3. Web server and domain

In order to let other people see your web site, it must be placed on a web server.

This is called 'hosting' a web site.

Before you can do this, you must choose an URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for your site, such as www.teach-ict.com. This is called the site's domain name.

Domain names are purchased from a domain registrar who has the authority to sell domains.

To type in a complete URL you normally include https:// followed by the domain.

HTTP is the standard protocol for a web page. You can also get HTTPS with an extra s on the end that indicates it is a secure web page.

Each domain name must be unique - you cannot purchase a domain that someone else already owns. This is because every URL is converted into a unique IP address. For example the web site www.google.com has the IP address 74.125.91.104.

Try typing https://74.125.91.104/ into your web browser and see what you get.

Once your site is online, you expect your web hosting company to provide

  • Fast response time - visitors hate waiting for a page to download because of a slow server.
  • Administration tools such as web statistics so you can see how many visitors you have and what they are looking at.
  • Good upload speeds - your site needs to be upated easily and often, so a good upload speed makes this much easier.
  • Help - when things go wrong on the server, you want confidence that they will help out.

 

Challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: Domain names