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  1. #1

    How do you explain what hosting is?

    How do you explain what hosting is to someone who is not into technology or the internet. Some of my computer illiterate friends and family ask from time to time what hosting is, how does it all work etc. and I can never explain it right to there understanding. How do you explain what your web hosting company does/is to friends and family?

  2. #2
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    Webhosting = The business of making websites available on the Internet for a fee.

    How does it work = A computer on the Internet running special software that returns pages when you type in a URL. Obviously, it helps if they understand what a URL is and how browsers work.

  3. #3
    Web Hosting = Virtual Landlord.
    SuperWebHost.com, a Digitally Justified Company
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  4. #4
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    "The business provides space on servers for people to use for their websites" - mostly people won't care about anything beyond that.

    If they want to know about shared hosting, explain it to them like the PO Box system or even an apartment building. In both cases, a building is owned by someone and then resold in smaller portions. Not everyone has enough mail to need their own post office and not everyone needs a whole apartment building.

    Dedicated - The people that do require that much can purchase it themselves from you.

    Reseller - Someone has an account with you for an amount that lets them sell it out in small pieces. This would be like someone buying one floor out of a 5 or 6 floor building and selling each apartment within it seperately. They're not maintaining the building or even making sure that all the utilities are working because the company who owns it all is doing that for them (server management)

    Try and find good analogies, that's usually the best way. Do keep in mind that some people will always be impressed and wow'ed at anything relating to computers and so there's no reason to go beyond the first line I gave. If they ask how it works, then just give them an example of google and tell them that when you type in google.com, it goes to a server. Servers like that are what you run.

    Just keep it short and sweet giving more information if they [b]1)[/b[] want it and 2) understand what you're saying.
    Ankit Gupta - Cernax Hosting
    "We're always second in the industry, the customer comes first."

  5. #5
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    Whenever someone asks me what I do I tell them something along the lines of this:

    "I do web hosting. I basically provide the service that allows websites to be viewed by end users like yourself from anywhere on the planet. With that also comes other features and sub-services such as e-mail."

    Usually they get the idea after that
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  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by VanHost
    Web Hosting = Virtual Landlord.
    I usually do the virtual landlord thingie.

    Although if I'm cheeky I tell them I retired at 35 and don't do anything but hang out on the internet doin' stuff.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  7. #7
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    My father always asks me this question, and here's how I explain to him.

    "Giving space to customers who want to put their web sites online".

    This is the simplest explanation I can think of but obviously he still doesn't understand so he just keep asking....

  8. #8
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    I always get that question. Here's what I always tell them:

    "Web hosting is a service that allows you to upload and store a site’s HTML documents and related files on a web server. This makes the files available on the World Wide Web for viewing by the public. It is also called site hosting."
    Affordable & Reliable Web Hosting Solutions
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  9. #9
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    I just say "electronic data storage"...that seems to be both impressive and simple enough for anyone to understand. If they ask for details, then I expand.

    --Tina
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    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  10. #10
    Wow, thanks everyone. There are some great explanations there I never would have thought of. I love the "Virtual Landlord" one.

  11. #11
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    If your website was a car, we're like the garage where you park your car.
    Sarcasm, the 6th Ponyman of the Apocalypse.
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  12. #12
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    Or a parking deck ... unless of course you were referring to a VPS server, which... haha, I'm thinking into this analogy thing too much.
    Othio Hosting - Private-Label cPanel Reseller Hosting
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  13. #13
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    I really like the PO Box analogy, it makes sense to me.

    I've always left it at "geek stuff." I don't think I've ever known someone who knew what I was talking about.

  14. #14
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    I dont explain hosting, if people dont know what it is, in this particular case, they dont need it, and thus I have no interest in selling people something they dont need.
    Myles Loosley-Millman - admin@prioritycolo.com
    Priority Colo Inc. - Affordable Colocation & Dedicated Servers.
    Two Canadian facilities serving Toronto & Markham, Ontario
    http://www.prioritycolo.com

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by porcupine
    I dont explain hosting
    You must be a tough egg to crack on a first date

    What do you do? I don't really feel like explaining it to someone that isn't a potential customer.


    On a side note, just because someone doesn't know what web hosting is by name doesn't mean that they don't need it/couldn't use it. I'd be willing to bet that at least 25% of the CEO's on the Fortune 500 list don't know what it is - and yet they all have websites on the Internet.

    Alright, maybe that's an exaggeration, but you get my point.
    SuperWebHost.com, a Digitally Justified Company
    Celebrating our 9th year in Business

    Proudly Hosting with CANADIAN bandwidth
    Managed Hosting, Multi-Domain Hosting, Colocation, Merchant Accounts

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by VanHost
    You must be a tough egg to crack on a first date

    What do you do? I don't really feel like explaining it to someone that isn't a potential customer.
    Fortunately we primarily deal with colocation (as the name implies). If you dont know what Colocation is, you dont need it (perhaps your company does, but thats why most companies have their IT departments source quotes, and make purchasing decisions, and any IT department that doesen't have a clue what colo is, isn't one I'd want to work with).

    Personally, I just never lead a conversation that way if it seems like a lost cause, and often just say "its complicated" (that line works great).
    Myles Loosley-Millman - admin@prioritycolo.com
    Priority Colo Inc. - Affordable Colocation & Dedicated Servers.
    Two Canadian facilities serving Toronto & Markham, Ontario
    http://www.prioritycolo.com

  17. #17
    a website is a file, and it has to be stored somewhere. A web host provides storage for all of the website's files on a remote hard drive.


  18. #18
    um, yes, here it's very easy to explain, but in the real world :

    someone: what about your job?
    me: um, well, I do web hosting? do you know what it's? I have servers were people host their websites, and sell domain names, do you understand?
    someone: what? servers? domains?
    me: yes, It's like I have a big building and rent the space for people who want to have their website online 24h/day.
    someone: ah! internet! do you design websites?
    me: (fustrated) yes, websites ...

    P.D. I don't do websites, only hosting, but that it's a normal conversation including me and someone more, for example, yesterday I had this conversation with a guy I meet on a bar. My friends and family looks like understand a little more, but it's only a "looks like" thing

    Then, the conversation always comes to (I don't know why!!!?!??!!) : emule, campus parties, the window crash he/she had the last week, porn sites, and perhaps something very rare he/she think it's called linwux or similar )
    Honesting.es honest european provider.

  19. #19
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    Hosting is the business in which you provide people who otherwise would not be able to establish a web site and broadcast their opinions, business, stuff, with the means to do so, in a low, acceptable rate for 'the people'.

  20. #20
    Hello,

    Hosting a website means making a site globally accessable.

    The pages that you see in a site is physically present in one computer and you are accessing that page from that computer. So a site to come up globally, the PC or the computer where the files are stored, that space on the PC should be accessable globally and to you so that you can upload, delete or even edit the files.

    For that you should have a site name which should be registered by an ICANN registrar. Then you should activate that site on a server (PC). The activation process starts with the purchasing of name servers. YOu should have name servers for your domain. For that you need to activate the name servers first for your domain.

    Nameserver are actually a bridge that connects your site name to the server (PC) where your files are physically located.

    Thank you.

    Regards,

  21. #21
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    This post is way old... =|

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    Hello,
    Hosting a website means making a site globally accessable.
    What's a "site"?

    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    The pages that you see in a site is physically present in one computer and you are accessing that page from that computer.
    What pages? Do you mean you write books? Books have pages.

    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    So a site to come up globally, the PC or the computer where the files are stored, that space on the PC should be accessable globally and to you so that you can upload, delete or even edit the files.
    What??

    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    For that you should have a site name which should be registered by an ICANN registrar.
    Icann or "you can"? Who are icann? What do they mean? Are they the owners of the Internet? What do they have to do with your job?

    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    Then you should activate that site on a server (PC).
    So anyone can do your job easily enough? I have a PC, does that mean I can do it myself?

    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    The activation process starts with the purchasing of name servers.
    So you have to buy nameservers?

    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    YOu should have name servers for your domain.
    And what is a domain again?

    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    For that you need to activate the name servers first for your domain.
    Did you not just say that? Again, what are nameservers?

    Quote Originally Posted by hostechsupport
    Nameserver are actually a bridge that connects your site name to the server (PC) where your files are physically located.
    What files?


    From someone with an outsourcing company advertised in their signature, you sure don't seem to know how to explain things without technical phrases. Personally for me, your post alone is enough to make me have questions and I work in the industry you are trying to describe, I can only imagine what someone with no knowledge of the industry would think.

  23. #23
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    Greenville SC
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    What a showroom is for cars..........this explained to my 60 some yr old father who is worse than AOL comp type person..... "We have storage for websites, you know what a website is correct"..............then I avoid the rest of the conversation dealing with anything for computers b/c he still lives in the light that we dont need them :X

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