WEB HOSTING EXPLAINED

A Website is Similar to a House:
A website has an address (domain name), property (web hosting), a building (the web site), and a mailbox (email). You must first choose a domain name (yourname.com) which will tell people how to get to your website. You'll then need some property (web hosting) in which you can build your house on (web site). Web hosting is the actual physical harddrive space on a server where you place your content and images for your visitors to see. Mailboxes are then setup so you can send and recieve electronic mail (email) easily through your computer.

1) Domain Names (yourname.com):
Domain names are often called URLs (Universal Resource Locator) which is the address of your website. Visitors type in your domain name (yourname.com) to access your website such as skylap.com or microsoft.com. The price of a domain name usually ranges from $10-$25 depending on the type of extention (.com, .net, .org, .ca, etc) and needs to be renewed once a year. A domain name is not required but recommended to give your website a more professional image. You are also able

to use "yourname.skylap.com" for free with your hosting account if you wish.

2) Web Hosting (hosting account/web space)
In order for your visitors to be able to view your website, your website files need to be copied (uploaded) onto a special computer (web server) that is connected to the internet 24 hours a day. Web servers are highly reliable, powerful computers which require special software and monitoring as well as full administration throughout the day and night. The high speed server connections allow the transfer of files and emails along with special firewall and hacker software to protect your sites and prevent server attacks.

Buying a web hosting account is simply like 'renting' some space on a server harddrive since your website should not run from your own computer. By buying web hosting you are avoiding the need to buy your own servers and hire your own server staff.

3) Web Sites (web design)

A website is your very own piece of cyberspace (the internet) where you post anything you wish or advertise any product you desire. Websites can be personal or business related and generally include pictures and text to provide information about your ideas or products. They are all based on the programming code called HTML which using this code you can add images, text, links, or involve more programming codes such as PHP to include interaction from your visitors.

You can build your own website using code or programming software or hire a professional design company (such as skylap.com) to build it for you. Since learning programming codes can take many years to learn, most individuals and companies simply hire a trained designer/programmer to build their site for them.