What is web hosting?

Web hosting enables the web pages and data that make up your website to be located in the hosting company's server. The web pages remain yours and you are just renting a space on the web server. These web servers have been specially configured and built to process information faster  and to run 24 hours a day, every day of the year through dedicated and multiple internet connections.

Your information is then available on the web and can be seen from anywhere through any computer or device that is connected to the Internet. Web hosting providers, internet service providers, domain registrars, and even some web design firms offer web hosting services.

Web hosting is also the act of renting disk space and bandwidth from a web hosting provider for a certain period of time so a user can publish web pages or other web related information on the Internet. Renting space on a web server is much like renting an apartment. The monthly fee provides you with space on a web server but the maintenance is the responsibility of the owner of the web server. A web hosting company stores your web site on it's own secure servers, which enables you to affordably take advantage of the power of a high-speed network, 24/7 expert monitoring and support, and state-of-the-art technology. If you are not sure which hosts to choose, go with the web hosting companies that provide you with abundant disk space and and bandwidth. Of course, website support and hosting features are important as well. Consider companies like WhoIsBehindYourWebSite.co.uk and Globat.com

How does domain name relate to web hosting?
A domain name is a unique name that identifies a website. Your domain name will be a name of your choosing followed by .com, .co.uk, .org or one of the other available extensions. The vital objective is to find an available domain name that is effortless for web user to remember and spell. Usually, web users purchase domain names before he or she decides to host. Once you have purchased a domain name, you need to point the primary and secondary domain name server of the domain name to the hosting company's domain name server. You can do this from your control panel or your login account at your domain registrar's website. Please take note that the domain control panel and the hosting control panel accounts are different. The domain control panel account is created when you purchase the domain name and accessible at the domain registrar's website. If you have forgotten how to access your domain control panel, simply, do a whois to check.

The cost of domain registration ranges from £7.95 to £19.95 per year depending on the features provided. Some domain registrars provide many domain features to protect your domain name and help you manage your domain name(s) effectively.

What does DNS stand for?
Domain Name System is a system of mapping names to IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they are straightforward and easy for web users to remember. The Internet, however, is based on IP addresses. Every time a web users uses a domain name, DNS translates the name into the corresponding IP address.

Domain names can be registered through many different companies. Companies that handle domain name registrations are called registrars. Below are a list of registrars in the United Kingdom currently approved by ICANN. You can register with any of the registrars below.

1. BB Online UK
2. Berkeley Intellectual Property Services Limited
3. British Telecommunications
4. Easyspace Limited
5. Internetters Limited
6. Net Searchers International Limited
7. NetBenefit plc aka NetNames
8. Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-operative Domains Limited
9. Register.com Europe plc
10. SafeNames Ltd.
11. Total Web Solutions Limited

How do I know if I need web hosting?
If you have to publish or upload information for internet web users to view or download, you need web hosting. Web hosting requires specialized knowledge and experience in managing servers and network and of course, substantial investment in software and hardware as well.. There are also considerable ongoing expenses for placing the network online on the Internet and maintaining the servers from time to time. For most people and organizations it is more cost-effective to outsource web hosting.

How much does web hosting cost?
Web hosting services are usually under the category of shared hosting. The cost of web hosting services range from £4.95 to £49.95 depending on the amount of disk space, bandwidth allowance, control panel, tools provided, and other useful website functions provided 

What does e-commerce mean?
In the broad sense electronic commerce means conducting business using the Internet and computers. Ecommerce is not about the technology itself, it is about doing business using the technology. Ecommerce hosting means hosting plans that provide you with the convenient tools, shopping cart, product management software, and payment processing system to help you start a website to do business online.
 
What does a shopping cart do?
A shopping cart is an automated software or script that runs on your web server to display the products you have in your database for web users to select and purchase. When this online shopping is complete, the shopping cart software automatically calculates the cost of the items. The software program generate web pages to lead the web user into completing the order. Good shopping carts calculate shipping and taxes automatically and confirm the order for the customer on the web and lastly send the customer an email to inform the web user that an ordered has been processed using the credit card or other online payment the web user has provided.

There are over a hundred shopping carts available on the web. Research and use a shopping cart that suits your product requirements. As part of a shopping cart you must set up an online order form containing fields for contact data (name, address, e-mail address) and credit-card information (card number, name of cardholder, expiration date). This form is then sent via secure SSL connection to a payment gateway, which processes the order in real time. Whatever type of solution best fits your online business strategy, be sure to choose a product that supports standard shopping cart features, such as secure servers and automatic shipping and tax calculation.

Next you'll need to address issues of user friendliness. Test your shopping carts by yourself. Get business partners and friends to use the shopping cart web pages at your site and get feedback from them. More often than not, the final decision of a potential sale and the success of your website depends primarily on the easy use of your website, good customer service, speed of website and the safety in ordering from your site, which is all about your shopping cart web pages. Always test at least 5 shopping carts before you decide to purchase.

What does FTP stand for?
File Transfer Protocol is standard method to allow the transfer of one or more files from one computer to another across the Internet. This is commonly used in web hosting where by you transfer your web pages that you have designed to your web space at the hosting provider's web server. You can also transfer your information back from the web server to your local computer.

What is "Catch-All" email?
'Catch-all' email is an email feature which enables you to receive all emails sent to your mailbox, even though the email address is incorrectly spelt, as long as the domain name is correct. You can disable this function in your control panel if you are receiving too much spam.

What is Unlimited Email Forwarding?
Unlimited Email Forwarding means that you can create as many email addresses as you want and have your email forwarded to the main mailbox. This feature allows you to organize your email and determine which email is of the most importance. For example, sales@yourcompanyname.co.uk can go to your sales team's mailbox, and techhelp@yourcompanyname.co.uk can go to your technician's mailbox. Or you can have it all go to the same mailbox if one person handles all the e-mail for your company. However, please take note that, Email Forwarding has no mailbox account. In other words, there is no disk space allocated. Email Forwarding is just an address to inform the mail server that all emails will be directed to a specific mailbox as requested by the authorized user.

How do I automatically automatically remove spam?
Insist that your hosting provider provides you with a spam filter in your mailbox. Most hosting plans come with spam filter. One of the most frequently used spam filters on the web is Spam Assassin. This software is usually preinstalled by the hosting provider. You can check your email header to determine if the email has been scanned by Spam Assassin.