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What is web hosting?
Web hosting refers to the process of publishing a web
site so that it is available to the world on the Web.
Paid web hosting also involves getting a domain name and
not having forced ads displayed on your site. Please see
our Quick Start Guide for info on how to get started
with a paid web host.
What is
a domain name?
A domain name is a sequence of letters and numbers which
determine the address of your site. This site's domain
name is "WebHostingRatings.com." You need to register a
domain name before your web site becomes accessible at
this address. Please see our Domain Name Guide for all
the details.
What are
PHP, SQL, Java, IP, etc.?
Those acronyms refer to various features such as
programming languages, databases, etc. that might be
available with a hosting plan.
What is
shared (virtual) web hosting?
Shared (or virtual) web hosting is the most fitting way
of hosting for 99% of web sites. It means that a web
hosting company will have one or more servers (computers
constantly connected to the Internet that run a web
server software such as Apache or IIS) that will be
running multiple web sites (it will be shared). Unless a
web site is exceptionally busy or requires a lot of
bandwidth, this is the least expensive way to get a real
web site. You can still have your own IP address with
virtual hosting and the site won't look any different to
users. Other options are dedicated, co-location, or
doing it yourself web hosting. In those options you have
the whole computer to yourself and you can do things
like install your own software.
Can I
keep my domain name when I change a host?
Yes. We recommend that you register your domain name
with a separate registrar before getting a hosting plan
(please see our Domain Name Guide). Then, when you need
to move to another host, you just need to point your
domain's name servers to this new host. If you
registered your domain name with a host and now you want
to move, you should find your registration records or
contact this host and ask them how to control your
domain name. If you have a problem, you can usually see
the name of the registrar by performing a "Whois" query
on your domain name and contact them.
Will I
have forced advertising on my site like I do on
Geocities, etc.?
No. None of the web hosts listed in our database force
any kinds of ads on your site. In fact you can put your
own ads if you'd like.
I don't
have any experience in creating a site. Who can help me
create and host my site?
There are services such as 1001designs.com, OCWebdesign
and CityMAX that do that.
What is
domain parking?
Domain parking lets you cheaply reserve a domain name
for future use and display an "under construction"
default page on it. You can register a domain and not
park it anywhere but then your site will simply be
inaccessible until you get a web host. Some registrar
let you park your domain for free.
What is
full-service web hosting?
"Full-service" can refer to a variety of services
offered in addition to providing web space, transfer,
and emails for a web site. For example, it could be 24/7
toll free phone support, web design services, or web
site content maintenance services.
What are
the numbers listed under "space" and "transfer"?
Space is the amount of "stuff" you can put on your web
site. Available space is usually listed in megabytes
(MB, millions of bytes). Single letter takes up one
byte. HTML files are usually rather small (this file is
about 25,000 bytes) but pictures and programs can get
quite big. Your scripts, emails and stats will also take
up space on your host.
Transfer is the amount of "stuff" that visitors to your
site can download before you reach your monthly limit.
Transfer is usually listed in gigabytes (billions of
bytes). After the transfer limit is reached for the
month, you will need to pay extra for additional
transfer at higher rates. For example, if an average
visitor to your site views 3 HTML pages of 20 KB
(thousands of bytes) each and 8 small embedded pictures
of 10 KB each, and you get 500 visitors per day, you
will require at least (3 * 20 + 8 * 10) * 500 * 30 =
2,100,000 KB = 2.1 GB of transfer per month.
How do I
upload my site?
The main method of uploading files to your site's
account is by using FTP. When you sign up with a host,
you will probably get an FTP account that lets you
access files in your account (usually
ftp.yoursitename.com, your main account name and
password). Then you can use a built-in Windows or
Internet Explorer FTP client, or some other software
that supports FTP such as CuteFTP, WS_FTP, or Total
Commander, to transfer files from your hard drive to
your account. If you don't get an FTP account or if you
prefer a Web interface, you can use your account control
panel's File Manager instead. Yet another method is to
use an SSH or telnet client software, such as SecureCRT,
to upload using Zmodem protocol (sz and rz commands).
All these methods will work fine, but we recommend using
dedicated FTP programs as the preferred solution because
these programs have the best user interfaces and support
advanced options like setting file permissions and
resuming aborted file transfers.
What is
uptime?
Uptime is the percentage of time that a web site is
working. For example, if some host has an uptime average
of 99.86%, this means that your site will be down for a
total about 1 hour each month. We monitor uptime of
customer websites of many web hosts and we display this
data on the host's details page. Some hosts also offer
"uptime guarantees" but this is not as valuable as it
might appear.
Can I
use Java applets, JavaScript, and Flash pages on my
site?
Yes. Those are client-side technologies, so the host
doesn't have to do anything to support or enable them.
Any browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) that
supports them is enough, so any host will do. It doesn't
matter whether Java or Flash are listed among the plan's
features, they are supported by default. |
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