FAQ on Web Hosting

What is web hosting ?

Web Hosting means finding a home for your Web site on Web servers, which are stored in a secure, climate controlled environment and are connected to the Internet so that other people on the Internet can view your web site.

Uptime is the percentage of time that a web site is up and running (accessible to people on internet). For example, if some host has an uptime average of 99.0%, this means that your site will be down for a total about 1 hour each 100 hours. Most of the hosting companies tell you beforehand about their average uptime guarantee.

How do I know how much bandwidth I need ?

You can figure out how much data transfer you will require by estimating following for your site

• Number of visitor per month
• Average Number of pages viewed by per visitor
• Average pager size - Including text and graphic images

For example suppose you are expecting 100,000 visitors per month and average page size of each page on your site is 10K and you are expecting each visitor to visit 5 pages of your site then you will be transferring an average of 5 GB (100,000 X 10K X 5) per month. In this case you should plan for about 6 GB per month.

If you are expecting visitors to download software/songs/images ect. from you site then you need to do the same calculation for download data and add that to total data transfer require.

1,024 bytes are equal to 1 kilobyte (KB)
1,024 kilobytes (KB) are equal to 1 megabyte (MB or Meg)
1,024 megabytes are equal to 1 gigabyte (GB or Gig)

How do I pay for web hosting ?

Most common method of paying for web hosting is through credit card. Most web host allow you to pay for the year of service in advance through major credit card. Some web host also have option of paypal, money order or personal check or direct debt from your checking bank account. Check your hosting provider for all available options.

How do I upload my site ?

Most common method of uploading or download a site is by File Transfer Protocol (or FTP). Almost all web-hosting companies support FTP. If you are using windows machine then you can use WS_FTP or CuteFTP. There are lots of FTP clients available for Macintosh, Unix and other OS.

Once you installed FTP client you needs to point it to you host server to upload pages. You'll need to enter the 'hostname' of your site (also known as domain name or server name), username and password (normally given to you when you first signed up with your web hosting company). Once you enter above information you are ready to upload. You may change your host directory using FTP client, default host directory is always root.

My site is ready. How do I get traffic ?

Once your site is ready for visitors you can get traffic through any of following method.
1. Submitting to Search engine and web directories.
2. Pay per click or pay per visitor campaign
3. E-Mail Marketing
4. Link Exchange or reciprocal link 5. Banner exchange

What is disk space or web space ?

Disk Space or Web Space is the amount of data (in forms of file and document) you can store on a web server. Disk Space is measured in multiple of bits. People usually discuss Disk Space in terms of kilobits (KB), which is 1024 bits or megabits (MB) that is 1,073,741,824 bits.

What is CGI-BIN ?

The Common Gateway Interface (or CGI), is a standard for external gateway programs to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers. A plain HTML document that the Web daemon retrieves is static, which means it exists in a constant state: a text file that doesn't change. A CGI program, on the other hand, is executed in real-time, so that it can output dynamic information.

What is full-service web hosting ?

Normally Full-service web hosting means package of all service, which are needed to host and maintain a web site. These hosting companies normally provide web hosting, web design, email service and search engine submission. These companies also provide you SSL and E-commerce help and 24/7 phone or email support.

What is an Internet Service Provider ?

Network access point (or NAP ) is responsible for connecting all the computers on the Internet but they do not offer direct connection to small business and individuals. They offer connection to large organization and business that in turn, provide Internet access to other business and individuals. These companies are called Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or Internet Access Providers (IAPs).

Where the .htaaccess file is saved ?

It is saved in your main site directory and/or in any subdir.

What is PPD ?

Password Protected Directory (PPD) is a directory on your web server that allows predefined user to access the directory. Whenever a visitor tries to access the directory he or she will be prompted with a login popup. Visitor needs to enter correct username and pass code to access the directory.

All PPD contain a file knows as .htaccess which contains password information . The .htaccess file must reside in the PPD directory in order to control access to the directory.

What is shared (virtual) web hosting ?

Shared Hosting environment put multiple web sites on same web server. All of the web sites on the shared web server use the same hardware resources, the same network connection, and the same software.

What is telnet ?

Telnet is a text-only protocol that connecting to a remote computer over the Internet that let you use programs and data just as if you were using the computer locally. Couple of year�s back this was one of the most common ways to connect to other sites. Now with the growth of the web, it is rarely used.

What is FTP ?

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) allows a person to transfer files between two computers, generally connected via the Internet. If your system has FTP and is connected to the Internet, you can access very large amounts of files available on a great number of computer systems. If you are on Bitnet or a UUCP host, you should look for servers that work through electronic mail (e-mail). A good source of information on archives in general, is the Usenet newsgroup comp.archives. When using FTP, you use a program, called a 'client' to connect to a machine that holds the files, a 'server'.