I need to know what you guys tell people when they ask what webhosting is. I mean what is the best way to explain web hosting to a person that does not know what it is. When I went to a family reunion everyone asked me what do you do with that web hosting business that you started. This is the way I try to explain.

I own four apartment complexes (servers) online that have 500 apartments within them. There are different size apartments just like there are different size of plans. A 1 bedroom equals 100MBs of disk space and a 3 bedroom equals 300Mbs of disk space. Some apartments come furnished and some don't. Some of my plans you get all the features and some you don't. Some apartments are pet friendly and some of my plans allow adult content. Some have gated entrances and my plans have SSL.

So do you think that comparing web hosting to apartment complexes is alright?

When I used to teach computers to beginners, I compared the internet to our world. I compared websites to stores and homes and I compared web spaces to the piece of land you buy in order to build you own. Different domiciles need different size of land and they cost differently.

Hmm.. I try it like this:

"When someone wants to put a Web site on the Internet, it must be stored a computer that is connected to the Internet. A Web host is a computer just like that."

Sometimes it works.. ;)

And every once in a while someone gives me a look of disgust and says, "yeah, I know what a Web host is, buddy. What do you think I am, stupid?"

And then I feel very embarassed.

Adam

http://www.thewhir.com

It is surprising (well, maybe not!) how many people don't have a clue what web hosting is!

I think your analogy using the apartment complex is an interesting perspective. How about this simple explanation:

When a business wants to put a website on the internet for everyone to see, the easiest way is to "rent space" on the internet, and load their website into that space. The alternative is to "own" their own space, but that could get expensive.

I agree with you... it can be difficult explaining the idea to some people.

Rob.

Think that's hard ?? .. I used to teach MS-DOS .. try to explain that to people :(

I, too, have used the apartment complex example in the past. But recently I started comparing web hosting to a library:

Anyone who writes a web page (book) needs a place to store it (bookshelf). There are lots of places with bookshelves - your house probably has one. But you don't want to put your book on your bookshelf at home (aka your home computer), because then no one would see it. You want your book (your web site) somewhere where *everyone* can access it. And that's at the library (web hosting company).

People seem to "get" that description, especially if you go into even more detail than I've done here (since, hopefully, everyone reading this description already knows what web hosting is).

Jason

Web hosting is tough to explain to some people, but I primarily work in Layer 4-7 network engineering (Load Balancing, Server-Side Caching, SSL Acceleration, etc).

I gave up trying to explain what I do, and just tell people I'm an engineer...let 'em think I go to work at the train station every day :).

Although it is fun to be a technology snob...I just updated my resume recently and divided up my skill sets by layer.

allan