What is Web Hosting?

We are often asked to explain the difference between hosting, dial up accounts, e-mail, domains, the different ways of accessing the Internet etc. To help those who are not familiar with this sometimes confusing subject we have attempted to explain the various terms in non technical terms.

Domain

A domain might be thought of as your company name in cyberspace. Having made that statement it is important to remember that although many businesses do prefer to have a domain that is the same as their companies name it is by no means essential and in some cases it is better to have a domain that is rather descriptive of the service that you offer. 

The best known format for a domain is www.companyname.com , each country has their own unique naming convention, Nigerian domains generally end in .com.ng , the United Kingdom in .co.uk, the .com domain is generally associated with the USA, although it has become more global in recent years , here in Nigeria it is greatly used.

Hosting

If your domain is your companies name on the Internet then hosting can be likened to the physical location of your offices. Once you have registered a domain name for your business it is necessary to have a home for your website. The actual files that make up a website are stored on a specialised computer called a server where they are available 24 hours a day to Internet users all over the world. 

There is a cost associated with this service which varies considerably according to the space required as well as the number of visitors passing through your site, special requirements such as a database, secure facilities for processing sensitive information (credit cards for example), etc, etc.

Dial Up

The average Internet user accesses the web by means of a dial up connection. This is the means by which your computer connects, via a modem, to your service provider (M-web, Hyperia, Nitel etc) and which allows you to visit websites, use a search engine such as Google, do your banking online, catch up with the news at CNN, BBC, etc. 

It is not essential to use the same service provider for your dial up access and for hosting your website, in fact providers of dial up facilities are usually not geared towards the needs of their hosting clients so there is something to be said for keeping the two functions separate.

E-mail

When you set up an account with your dial up service provider you are asked to select an e-mail identity ( yourname@hopewellng.com for example), this is the means by which you maintain contact with your friends and family as well as in the running of your business. But what happens if you decide that you are no longer satisfied with the service that you are receiving, or if the service provider should experience financial difficulties or sell out to a rival? If you are running a business, it could cost you dearly to change your e-mail address, today it is an absolutely essential business tool, as vital as your telephone number.

When you register domain, an important aspect when hosting it is the fact that you also have the ability to have an e-mail address (or many e-mail addresses) associated with your domain. Now, instead of having an address that looks like this somebody@someserviceprovider.com you can have this: yourname@yourdomain.com

Perhaps the greatest advantage is that no matter how often you change service providers your e-mail address remains unchanged. Should you be unhappy with the company hosting your site :) , you simply move it to a new provider and your e-mail address remains the same. The other advantages are that it creates a more professional image and as your company grows you can set up more addresses (or mail boxes) for new employees, you may have john@yourcompany.com and sule@yourcompany.com as well as sales@yourcompany.com , etc. The possibilities are endless.

Bandwidth

No explanation of web hosting is complete without a mention of bandwidth. This refers to the capacity of a hosting company to satisfy the demand for its service. When the World Trade Centre towers in New York were attacked in 2001 the major news sites like CNN.com and the BBC online service came to a standstill because they didn't have the capacity to deal with the sudden demand on their resources. It is important to make certain that a hosting provider has sufficient bandwidth available to meet your current and future needs, to little will mean slow loading pages and lost business.

Bandwidth is measured in kbps (kilo bit per second) which refers to the amount of information that can be processed in a second. Most people in Nigeria connect using a 56K modem which means that they can achieve a theoretical speed of 56 kbps, the theoretical is important here because in reality due to congestion, poor phone lines and a variety of other reasons this speed is unlikely to be achieved. 

A step up from the 56K modem is a 64K ISDN modem, this delivers a more consistent speed but requires a special modem and usually a set-up fee is charged for its installation. In Nigeria at present, a couple of service providers are able to offer speeds of up to 128K through a wireless system that bypasses the copper phone lines to a certain extent and Nitel recently launched broadband ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) in some parts of the country. This technology is already widespread in the USA, Europe and parts of Asia and will allow a permanent, 512K connection (almost 10 times as fast as your 56K modem) to the internet.