{"id":1468,"date":"2014-04-03T19:09:19","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T23:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitalprominence.com\/website\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2014-04-03T19:31:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T23:31:12","slug":"techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/digitalprominence.com\/website\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\/","title":{"rendered":"Techno Tip #1b: A Primer on Domains and Web Hosting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"internet-confusion\"Sometimes I forget how confused I was about “domain names” and “web hosting” when I first entered the world of website development way back when.\u00a0 Until you get familiar with it all, it’s a bit difficult to understand the relationship between domain names, web hosting, and the flurry of designed-to-confound-you acronyms that hang around in various dark caves within the mysterious realms of the Internet.\u00a0 and it’s not just us web designers who need a basic understanding of the process and relationships.\u00a0 If you’re a website owner, you need to know the difference between a domain and web hosting, or you could mishandle either and end up with no domain or a domain that goes nowhere!\u00a0 I needed to explain this to a client recently, so I thought I’d capture it and save it as a Primer on Domains and Web Hosting.<\/p>\n

First, you have a domain registrar — like GoDaddy<\/a>, but there are many registrars out there.\u00a0 You use a domain registrar to \u201creserve\u201d a particular domain name (like DigitalProminence.com), usually for about $14 per year, give or take.\u00a0 You need an account with the registrar to do this.<\/p>\n

Once you reserve a domain (\u201cdomain\u201d and \u201cdomain name\u201d are terms that are used interchangeably), it\u2019s yours unless and until you let your domain registration expire, at which point (after a certain \u201clag\u201d time), it goes back into the pool of available domains.<\/p>\n

Now, a domain name is simply a \u201cpointer\u201d.\u00a0 There are no files or website associated with a domain name by default.\u00a0 So in addition to having a registered domain, you also need \u201cweb hosting\u201d.\u00a0 Web hosting is essentially rented file space on a server or server(s).\u00a0 There are many web hosts out there.\u00a0 The one I\u2019ve been using\/recommending for almost 10 years is Hostgator<\/a>.\u00a0 The actual web pages, files, etc. that are the content of any website are stored in rented web host space, on web host servers with specific server names.\u00a0 When you set up your web hosting account, you\u2019re told which particular server names your file space is on.<\/p>\n

You tell your web host through settings in your hosting account) which domain(s) will be associated with your rented space.\u00a0 The web host then asks you what domain name will be pointing to your file space, and essentially labels your file space with the same name as your domain.\u00a0 This labeling by domain is necessary because most web hosts utilize \u201cshared servers\u201d, meaning that each server may host many different domains.<\/p>\n

So if you register your domain with GoDaddy (for example), you log in to your GoDaddy account and tell the domain which servers (by server name) contain your actual website pages\/files.\u00a0 This linkage information (domain name and its servers) is stored in a giant distributed Internet database called the Domain Name System (DNS).\u00a0 When a website visitor uses their browser to go to a specific domain, there\u2019s a DNS lookup to see which servers the domain\u2019s pages\/files are on, and sends the visitor to those servers at the web host.\u00a0 The web host intercepts the request and uses the requested domain name to match against the labeled sections of the servers, and those are the files the website visitor sees.\u00a0 The DNS information also includes the name & contact info of the domain registrar, the name & contact info of the web hosting company, and the name & contact info of the person who reserved the domain through the registrar.\u00a0 All that information is publicly available<\/a>, unless you pay extra to keep the identity of the person who reserved the domain confidential.<\/p>\n

So there you go.\u00a0 Hopefully it’s a LITTLE clearer than mud.\u00a0 But feel free to contact me<\/a> with questions, etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cTech\u2019s not scary when knowledge tags along\u201d<\/span> SM<\/sup><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes I forget how confused I was about “domain names” and “web hosting” when I first entered the world of website development way back when.\u00a0 Until you get familiar with it all, it’s a bit difficult to understand the relationship between domain names, web hosting, and the flurry of designed-to-confound-you acronyms that hang around in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techno-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nTechno Tip #1b: A Primer on Domains and Web Hosting - Digital Prominence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/digitalprominence.com\/website\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Techno Tip #1b: A Primer on Domains and Web Hosting - Digital Prominence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sometimes I forget how confused I was about “domain names” and “web hosting” when I first entered the world of website development way back when.\u00a0 Until you get familiar with it all, it’s a bit difficult to understand the relationship between domain names, web hosting, and the flurry of designed-to-confound-you acronyms that hang around in […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/digitalprominence.com\/website\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Digital Prominence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-03T23:09:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-03T23:31:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/digitalprominence.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/internet-confusion-300x160.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/digitalprominence.com\\\/website\\\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/digitalprominence.com\\\/website\\\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/digitalprominence.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6c62e9cad45675caab8a7c06b3b913ca\"},\"headline\":\"Techno Tip #1b: A Primer on Domains and Web Hosting\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-03T23:09:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-03T23:31:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/digitalprominence.com\\\/website\\\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":645,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/digitalprominence.com\\\/website\\\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/digitalprominence.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/internet-confusion-300x160.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Techno Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/digitalprominence.com\\\/website\\\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\\\/\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/digitalprominence.com\\\/website\\\/techno-tip-1b-a-primer-on-domains-and-web-hosting\\\/\",\"name\":\"Techno Tip #1b: A Primer on Domains and Web Hosting - 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