Your Website – Your website is actually just a bunch of files, images, flash files, php files, html files, and more, sitting on a computer somewhere. These computers are called “Servers”. It basically displays information based on html code or instructions (hypertext markup language or “html” – a language that tells browsers how to display data). Each server has an “ip address”, which is simply a bunch of numbers assigned to a server (like 69.199.xxx.xxxx). When your server/website is set up and you type its ip address in your browser, your site will pop up just as if you entered your web address. Trick now is to get your website address to do that!
Hosted Servers – If you don’t know what type of server to buy, how to set
it up, or you simply don’t have the capital to purchase a server – join the
club. Don’t worry – most people simply rent server space for a low
monthly fee from third party hosting companies. An example of a hosting
company is GoDaddy.
Domain – Your domain is the text-based address that you would like
to point to your site. For example, “www.yourdomain.com”. You can
“register” (which basically means you’re renting it) a domain from a selection
of many domain registrars. An example of a domain registrar is GoDaddy. If your domain hasn’t already been
registered by someone else, pay the low yearly fee and the website address is
yours for as long as you want it.
Domain Name Servers (DNS) – These are special servers and pretty much all they do is
hold a bunch of records associated with domains (called DNS Zone Records).
These records map the domains to their corresponding ip addresses.
When you enter a domain in a browser, you’re essentially forwarded to these
nameservers, and like a rolodex, it finds the domain’s record and then forwards
you to the right places (the right server or ip address). Multiple
places, like your domain registrar and most likely your website’s hosting
company, have nameservers that contain these records. An example of
what a name server might look like ns1.domainregistrar.com.
Making Your Site Live
1. Purchase
Domain Name and Web Server Space for your website.
2. Upload
Your Website On Hosting Server.
3. Link
Name-Server with domain name.
