Website Hosting Introduction

How does the internet work? How do you create your own website?

What is web hosting? What is an Internet Service Provider (ISP)? What is DNS?

What is the World Wide Web (WWW)?

• The Web is a network of computers around the globe.
• All computers within the network can communicate with each other.
• All computers use a communication standard called HTTP.

How does the WWW work?

• Web information is stored in documents called web pages.
• Web pages are files stored in computers known as web servers.
• Computers that read web pages are called web clients.
• Web clients view pages through a program called a web browser.
• Popular browsers include Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox.

How do browsers read web pages?

• Browsers can read pages from a web server through a request.
• The request is a standard HTTP request that includes the page address.
• Example of a web address: https://www.tutorialpro.org/

How do browsers display web pages?

• All web pages contain instructions for display.
• Browsers read these instructions to display the page.
• The most common display instructions are HTML tags.
• Example of an HTML tag: <p>This is a paragraph.</p>

To learn more about HTML, visit our HTML tutorial.

What is a Web Server?

• A collection of all your web pages is called a website.
• To make your pages visible to others, you must publish your website.
• You must copy your website to a web server to publish it.
• If your PC is connected to the network, you can also use it as a web server.
• Most often, web hosting is provided by an ISP.

What is an ISP (Internet Service Provider)?

• An ISP refers to an Internet Service Provider.
• ISPs provide Internet services.
• The most common Internet service is web hosting.
• Web hosting services store your website on a public server.
• Web hosting services often include domain name registration.

DNS

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a service on the internet. It acts as a distributed database that maps domain names to IP addresses, making it easier for people to access the internet.

Summary

If you want others to see your website, you must copy it to a public server. Even though you can use your own PC as a web server, the most common practice is to store your website with an ISP.

Included in web hosting solutions are domain name registration and standard email services.

You can read more about domain name registration, email, and other services in the following sections.