| Many customers ask me, when I am first building a | | | | that computer. |
| website or when it is time to charge them for annual | | | | Security |
| maintenance, what is web hosting? It sounds strange | | | | But it is not just the storage of your files that your |
| having to host a website, as they just 'exist' in many | | | | web host is in charge of. They also will arrange |
| people's view. But web hosting, and a quality provider | | | | extras such as daily backups of the files, upgrades of |
| at that, is an essential part of your website. | | | | the systems and general maintenance. These are |
| In short, when you visit a website you are viewing | | | | hugely powerful machines and need a lot of tender |
| computer files from someone's machine. These files, | | | | care! |
| whether they are the html code that pulls everything | | | | There is also the security issue to consider. Your |
| together or the images added to the page or | | | | hosts have to make sure that the files are not only |
| whatever, come together to produce a web page | | | | backed up, but also that people who shouldn't have |
| that you can view. | | | | access to the files cannot get to them. Attempts at |
| When I Was A Lad... | | | | website hacking occur quite a lot and hosts have to |
| Many years ago, when the internet was in its infancy, | | | | protect against this. |
| we would literally dial straight into another computer. | | | | A good host will also have other backups in place, |
| But the problem with this is that both computers | | | | such as multiple telephone lines, from different |
| need to be attached to the telephone network at | | | | telephone service providers. They might even go as |
| the same time. | | | | far as one set of lines go out of the front of the |
| Getting Up-To-Date... | | | | building and the other out of the back, to an |
| With the advance of the internet came domain | | | | unconnected exchange. That way, if someone digging |
| names and a more organised way of accessing these | | | | up the road accidentally rips through the set of |
| files. But we still need somewhere to put these files. | | | | telephone lines at the front of the building, your |
| You can place the website on your own machine, if | | | | website is automatically accessed via the telephone |
| you wanted to, but that machine would need to be | | | | lines at the back of the building. |
| left switched on all of the time and you would need | | | | So, A Web Host Is Just A Big Computer |
| to look after security on the machine. | | | | So, a website host is basically a huge computer, with |
| That is where the webhosting comes in. Basically, | | | | lots of backups, spares and security in place, so that |
| specialist companies create networks of extremely | | | | at any time of the day or night your website visitors |
| powerful computers and allocate you a small amount | | | | can come to your website, view what you have on |
| of space on that computer. When you type in a | | | | offer and make you the income that the website is |
| website address, you are directed to the files on | | | | there to provide. |