Beginner’s Guide : All you Need to Know About Domain Name and Hosting Services Before Starting a Website

There was once a food joint owner. His business started off good but after a while it became stagnant.Sales were not moving up despite several attempts. So he approached Bob to fix the alarming problem. Bob being a marketer knew what the problem was instantly.

Bob said, you are good but people don’t know how much good you really are. Your product must reach the people sitting in their couch.

Owner said now how’s that possible. Bob suggestion was to open a website and start marketing it just like the visiting card is for the offline world, similarly you need a website for the online world. For that, you will need to know what is the domain name and web hosting service.

So if you are in the same condition as this guy. You want to have your own website and doesn’t know basic requirements for it then this post is a must-read for you.

After getting enthusiastic about stepping into the web development world you would definitely wish to set up your first own website. There is a common chance that you may not know how to start or you are just confused about the terms like domain name, hosting service etc. So in this post, I will explain these terms and the process of how to setup your first website online. So let’s get started.

So now the big question:

What is domain name and web hosting service?

First I will explain you the two most confusing terms for the beginners i.e Domain Name and Hosting service and how to get it.

Let me explain you both the terms together by taking an example. Refer internet as available land on earth and hosting service as a piece of land you wish to buy to make your home. Here home is your website and IP address of the website is your home address. So to make your home on earth you need to buy land similarly to host any website on internet you need to contact hosting service providers who will provide you space on the internet. 

Get your Domain Name

Now you may be wondering what is a domain name?
In simple words, this is the name of your website which you are going to launch.

See in the URL bar of your web browser. You will see something starting with HTTP:// and after that weboftwo.com. The second part of the URL i.e. weboftwo.com in our case is the domain name.

There are millions of websites hosted online, so how can you identify any website uniquely. Every website is identified by a unique series of a number called as IP address of the website. Using this number which is the real address of any web system connects to the internet to reach out each other.

But this is obviously difficult for us to remember these series of numbers for every website. We can’t practically type this number every time to visit any web page. So to make it easier domain names were developed.

Domain name is the first requirement to make your own website live. You cannot just use any name for your website just by thinking of your own. You have to first buy it and own its own so that no one in the market will be able to use the same domain name as yours.

These are the steps you have to follow while choosing your domain name –

First, you have to check whether the name that you have chosen for your website is unique or not. It may happen that the name already exists. So you cannot use any domain name which is already there. It is also very important to choose a good domain name which reflects what your business is all about.

There are many websites where you can check domain name for whether it is available or not.Like you can visit NameCheap (most popular) and check for it. While choosing your domain name, there are several extensions you can choose from like .com, .net, .org or .info .

Now since you got the favorite name of your website, the next step is to register it by a registrar. Then only you can use it officially. You have to submit your domain name registration request to a registrar.

You will need to submit the following information to the registrar:

• Domain Name
• The name and contact information (including email address, physical address and contact phone number) for the domain’s registrant, administrative and billing contacts.
• Accept Domain registration terms
• Payment information

There are many domain names registrars available online. Using these sites you can easily follow the steps and register your domain name.

You cannot register any domain for lifetime or permanently. You can buy ownership of any domain just for one year. After that, the domain will expire and you have to renew it annually for the same amount per annum.

These are some of the popular websites which provide service of buying a domain name –

• NameCheap
• BigRock
• Godaddy

Choose a Web Hosting service and Sign Up for an Account

Once you get your domain name, the second step is to buy a web hosting service in order to appear on the internet.

So What is Web Hosting Service?

Web hosting is the place where you place your website. Web hosting service providers are the organisation that rents services and technologies to host your website on the internet.

Every website has some HTML, CSS, javascript etc files. So these hosting service providers simply provide space to upload all these files to appear on the internet.

You can take the example of your mobile phone, if you don’t hook your phone up with a sim card with a pre-paid or post-paid service, you will not be able to connect with other people or vice versa. Similarly, if you have a website made in your computer only, but it is not hosted on any of the hosting platforms like Godaddy, no one will be able to view or connect with your website.

How Hosting service works –

To understand this you need to first understand how any web page is displayed on the internet.

• Website and their associated files are stored on a computer somewhere in the world known as the web server. When we type an URL in the browser to visit any website, the browser is simply requesting web server for that page.
• The browser connects to the web server through an IP address of the requested domain name. Domain name is translated to IP address.
• After that server sends back the requested page and browser display it.

So web servers are computers whose main task is to respond to the request sent by the browser to display web pages. Pages hosted on web servers can be seen by anyone in the world if they know the IP address of the server.

This is only the thing that any web hosting service providers provide you. You can also set up your own server at your home on your computer. This is preferred generally when you have very few visitors.  But it requires more knowledge, risk, space and a lot of time to do so, that’s why we prefer paying hosting service providers company for ease of use and setup.

I will soon write a post to explain you how you can turn your computer into a web server.

There are many popular hosting service providers which you can go for –

1. A2Hosting 
   

   We are powered by A2-Hosting

   Despite the fact that A2 hosting is not an extremely famous name regarding hosting on the grounds that they’re not as ‘web acclaimed’ as BlueHost or HostGator, they provide the speed of up to 200% more than the industry average. They’ve additionally been around since 2001, and have server farms far and wide in the US (Michigan), Europe (Amsterdam) and Asia (Singapore).

   Furthermore, they claim to have ‘99.9% uptime’ and ‘guru support’. A2 Hosting page stacking times came in with an average which was the most noteworthy of each web have we have checked on. A2 takes after their string of amazing execution with friendly, helpful, US-based support. They’re accessible every minute of every day/365 through email, visit, telephone or ticket accommodation.It also provides HackScan, which is a tool to keep hackers out of your site; a free service including double web hosting firewall, infection filtering, brute force defense and 24/7 security monitoring.

   Their shared hosting plans begin at $3.92 every month. It consists 1 domain name, 5 sub-domains, 5 databases and 25 email accounts. A2 remains behind their promise, offering a total refund in the event that you dislike it for any reason (within 30 days).

   If speed and execution, collaborated with help and security, are the needs of your web hosting shopping, A2 Hosting ought to be the main contender.

2. InMotion

InMotion is the unmistakable champ, according to our examination among the various web hosting suppliers in India. Inmotion is one of the biggest free hosting organizations on the planet and is a major name in the realm of web hosting which has been around for quite a while. It has one of the fastest shared web hosting alongside the best VPS hosting out there.

It has US based information servers yet they offer choice administrations anyplace on the planet. Their client bolster comprises of Phone, Chat, email and ticket framework, each of them being similarly effective. The day by day reinforcement include offered by them is additionally extremely valuable since a large portion of the others do not have this one.

Their shared hosting plans start from $7.99 which is being offered at a discount of 56% for $3.49 per month (approx. Rs. 224) exclusively for hosting bharat users. You can benefit this offer by heading off to their website utilizing our link. They additionally offer free showcasing credits with every one of their packages. A 90 day money back guarantee is also there which is the most given by any company where other web hosts offer only 30 days.

With InMotion, you are paying for the nature of administration and support and it is an awesome choice for anybody that needs an extraordinary and reasonable web host.

Note: We (WebofTwo) have tried both the hosting. But I will prefer A2Hosting than the second one as it is faster and cheaper than InMotion Hosting. You can also host unlimited domain in A2Hosting as compared to limited in InMotion Hosting.

Domain Name and Hosting service can be bought from two different companies or same company. It’s totally up to you.

Note: Many hosting service providers generally provide domain name free with any hosting plan you buy. So it is better and convenient to go for those plans. You can save money by buying domain name separately. It’s also better to choose this plan because it becomes very easy to setup as you don’t need to change the settings.

But if you have purchased the domain name from one company and hosting service from some another company then you just have to do one thing. You have to log in to your domain registrar and modify the DNS. This DNS change just tells your domain registrar that the URL you are using is now being hosted by someone else.

These all things domain name registration and hosting seem very difficult. But it’s a piece of cake if you understand the concepts well.

These are the types of hosting services provided by any hosting service provider companies –

First I will explain you these services in a simple way since these terms are very confusing. Let’s consider a building having many flats. Shared web hosting can be explained as living as a paying guest in the same flat. Since it is shared by other people also so you can imagine resources like food electricity etc are shared by everyone. If one uses more resources then others will suffer.

Now VPS hosting can be compared to one flat in the building. You don’t have to suffer due to low resources or anything. You can change anything in the flat according to yourself i.e.  You can change the settings of server according to you.

Now consider the whole building, it is dedicated server. You don’t have to worry about any resource. Everything owned by that building is yours.

1. Shared Web Hosting

This type of web hosting is great for starting. As the name suggests you will host your website on the server which is shared by other websites also. The advantage of using this server is the shared cost. The cost of this hosting is very low as the cost is shared by everyone using that.

But since the same space is available for all the hosted websites, if any popular website is hosted there it may affect the performance of other websites and hence yours. But if your website is popular then you will get the advantage of using the hosting at a very low cost.

You can use shared hosting at the starting of your business when you are getting very low traffic and want to minimise your cost.

2. VPS Web Hosting

This is same as shared web hosting with fewer limitations than shared hosting.

It has only few websites hosted on a single server so obviously its speed is more than shared one.  The server is divided into several virtual servers. Each server acts as a different server. That is why it is called Virtual Private Server.

You can go for VPS web hosting when you have quality number of visitors and you can spends more bucks. So obviously you will need to opt this when you have growing business.

3. Dedicated Server

This type of server is totally in your control. You will not share anything with anyone. You will get the whole server. So you can imagine the speed of the server and the advantage you get.

“But with great power comes with great responsibility” so the security and maintenance of your server lies in your hand. You have to do everything by yourself. Hosting providers will not help you in anything. You have to pay to get help.

This type of server is generally opted when you have a large number of visitors.

4. Cloud Hosting

Cloud web hosting is a hosting which uses the resources of several clustered servers. Several servers are used to make a server for your website. This basically means your website will use the resources of several servers to accommodate the need of it. They are stable, fast and secure. More traffic will never slow down your website.

You will only pay for what you use in this type of hosting. If your website is getting a lot of traffic then this is the first step that you will do is to transfer it to a cloud hosting.

Set up your website by transferring your files

After getting a domain name and hosting, everything is just like what you do on your localhost. You just have to transfer all your files online and your website is live to visit. Hosting service providers generally provide Cpanel from where you can easily manage your files on the website.

Note: Go for hosting companies who provide Cpanel (Control Panel) to you to manage your files. It becomes easy and fast to access files through it.

I will soon write a detailed post about hosting guide.

So this is all about basic knowledge and requirement you should know before making your first website. So today I talked about what is the domain name and web hosting service. Now I hope words like domain name and hosting will not confuse you all.

If you have any query regarding these things or if you still didn’t understand anything, feel free to comment below or contact us at contact@www.weboftwo.com.

Always Happy to help you.

Hope your journey in starting your first website be fruitful for you. Do Subscribe our Newsletter here and keep yourself updated with Weboftwo for more such interesting and informative articles 🙂 .

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