The Internet has definitely opened up an infinite number of possibilities, not only in terms of social interaction, but in the world of business as well. The one virtual structure that is ever present and is the most essential to the world wide web is the web site. Log on to the internet, and you will see it the moment the connection to the web is made. For the ordinary person, it’s something that’s just always been there, but for those with a bit more curiosity, they would be asking how did it get there?
Sowing the Seeds
The very first step in building a web site is to find a web hosting service provider, or a service that will give the individual or the organization its own unique address on the web. These web hosting sites will lease out a space on their server (that’s the ware that will be providing the service) where they can “park” their website with its own domain name. If you own the house, the domain name will be the assigned address (e.g. Andy’s House), and the website will be the actual house (the one that has the doors and the windows).
A web hosting service provider can sometimes offer a “domain name” registration alone, or a package that will include domain name registration along with your website hosting. Again to go back to the house analogy, the service can either register the address under a person’s name or register the address which has an actual lot that one can build the house (website) on. Most websites are “prefabricated” and uploaded on to the “lot” by the leaseholders without any modification from the leasers.
There are website owners and administrators that would rather have the domain name registered first and then find a webhost, to make sure that there will be no one else who will use the address that they want.
Size Matters
Depending on the green web hosting outfit, the amount of leased virtual space (bytes) on the servers can be from a few gigabytes or “unlimited”, which in reality is a relative term. As large as the Internet world is, it’s not infinite, what “unlimited” can actually mean is “well-nigh impossible to reach the limits in the ordinary course of business.”
The price of the lease often also increases with the size of the leased space, which will in turn be dependent on the purpose of the site. Personal websites are small and often just one-page deals and are oft-times free, but business websites require more pages and can run to hundreds of dollars.
Dot What?
Looking at website addresses you will see it end in .com, .org, .net, .biz or .com.uk, and .net.ph, etc. These “suffixes” will give the net surfer an idea on where the web hosting company is physically located in the real world (sometimes), probably because the owner or administrator of that particular site is also located in or around the same location, or they find it more convenient to have a service provider in that area.
