Are you planning to launch your first website and are looking for low cost web hosting services and to purchase AE domain, you’re in the right place. Website hosting and domains are necessary for creating a website. They’re responsible for making your content accessible on the web.
Fortunately, you’re not required to have the knowledge and skills to develop a website. However, if you’re a newcomer, evaluating different web hosting and domain providers could be challenging.
To resolve this issue, we’ve crafted this ultimate beginner’s guide, which will take you through everything worth knowing, including domains and their structure, low cost web hosting providers and their types, and key factors to consider in each service.
Key Insights into Domain Names
Let’s start out by knowing how to create a website. There are 3 major steps to starting a new website:
- Purchase a domain name
- Purchase a web hosting service
- Select your platform
● Domain Name and Its Structure
In simple language, a domain name is a string of text that a user types into a search bar to access a specific website. It is primarily the online address of your website. A domain name is comprised of a three-part structure, which starts with the hostname. For example, “WWW” represents “World Wide Web,” followed by the web name itself, and lastly, the top-level domain name (TLD). for example, .com, .ae, .ae, or .ai.
Every part of the domain name is differentiated by a dot, resulting in a FQDN (fully qualified domain name). For instance, www.milesweb.com.
When any user types a domain name in their search bar, a lot more goes on behind the scenes. All the websites present on the internet are hosted on a server and every server comes with a unique IP address.
An IP address is a set of four numbers between 0 and 255, divided by periods, that indicate to the server precisely how to get to it. IP addresses are helpful for computers but aren’t human-friendly and this is where the domain names come into effect. Domain names can be easily memorized instead of remembering IP addresses.
When a server receives a request from a user’s browser, a domain name system (DNS) is employed to resolve the domain name into a machine-readable IP address. This way, the browser exactly knows where it should go to find the particular website.
● URL vs. Domain Name
A domain name is similar to your house address, whereas the URL [Uniform Resource Locator] is a complete house address, including details like the name of the street, zip code, state, and country.
A domain name is a critical part of a URL, whereas the URL is your complete website address.
● Structure of Domain Name
As mentioned earlier, a domain name generally includes two or three words divided by dots. For example, www.milesweb.in is a domain name.
If this is a URL – https://www.milesweb.com/hosting/domains then it’ll be formed by a protocol, domain name, and path. Let’s get down to each part:
Protocol: https://
Domain Name: www.milesweb.com; it contains
A second-level domain: MilesWeb, and
A top-level domain:.com
A subdirectory: /hosting/
Path:/domains
● Meaning of Top-Level Domain (TLD)
A TLD (top-level domain) is an end part of a domain name that is located at the right of the domain name and appears right after the dot. Top-level domain names are broadly categorized into 2 parts:
Generic TLDs (gTLD): For example,.com,.org,.net,.info,.biz,.edu, etc.
Country-code TLDs (ccTLD): These TLDs represent a particular geographical location. For example, .uk (United Kingdom), .in (India), .ae (United Arab Emirates), .ca (Canada), etc.
● Process of Purchasing A Domain Name
The process of purchasing a domain name is pretty simple and is comprised of 4 easy steps, as follows:
Step 1: Decide a Domain Name
As stated earlier, a domain name is the unique digital identity of your company; therefore, assure that it is catchy and easily memorable. Do not use any term that’s copyright protected.
Step 2: Check whether your preferred domain name is available
Once you’ve narrowed down certain domain name ideas, check their availability using domain name checker tools like Instant Domain Search or GoDaddy’s search tool to verify their availability.
Step 3: Select a Domain Name Registrar
Once it is verified that your preferred domain name is available, the next step is to select a domain name registrar like MilesWeb, from whom you can purchase it.
Step 4: Complete the domain Registration process
After finalizing the domain name registrar, follow the given instructions to purchase the domain to finish off the registration process. After the registration process, a confirmation email will be sent to you or it’ll be reflected on the registrar’s dashboard, after which you’ll legally own the domain name.
Key Insights into Web Hosting
Hosting a website is like renting space on a physical web server where you can save your website files. Your website is made available to the public on the web through the server. The server works continuously to make sure that your website is always available to visitors.
A particular set of software or applications is installed on the server for your website so that it receives worldwide visibility. This software is referred to as a web server. This web server receives requests from website visitors and responds by delivering the requested web page to the visitor’s browser.
Self-hosting is also possible. But it needs special skills. When self-hosting your website, you need to understand how to set up and configure a web server from scratch. As a newcomer, it is advised to choose the best web hosting company that makes sure that your website is efficiently performing and also has advanced safety measures.
Web Hosting Types
Web hosting companies offer different types of hosting options to meet diverse needs. Here are some major types:
- Shared Hosting
In shared web hosting, the same server resources are divided amongst several users, like CPU, bandwidth, disk space, and RAM. This hosting service is perfect for small businesses, personal websites, and blogging websites. Users don’t need to have any technical skills and pre-configured server settings are also available.
Multiple users are allowed to share the same server resources, thereby keeping your costs down, which makes it a low-cost web hosting solution. But there’s one drawback, that is, you don’t get access to server configuration and if traffic to other websites increases, then it can affect your website’s overall performance.
- Dedicated server
In dedicated hosting, a physical server is exclusively dedicated to a single user. It is one of the most powerful hosting solutions. As opposed to shared web hosting services, where several users make use of similar server resources, a dedicated server provides total root access and dedicated resources to fulfill special needs.
Using a dedicated server, you can experience improved performance, flexibility, scalability, and advanced security. With total root access, you can customize your server platform as per your needs.
- VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting
VPS hosting is like a shared hosting solution, but it uses a virtualization technique to provide the users with private or dedicated resources on a virtual server with several other users. Therefore, every website hosted on a virtual private server receives guaranteed resources that help to manage sudden traffic spikes.
With the help of KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtualization technology, a single physical server runs several isolated VMs (virtual machines), which act the same as a dedicated server with dedicated resources such as CPU, RAM, storage space, and operating system.
Thus, you get complete control over your virtual server. It is isolated from other users based on the OS level. You’re not required to share the server resources with other users. With VPS, you get root access just like a dedicated server, but at a reasonable cost.
VPS hosting is best for medium-sized businesses and eCommerce websites that have the fastest-growing number of visitors. With a VPS server, you’ll also get high customizability and scalability options.
- Reseller hosting
Reseller hosting is a model where a web hosting provider leases its hosting services to an individual or business, known as a reseller. This reseller then rebrands these services as their own and resells them to their own customers. It is also known as white-label reseller hosting.
Reseller web hosting aims to make money based on the revenue collected from the clients who purchase your reseller hosting packages.
Key Qualities of an Excellent Web Host
Together with the above-mentioned web hosting needs, it is important to make sure that your chosen web hosting provider possesses the following key qualities:
1. Higher Uptime Guarantee
A slow-loading website might lead to a decrease in the number of website visitors. Hence, it is important to select a web host that provides a greater uptime guarantee. However, before deciding on a web hosting provider, analyze its reliability, reputation, and support. Also, check their scheduled maintenance.
2. Advanced Security
With an increase in data breach incidences in the last few years, ensure that the chosen web hosting provider has deployed the required safety features to prevent any such incidences.
3. Storage Space
Evaluate the storage space offered for every hosting plan and converse with their sales team to estimate your requirements. Always opt for a higher plan than is needed.
4. Unmetered Bandwidth
If you surpass the allotted bandwidth, your website could crash, or you could be billed more based on the hosting package. If your website depends on heavy media, then make sure that it is your top priority.
5. Excellent Customer Support
Whenever you come across an issue, your web host should provide expert customer support. Check how easily you can connect with their support staff and their response time as well.
Conclusion
Although domain and web hosting are entirely different, a lot of people still don’t understand the difference between them. Both of them are important components of developing a website and fulfill their distinct roles.
We wish this ultimate beginner’s guide helps you grasp the difference between web hosting and domain names and how they work hand in hand to empower your website. If you’re searching for a reliable web hosting provider as well as a domain name registrar, MilesWeb is the perfect solution. They provide fast and reliable hosting services and domain registration services.
If you need more information, feel free to contact us today!
