but have been hesitant, by choosing ThinkHost as your hosting provider you'll have all the tools necessary to establish a web presence very rapidly!

Special offer

If you are looking for a solid web host - we've teamed up ThinkHost, a well established and earth-friendly hosting company, to provide you with a very special bonus - a further $11 discount on their already heavily discounted full featured 24 month plan; powered by 100% renewable energy! Shorter term plans also available and there's a 100% uptime and 28 day money back guarantee too! Use this coupon code on their package signup form: THD99999TP24.