Choosing a hosting solution should include domain name registration.

Your domain name should be easy to remember and easy to type.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is a unique name for a web site, like w3schools.com.

Domain names must be registered. When domain names are registered, they are added to a large domain name register. In addition, information about the web site, including the IP address, is stored on a DNS server.

DNS stands for Domain Name System. A DNS server is responsible for informing all other computers on the Internet about the domain name and the web site address.

Registering a Domain

Domains can be registered from domain name registration companies, such as http://www.dotdnr.com.

These companies provide interfaces to search for available domain names, and they offer a variety of domain name extensions that can be registered at the same time.

Choosing a Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is a major step for any individual or organization.

New domain name extensions and creative thinking still offer thousands of excellent domain names!

When choosing a name, it is important to consider the purpose of a domain name, which is to provide an easy way to reach your web site.

The best domains have the following characteristics:

Short – People don’t like to type! A short domain name is easier to type, read, and remember.

Meaningful – A short domain is nothing without meaning, 34i4nh.com is not easy to enter or to remember. Select a domain that relates to your site in a way that people will understand.

Clear – Clarity is important when selecting a domain name. Avoid a name that is difficult to spell or pronounce.

Exposure – Names that are short and easy to remember are an asset. In addition to visitors, also consider search engines. Search engines index your site and rank it for relevance against terms people search for. In order to maximize your sites exposure, consider including a relevant search term in your domain. Of course, only consider this if it still maintains a short, clear and meaningful domain name.

Sub Domains

Most people are unaware that they use sub domains daily. The famous “www” of the World Wide Web is an example of a sub domain. Sub domains can be created on a DNS server, and they don’t need to be registered with a domain name registrar, of course, the original domain name needs to be registered before a sub domain could be created.

Examples of sub domains used on the internet are http://store.apple.com and http://support.microsoft.com.

Sub domains can be requested from your web hosting provider.

False Domain Names – Directory Listings

Some providers will offer you a name under their own name, like:  www.theircompany.com/yourcompany/

This is not a real domain name, it is a directory – and you should try to avoid it.

Directory domains are not desirable, especially for companies.

Typically, directory domains are used for personal web sites and free web sites provided by an ISP, you may have seen www.theircompany.com/~username as an address.

Competition in domain name registration has resulted in a dramatic decrease in pricing, so domain sharing is not common, since it is possible to register a domain name for only $15 per year.

Expired Domains

Another source for domain registrations is expired domains.

When you register a domain, think of it as a rental, assuming there are no legal or trademark issues with the domain name, you are free to use it as long as you continue to pay the yearly fee (you can now register in advance as many as 10 years). Some people register domains as speculators, hoping that they can later sell them, while others may have planned to use a domain and never had the time. The result is that domains that were previously registered, become available again.

You can see, and search through a list of recently expired domains for free at http://www.dotdnr.com. If you wish to register an expired domain, you pay the same fee as for a new registration.

Use Your Domain Name

After you have chosen and registered your own domain name, make sure you use it on all your web pages, and on all your correspondence, like e-mail and traditional mail.

It is important to let other people be aware of your domain name, and to inform your partners and customers about your web site.

DotDNR offers .com .net .org .ws .cc and .tv domains for as little as $15 per year.

In addition, you can transfer your domain to DotDNR and add a full year to your existing registration for only $15. Save $20 or more over other major registrars.

International domain name registration is also offered.

www.dotdnr.com

Some ISPs offer free web hosting.

Free web hosting is best suited for small sites with low traffic, like personal sites. It is not recommended for high traffic or for real business. Technical support is often limited, and technical options are few.

Very often you cannot use your own domain name at a free site. You have to use a name provided by your host like http://www.freesite.com/users/~yoursite.htm. This is hard to type, hard to remember, and not very professional.

Shared (Virtual) Hosting

Shared hosting is very cost effective.

With shared hosting, your web site gets its own domain name, and is hosted on a powerful server along with maybe 100 other web sites.

Shared solutions often offer multiple software solutions like e-mail, database, and different editing options. Technical support tends to be good.

Dedicated Hosting

With dedicated hosting, your web site is hosted on a dedicated server.

Dedicated hosting is the most expensive option. This option is best suited for large web sites with high traffic, and web sites that use special software.

You should expect dedicated hosting to be very powerful and secure, with almost unlimited software solutions.

Collocated Hosting

Collocation means “co-location”. Collocated hosting lets you place your own web server on the premises (locations) of a service provider.

This is pretty much the same as running your own server in your own office, only that it is located at a place better designed for it.

Most likely an ISP will have dedicated resources like high-security against fire and vandalism, regulated backup power, dedicated Internet connections and more.

Your Checklist

Before you choose your web host, make sure that:

• The hosting type suits your needs
• The hosting type is cost effective
• Upgrading to a better server is possible
• If needed, upgrading to a dedicated server is possible

Before you sign up with an ISP, surf some other web sites on their servers, and try to get a good feeling about their network speed. Also compare the other sites against yours, to see if it looks like you have the same needs. Contacting some of the other customers is also a valuable option.

Windows hosting means hosting of web services that runs on the Windows operating system.

You should choose Windows hosting if you plan to use ASP (Active Server Pages) as server scripting, or if you plan to use a database like Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server. Windows hosting is also the best choice if you plan to develop your web site using Microsoft Front Page.

Unix Hosting

Unix hosting means hosting of web services that runs on the Unix operating system.

Unix was the first (original) web server operating system, and it is known for being reliable and stable. Often less expensive than Windows.

Linux Hosting

Linux hosting means hosting of web services that runs on the Linux operating system.

CGI

CGI scripts are executables that will execute on the server to produce dynamic and interactive web pages.

Most ISPs offer some kind of CGI capabilities. ISPs often offer preinstalled, ready to run, guest-books, page-counters, and chat-forums solutions in CGI.

CGI is most common on Unix or Linux servers.

ASP – Active Server Pages

ASP is a server-side scripting technology developed by Microsoft.

With ASP you can create dynamic web pages by putting script code inside your HTML pages. The code is executed by the web server before the page is returned to the browser. Both VBScript and JavaScript can be used.

ASP is a standard component in Windows 95,98, 2000, and XP. It can be activated on all computers running Windows.

If you want to learn more about ASP, please visit our ASP tutorial.

PHP

PHP is the widely-used, free, and efficient alternative to competitors such as Microsoft’s ASP.

PHP is perfectly suited for Web development, and can be embedded directly into the HTML code.

The PHP syntax is very similar to Perl and C.

PHP is often used together with Apache (web server) on various operating systems. It also supports ISAPI and can be used with Microsoft’s IIS on Windows.

PHP supports many databases, such as MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.

If you want to learn more about PHP, please visit our PHP tutorial.

JSP

JSP is a server-side technology much like ASP, developed by Sun.

With JSP you can create dynamic web pages by putting Java code inside your HTML pages. The code is executed by the web server before the page is returned to the browser.

Since JSP uses Java, the technology is not restricted to any server-specific platform.

Cold Fusion

Cold Fusion is another server-side scripting language used to develop dynamic web pages.

Cold Fusion is developed by Macromedia.

Chili!Soft ASP

Microsoft’s ASP technology runs only on Windows platforms.

However, Chili!Soft ASP is a software product that allows ASP to run on UNIX and some other platforms.

Microsoft FrontPage

FrontPage is a website design tool developed by Microsoft.

FrontPage allows users to develop a web site without any deep knowledge of web development.

Most Windows hosting solutions support FrontPage server extensions for users that use FrontPage to develop their web site.

If you plan to use FrontPage, you should look for a Windows hosting solution.

Adobe Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver is a website design tool owned by Adobe Systems.

Dreamweaver allow users to develop a web site without any deep knowledge of web development.

Dreamweaver has support for web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, JavaServer Pages, and PHP.

Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems.

Secure Server

A secure server can transmit data encrypted.

If you plan to do online creditcard transactions, or other types of web communication that needs to be protected against unauthorized access, your ISP must provide a secure server.

Hosting solutions should include e-mail accounts for each person in your company.

E-mail addresses should appear something like this:

john@mycompany.com

john.doe@mycompany.com

jdoe@mycompany.com

POP E-mail

POP stands for Post Office Protocol. POP is a standard client/server protocol for sending and receiving e-mail.

The e-mails are received and held on your internet server until you pick it up with a client e-mail program, like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

IMAP Email

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP is another standard protocol for sending and receiving e-mail.

The e-mails are received, and held on your internet server, until you pick it up with a client e-mail program, like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

IMAP represents an improvement over POP because e-mail stored on an IMAP server can be manipulated from several computers (a computer at home, a workstation at the office, etc.), without having to transfer messages back and forth between computers. POP was designed to support e-mail access on one single computer.

Web-based E-mail

Web-based e-mail services enable you to access your e-mail via a web browser. You log into your e-mail account via the Web to send and retrieve e-mail. Being able to access your e-mail from any browser anywhere in the world is a very attractive option.

Examples of web-based e-mail services are Gmail and Hotmail.

E-mail Forwarding

E-mail forwarding allows you to have multiple e-mail personalities.

With e-mail forwarding, you can setup aliases for other e-mail accounts like:

postmaster@mycompany.com should be forwarded to peter@mycompany.com

sales@mycompany.com should be forwarded to mary@mycompany.com

Mailing Lists

Some service providers offer mailing list capabilities. This is valuable if you plan to send out e-mails to a large number of users.

• The Web is a network of computers all over the world.
• All the computers in the Web can communicate with each other.
• All the computers use a communication protocol called HTTP.

How does the  WWW work?

• Web information is stored in documents called web pages.
• Web pages are files stored on computers called web servers.
• Computers reading the web pages are called web clients.
• Web clients view the pages with a program called a web browser.
• Popular browsers are Internet Explorer and Firefox.

How does a Browser Fetch a Web Page?

• A browser fetches a page from a web server by a request.
• A request is a standard HTTP request containing a page address.
• An address may look like this: http://www.example.com/default.htm.

How does a Browser Display a Web Page?

• All web pages contain instructions for display.
• The browser displays the page by reading these instructions.
• The most common display instructions are called HTML tags.
• HTML tags look like this <p>This is a paragraph.</p>.

What is a Web Server?

• The collection of all your web pages is called your web site.
• To let others view your web pages, you must publish your web site.
• To publish your work, you must copy your site to a web server.
• Your own PC can act as a web server if it is connected to a network.
• Most common is to use an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

What is an Internet Service Provider?

• ISP stands for Internet Service Provider.
• An ISP provides Internet Services.
• A common Internet service is web hosting.
• Web hosting means storing your web site on a public server.
• Web hosting normally includes email services.
• Web hosting often includes domain name registration.