How does the Web work? How can I make my own Web Site?

What is a Web Host? What is an Internet Service Provider?

What is the World Wide Web?

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 standard 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 Mozilla 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.someone.com/page.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 This is a Paragraph
.

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

What is a Web Server?

The collection of all your web pages is called your web site.
To let others view your work, 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.

Summary

If you want other people to view your web site, you must copy your site to a public server. Even if you can use your own PC as a web server, it is more common to let an Internet Service Provider (ISP) host your site.

Included in a Web hosting solution you can expect to find domain name registration and standard email services.

You can read more about domain name registration, email and other services in the next chapters of this tutorial.

Web Hosting Providers

If you want your web site to be visible to the world, you have to store it on a web server.

Most small businesses and companies store their web site on a server provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Hosting Your Own Web

Hosting your web site on your own server is always an option. Here are some problems to consider:

Hardware Expenses

To run a "real" web site, you will have to buy some powerful server hardware. Don't expect that a low cost PC will do the job. You will also need a permanent (24 hours a day ) high speed connection to your office, and such connections are expensive.

Software Expenses

Don't forget to count the extra cost for software licenses. Remember that server licenses often are much higher than client licenses. Also note that some server software licenses might have limits on number of concurrent users.

Labor Expenses

Don't expect low labor expenses. Remember that you have to install your own hardware and software. You also have to deal with bugs and viruses, and keep your server constantly running in an environment where "everything could happen".

Using an Internet Service Provider

Renting a server from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a common option. Here are some advantages:

Connection Speed

Most providers have very fast connections to the Internet, like full T3 fiber-optic 45Mps connections equivalent to about 2000 traditional (28K) modems or 1000 high speed (56K) modems.

Powerful Hardware

Service providers often have many powerful web servers that can be shared by several companies. You can also expect them to have an effective load balancing, and necessary backup servers.

Security and Stability

Internet Service Providers are specialists on web hosting. Expect their servers to have more than 99% up time, the latest software patches, and the best virus protection.

Things to Consider

24-hour support

Make sure your Internet service provider offers 24-hours support. Don't put yourself in a situation where you cannot fix critical problems without having to wait until the next working day. Toll-free phone could be vital if you don't want to pay for long distance calls.

Daily Backup

Make sure your service provider runs a secure daily backup routine, otherwise you may lose some valuable data.

Traffic Volume

Study the provider's traffic volume restrictions. Make sure that you don't have to pay a fortune for unexpected high traffic if your web site becomes popular.

Bandwidth or Content Restrictions

Study the provider's bandwidth and content restrictions. If you plan to publish pictures or broadcast video or sound, make sure that you can.

Email Capabilities

Make sure your provider fully supports the email capabilities you need. (You can read more about email capabilities in a later chapter)

Front Page Extensions

Make sure your provider fully supports FrontPage server extensions if you plan to use FrontPage to develop your site.

Database Access

Make sure your provider fully supports the database access you need if you plan to use databases from your site. (You can read more about database access in a later chapter)

Hosting and Domain Names

A Domain Name is a unique name for your web site.

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 microsoft.com and w3schools.com.

Domain names must be registered. When domain names are registered they are added to a large domain name register, and information about your site - including your internet 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 your domain name and your 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.

Domain Name Registration provides registration services for .com .net .org .biz .info .us .nu .ws .cc and .tv domains.

Newer domain extensions such as .biz .info and .us have more choices available as many of the popular domains have yet to be taken. While .com and .net domains are well established and recognized, most popular domains with these extensions are already registered.

Choosing Your Domain

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

While domains are being registered at a record, new domain extensions and creative thinking still offer thousands of excellent choices. When selecting a name it is important to consider the purpose of a domain name, which is to provide people an easy way to reach your web site. The best domains have the following characteristics:

Short - People don't like to type! The shorter your domain, the easier it is to reach and the less are the chance the user will make a typographical error while typing it.

Meaningful - A short domain is nothing without meaning, 34i4nh69.com is only 8 characters long but would not be easy to enter or 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. You should avoid selecting a name that is difficult to spell or pronounce. Also, pay close attention to how your domain sounds and how effectively it can be communicated over the phone.

Exposure: Just like premium real-estate on the ground that gets the most exposure, names that are short and easy to remember are an asset. In addition to humans viewing your domain, you should consider search engines. Search engines index your site and rank it for relevance against terms people search for online. In order to maximize your sites exposure, consider including a relevant search term in your domain. Of course, this should only be considered if it still maintains a short, clear and meaningful domain.

Sub Domains

Most people are unaware but they already use sub domains on a daily basis. The famous "www" of the World Wide Web is the most common 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 registrar, of course, the original domain would need to be registered before a sub domain could be created. Common 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 or created by yourself if you manage your own DNS server.

False Domain Names - Directory Listings

Some providers will offer you a unique 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.

These URLs are not desirable, especially for companies. Try to avoid them if you can afford to register a domain. Typically these are more commonly used for personal sites and free sites provided by your ISP, you may have seen www.theircompany.com/~username as a common address, this is just another way to share a single domain and provide users their own address.

Open competition in domain name registration has brought about a dramatic decrease in pricing so domain sharing is far less common since people can register their own domains 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 also 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 regularly become available for registration 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 you would 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 email and traditional mail.

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

Hosting Capacities

Make sure you get the disk space and the traffic volume you need.

How Much Disk Space?

A small or medium web site will need between 10 and 100MB of disk space.

If you look at the size of HTML pages, you will see that the average size is very small. Maybe even smaller than 1KB. But if you look at the size of the images (button, gif, banner, jpg) used inside the pages, you will often find images many times larger than the page itself.

Expect each HTML page to take up between 5 and 50KB of disk space on your web server, depending on the use of images or other space consuming elements.

If you plan to use lots of images or graphic elements (not to mention sound files or movies), you might be needing much more disk space.

Make sure that you know your needs before you start looking for your web host.

Monthly Traffic

A small or medium web site will consume between 1GB and 5GB of data transfer per month.

You can calculate this by multiplying your average page size with the number of expected page views per month. If your average page size is 30KB and you expect 50,000 page views per month, you will need 0.03MB x 50,000 = 1.5GB.

Larger, commercial sites often consume more than 100GB of monthly traffic.

Before you sign a contract with a host provider, make sure to check this:

What are the restrictions on monthly transfer
Will your site be closed if you exceed the volume
Will you be billed a fortune if you exceed the volume
Will my future need be covered
Is upgrading a simple task

Connection Speed

Visitors to your web site will often connect via a modem, but your host provider should have a much faster connection.

In the early days of the Internet a T1 connection was considered a fast connection. Today connection speeds are much faster.

1 byte equals to 8 bits (and that's the number of bits used to transport one character). Low speed communication modems can transport from about 14 000 to 56 000 bits per second (14 to 56 kilobits per second). That is somewhere between 2000 and 7000 characters per second, or about 1 to 5 pages of written text.

One kilobit (Kb) is 1024 bits. One megabit (Mb) is 1024 kilobits. One gigabit (Gb) is 1024 megabits.

These are connection speeds used on the Internet today:

Name	Connection	Speed per second
Modem	Analog	14.4-56Kb
D0	Digital (ISDN)	64Kb
T1	Digital	1.55Mb
T3	Digital	43Mb
OC-1	Optical Carrier	52Mb
OC-2	Optical Carrier	156Mb
OC-12	Optical Carrier	622Mb
OC-24	Optical Carrier	1.244Gb
OC-48	Optical Carrier	2.488Gb

Before you sign up a contract with any hosting provider, 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.