What is web site hosting?
To understand how web hosting works, you need to have a general idea of what the Internet really is. You know you can use it for email, to visit your favorite web sites, and to exchange information with others, but, if you are like most people, you probably don’t understand the basic how and why the Internet works.
A network of networks!
The Internet is a collection of networks around the world, both large and small, that agree to allow the passage of information through their networks at what are called IXPs - Internet Exchange Points (also known as Network Access Points). What this means is that no one actually owns the Internet – it is one of the most amazing collaborative efforts of the last century, a network of networks that is growing every day. HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is sort of like the language of this network, and it is used to transfer much of the information that travels across the Internet.
The IP system – your unique address on the internet
Within this World Wide Web, every connected computer has an IP (Internet Protocol) address, which might look something like this: 24.248.93.51. These unique addresses are what allow computers on the Internet to locate another device, just as we humans might look for the address of a house in a town we’re not familiar with.
Domain Name System – World’s Largest Distributed Database
Now, while IPs are convenient for computers to identity other Internet connected devices, they are not exactly easy for people to remember! Enter the DNS (Domain Name System). DNS maps text names to IP addresses, so instead of having to remember 24.248.93.51, you can simply think “Tech Squared” and type in techsquared.com. The Domain Name System is the largest distributed database in the entire world, and there are many Domain Name Servers. The sheer size and scale of this world wide database is what can cause delays when changing Domain Name records.
Domain Names are actually controlled by central authorities. For example, the classic .com domain list is controlled by Network Solutions, so all registrars that register a .com domain work with Network Solutions to maintain this list and ensure that domains are unique.
Where web servers fit in!
A web hosting server is a computer connected to the Internet that has the ability to accept HTTP requests. If you remember from earlier, HTTP is the language that conveys information from an HTTP client (your web browser) to an HTTP server. This special software that can understand and listen for HTTP is what allows a web server to display its resources to hundreds and thousands of users simultaneously.
This means that yes, you can operate a web server on even a home internet connection with the proper tools and software, but it will not be a very good one. Most high end web servers are stored away in secure Datacenters on independent Internet backbones or on an ISP’s backbone, giving them the bandwidth to serve pages quickly to thousands of demanding users.
Some of the terms used in this article:
Web server, Internet Exchange Point, Internet Protocol, Domain Name System, bandwidth, HTTP, web design |
