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| What is a domain name, and why do I need one? |
| What is web hosting? |
| What is a domain (DNS) hosting, and why do I need it? |
| You charge for your hosting: why shouldn't we use a free hosting company? |
| How is a web developer different from a web designer? |
| What should I consider when purchasing web hosting services? |
| What are some other factors affecting website performance / reliability? |
| What is a domain name, and why do I need one? |
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| Registering a domain name is like putting your name in the phone book. If someone wants to find you on the Internet, he will type in your name, and the domain name service in his computer will look up the exact address of where your company is located on the Internet. To get that exact address, his computer will look at the "DNS" hosts that his service provider either gave him directly, or through a behind-the-scene service. |
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| What is web hosting? |
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| Web hosting is the service of storing, and rendering web pages for viewing by a computer that is connected to the Internet. |
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| What is a domain (DNS) hosting, and why do I need it? |
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| Domain hosting is generally set up when you register a domain name. Registering a domain name simply reserves your name so that others can see that you have declared it yours. Hosting the domain name associates your name with two or more computers so that they can brodcast the details of where your different services (eg. email and web servers) are located on the Internet. Nobody can get to your website, or send you any email associated with your domain name without domain hosting. |
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| How is a web developer different from a web designer? |
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| A web designer is someone with graphic design skills who can lay out a website so that a web developer can create the code to present the website. Some designers have some html skills, but few have the ability to create "server-based" programs, and/or web based form programs. Computer Engineering Inc. has both web designers and web developers available to design and create great looking web sites. With these rich resources we can model your business processes with our Systems Analyst Services, and then offer a rich graphics and database interface for internal business functions, or to dazzle your clients with a website on the Internet. |
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| What should I consider when purchasing web hosting services? |
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RELIABILITY
A couple of years ago, a common bandwidth for Internet hosts was T1 (1.5 Megabits/second). As the Internet's popularity grows, the once standard T1 has become the "snail" in terms of hosting connections. More and more providers have one or more T3 connections (45 Megabits/second), which provides a "pipe" 27 times faster than a T1. You will find many, many hosting services which offer this speed at prices that rival T1 connections. While all of this speed is nice, a company with 10 000 customers that has a 10 T3 lines will offer slower internet access than a company with 20 clients, and a T1 line. Usually it is difficult to determine how many clients are connected to a web hosting service, so it is a better idea to go with a hosting company that is reliable: this includes periodic backups, and some indication of the uptime that you can expect. If speed is slow (also very difficult to determine who is at fault), then simply suggest to the hosting company that your site is slower than normal, and what is the reason. Sometimes this is due to network congestion somewhere between you and the hosting company.
FEATURES
Not all web hosting services provide the same features. Computer Engineering Inc. does not, for example, provide Front Page extensions since they are a security risk. Computer Engineering Inc., however, does provide a complete php and postgreSQL toolset with a modern and upgrading apache web server. These tools allow the developer to create extremely supplicated web pages that can be ported to another hosting site: php used by more than a million websites worldwide. |
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| What are some other factors affecting website performance / reliability? |
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| Operating System software, processor speed, server memory, and the number of sites placed on each server are all important factors. At Computer Engineering Inc., we use extremely reliable Unix Servers and are constantly planning upgrades, and upgrading our servers. To increase optimal performance, we limit the number of web sites on each box. One final note about performance. Each hosting provider has an internal network, which your website is connected to. Your pages must make a trip through that internal network before they are sent out to the Internet and ultimately to your customers. At Computer Engineering Inc., we are also continually planning upgrades, and upgrading our internal and gateway network and network access speed to suit our clients' needs. |
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