Some Hosting Basics

Webhosting is cheap and easily available today, particularly where shared hosting is concerned. Because many shared hosting customers don’t have a great deal of technical knowledge, much of the administration is done via web interfaces provided by the hosting company. Some understanding of the basics is still necessary to ensure a good experience.

Your site will have a directory assigned to it. Within these directories will be found entries such as CGI folders and PHP folders. These folders provide functionality to elements such as search forms, contact forms and databases. Explore your web interface to see how you install and customize such elements.

DNS is an acronym for Domain Name Service. Basically, it takes an address such as xyz.com and converts it to a number which is assigned to the computer on which that site is hosted. If you have shared hosting, your provider will generally set up your DNS bindings for you. If not, call tech support and ask for assistance before attempting to accomplish this task via guess work. Guessing is liable to lead to hours of frustration.

SSL and secure server certificates are server technologies that allow for secure transactions. If you have any financial transactions taking place over your site or if you request sensitive information via forms hosted on your site, you need SSL. Ask your provider how you get this through them. Setting it up is not terribly difficult and, again, can be done with the assistance of tech support personnel.