Website Hosting: How To Choose The One That's Right For You
Inexperienced web site builders trying to put their site up on the Internet often get confused by the process of website hosting, even though the procedure is very simple. As long as you have some key rudimentary knowledge, it's easy to get your site up and running on the Internet.
The key to understanding this is in understanding IP addresses. A group of computers at a single location that are connected together make up something called as a Local Area Network, or LAN. A group of LANs connected over remote connections is called a Wide Area Network, or WAN. To put it simply, the Internet is nothing but a growing set of interconnected Wide Area Networks.
Just as every computer in a network has to have a unique identity, so does every computer that wants to connect to the Internet. This is done by means of the IP address, a string of four sets of numbers ranging from 001 to 255 which are separated by periods - for instance: 210.204.156.183 is a valid IP address. These numbers can be arranged to yield about 4.2 billion different identities.
Website hosting companies possess their own range of IP addresses. When you register with one of these companies to host your website, you will obtain an exclusive IP address from within that range. The IP address that will be given to you matches your individual public hosting area, which is called your domain.
In such a scenario when someone comes into your IP address, they will land straight at your domain. For example, if your IP address is 210.204.156.183 and if you type this number into your browser's address bar, then you will enter into this web site.
Some budget website hosting companies will often assign several customers to the same IP address so that they can save money. So while the service may be cheaper you may get unintended negative results. You see, spam filters and black lists track IP addresses to spot offenders so if several sites are distributing the same IP address then you, having done nothing wrong, may become blacklisted or blocked as an offending website. Thus, just make sure that whomever is doing your web hosting provides you with your own personal IP address.
Hosting a website is a clear-cut process, but sometimes site builders can be puzzled when hosting a site for the first time. It is very easy to host a website on the Internet if you possess certain basic knowledge. Every website hosting company owns a reserved block of IP addresses. One of these addresses will be assigned to you for your exclusive use. By checking on the details of your domain, you will find that its IP address matches up with the one obtained from the hosting company. It is always preferable that the hosting provider always gives you your own independent IP address for web hosting.
Published June 3rd, 2008
Filed in Web Hosting
