Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Looking for Beginner Links

[MISS CHIEVOUS]

Guys, I'm so new to this it dawned on me I could quickly overwhelm the forum with questions that are almost laughably amateur. Googling something like this is easier said than done; so . . .

Do any of you know of a concise description of the A-Z PROCESS of getting your website hosted? Could you provide the link(s)?

I'm just trying to understand what officially designates a URL being "hosted." I have a placeholder on one of my domains with Yahoo for example.

I presume the site is being "hosted" right now with Yahoo, but I'm not really sure where it, um . . . "is" if you know what I mean. So when I start with paid (or free) hosting and "disconnect" with Yahoo, what physically is happening?

Let me try this another way:
What if I had paid hosting on a domain I've reserved for a healthy ten years. Early into hosting the site, a crisis happens and I have to suspend hosting the site for a year. What happens to my domain? Where "is it" since it no longer has a placeholder with Yahoo? It isn't in any danger is it? (I warned you I was a NÔÔB )

Really, I'm looking for a STEP 1, STEP 2, STEP 3, . . . STEP 19 etc. breakdown of how this works — something I can just study online. Mercifully short if possible? Any help would be appreciated.

MC

[ChristsLittleFlock]

It sounds like you already have a domain.

There is something called DNS (domain name service) associated with a domain. Basically they point to the place where your web site is hosted, so that when people go to your web site, their browser knows where to find it.

So first you need to sign up with some decent host (you probably want a paid host if you have anything that needs any reliability whatsoever).

After you do this, your host will give you their name server addresses, usually something like ns1.hostname.com and ns2.hostname.com.

You will login to the place wherever you have your domain registered, and go into the place where you can change your DNS. You enter in those addresses into the provided fields, and that's about it. You can then work on uploading your web site etc. www.yourwebsite.com will resolve to your host's server and subsequently your web site will show up.

If you don't have a host, well the domain doesn't really go anywhere. You probably have it "parked" right now, which just means it's showing a generic page displaying ads and such. Or you could very well have hosting with Yahoo; it's hard to say.

I hope this helps.

[PogiWeb]

Do any of you know of a concise description of the A-Z PROCESS of getting your website hosted? Could you provide the link(s)?

Their is many sites where you could get your website hosted on the internet.
You have my site... hhaha
hostgator.com
yahoo.com
rochen.com
and many more depending on what you need

I'm just trying to understand what officially designates a URL being "hosted." I have a placeholder on one of my domains with Yahoo for example.

I presume the site is being "hosted" right now with Yahoo, but I'm not really sure where it, um . . . "is" if you know what I mean. So when I start with paid (or free) hosting and "disconnect" with Yahoo, what physically is happening?

You are semi-correct... All websites on the internet can be hosted by anyone including yourself if you really wanted to do that. If you have a domain name such as (yourname.com) you can register it with any ICANN company (namecheap.com, godaddy.com, and etc).

Let me try this another way:
What if I had paid hosting on a domain I've reserved for a healthy ten years. Early into hosting the site, a crisis happens and I have to suspend hosting the site for a year. What happens to my domain? Where "is it" since it no longer has a placeholder with Yahoo? It isn't in any danger is it? (I warned you I was a NÔÔB )

You could purchase the two things separate from two different companies. I personally like to know I have control over my domain so I register at places such as namecheap.com or godaddy.com . I then would purchase hosting from another company and just pay as I go so you won't have to worry about any emergencies.

I hope this helps you out and welcome to WebHostingTalk.com even tho your at 22 post...

[uberjon]

if i understand what your asking. your asking about nameservers and DNS

il try my best!

1: buy domain with registar. (i like godaddy. some like namecheap/etc)
2: buy hosting from a great host. (what is great depends on how much space/bw/etc you need)
3: you login to your registar account. and "point" your "domain" to your "hosts nameservers" like. "ns1.yahoo.com" and "ns2.yahoo.com"
4:this takes time. your domain was non "existent" and "pointing to nowhere" until you bought it. you must wait a day or 2 usually for your domain to "propagate" the web
5: (internet service providers have to synchronize with the newer/updated DNS of the web.) "until then. the ISP cannot tell your pc/browser that google.com is using a server with the IP of 192.168.1.1"
6:without knowing the proper ip to connect link the domain to. the domain will either stay parked. or show an error.

once the DNS updates.

1: ISP tells modem to tell pc that google.com has a nameserver of ns1.yahoo.com and ns2.yahoo.com
2:pc now knows that when you type in google.com that the pc needs to look at ns1.yahoo.com and ns2.yahoo.com to find out where google.com is and how to connect to it.
3: pc can now connect properly to google.com and be looking at the right data from the right server.

best i can do! its 1:43 am

[Atarim]

Miss C, you're actually ahead of many new users. You found this forum, where you can ask questions. You can also search for questions you have to see if they've already been answered.

Find a host who is happy to work with newbies. Some don't have much patience for beginner's questions...but some do.

[MISS CHIEVOUS]

Wow, guys . . . this was so helpful!

I'm distilling this down to the critical issue that concerns me, and it is this — oh wait, let me share the domain with everyone:

http://pussnbooks.com

(this is going to be a phpBB forum for book lovers who also have kitties, but it will be their cats who write the book reviews.)

Now, as you can see this was a world-famous Yahoo 1.99/year domain purchase back in the good old days when you could get them to honor that rate for 5 years. A number of people have told me that they've had trouble getting (something, the Yahoo banner? can't remember) Yahoo branding off of their site when they've "transferred" the site to be hosted.

This is pointedly why I am trying to get my arms around the "where" of "where a domain physically is at any point in time . . . from its initial procurement, to its "parked" graphic, and finally to the host the domain owner finally chooses for the site to become LIVE on the internet.

This is the kind of breakdown I'm seeking to understand before I get started. I can't host until I know the consequences/repurcussions of "moving my domain" to a host . . . whatever that means.

By the way, what the hell does it mean? Is this no more than whatever DNS address I arbitrarily place in the Admin panel? Using my prior example of requiring the site to be not hosted anywhere for some period of time during an emergency, what exactly would the visitor see when they clicked PUSSNBOOKS.COM at a time when it was "nowhere" (not even somewhere with a parked graphic). It's left Yahoo; it's now no longer with a host; it's where?

Somewhat of an existential question, but then it was a toss up for me when I was at university whether to major in computer science . . . or philosophy lol.

And let's really get personal: Does the host ever have any way of entering my Administrator's panel and altering the properties of my domain registration? If all this amounts to is a string of numbers that (effectively) no one but myself can ever alter, then . . . I'll be in the bar lol.

Please discourse? You guys are the best; but then . . .



Signed,
MC, her three cats and 14,583 books lol

[David]

Good afternoon MC

I must admit, I love the domain! Great choice of a name.
As far as 'DNS' goes, DNS basically just controls 'where' your domain name points.

When you do finally get a hosting account your new provider will give you 'dns' servers, or 'domain name servers'. You then 'point' your domain at these DNS via the Yahoo control panel.

The 'DNS' then controls the pointing half of things. It's much easier than it sounds, think of DNS as a phonebook. In the 'phonebook' or directory you can find your address & phone number.

In the event that your DNS is pointed 'nowhere' or at 'Yahoo', they'll probably see a 'parking page' created by Yahoo to generate more signups or the site will literally go nowhere.

As far as your host having control over the DNS, unlikely as you still have the domain at yahoo. Could they alter them? Not without your explicit permission.

I know, I know. It all sounds far, far confusing.
I'll try to simplify it below.

Here's what you need to get a website:
1. A domain - you've got that.
2. A hosting account with a provider. You don't have that yet

Once you purchase a hosting account your new host will provide you with 'DNS' servers to point your domain at. Once it's pointed to those DNS you can just upload information to your new hosting account & it'll show on your domain name.

It's that easy... well, for us PhDs

p.s. The DNS servers are normally not a string of numbers but rather 'easy to use', e.g. dns1.yourhost.com & dns2.yourhost.com -- the host controls the rest on your behalf to make it nice and easy.

[Atarim]

To try to distill all this a bit more, you could theoretically buy hosting at 1000 different hosts, and then put your site contents on each of those hosts' servers. But the one that will get seen when people type in your site name in their browsers is the one that you tell your domain registrar is the live one.

This is what DNS does. It tells the rest of the Internet what your site address is, so when they type it in, a quick lookup behind the scenes will take them to your live site.

You can change hosts easily. Just buy hosting from your new host, go back to your domain control panel and enter the new address (called a nameserver) that your host gives you, and within a day or two, the world will now be taken to your new site instead of the old one.

As long as you buy your hosting from someone other than your domain registrar, your host can't update your domain info. Only you can.

[MISS CHIEVOUS]

Originally Posted by David

I must admit, I love the domain! Great choice of a name.

Oh thank you! It will be a challenge customizing the SQL for my purposes, but I've done so much database work over the years I'm not intimidated by it. No it's just the concept of dependency upon 3rd parties (the Host) that creeps me, but so long as she can't be altered without my permission I'll get over it. She's my love letter to everyone who reads (and also happens to have kitties) and this year she will at last have the life of her own that I want to give her.

MC

[MISS CHIEVOUS]

Originally Posted by The Hosting Team

To try to distill all this a bit more, you could theoretically buy hosting at 1000 different hosts, and then put your site contents on each of those hosts' servers. But the one that will get seen when people type in your site name in their browsers is the one that you tell your domain registrar is the live one.

Very precise THT. Bless you!

So what do you think viz the Yahoo branding issue — are these comments just the result of folks who don't really know their HTML? Some of these experiences have gotten quite nasty. I don't mind being tethered to 'hoo for access to my Admin panel, but make no mistake about it I will not have their branding on my pages.

Comments from other 'hoo domain holders/customers would be much appreciated. I've always presumed that these logos could be edited out by anyone with a wit's worth of HTML experience, but I'd better know now. Advise?

MC

[David]

MC,

You will not have any issue with the Yahoo branding issue. Once the nameservers are changed nothing regarding Yahoo will show up. The only reason they do now is it's "parked" at Yahoo's page.

[DDT]

All you need is a host.
A host is where your site will "live" or reside.

You may not understand all this about DNS but it's really simple. You may already know that computers understand nothing but numbers.
However typing & remembering a long string of numbers would be way to tedious so they invented the domain name system (DNS) which translates your http://pussnbooks.com into numbers computers can understand.

Right now your domain only goes to a "holding" page at yahoo where you registered it. You will find a host then you will change the current name servers (which send http://pussnbooks.com to yahoo's page now) to "name servers" that will send requests for http://pussnbooks.com to the appropriate "number" for the server at your new host where the web site is located.

Now really it will be whatever your web host's IP numbers are for your name as far as computers are concerned (like 123.45.67.89.1) but to people it will just be http://pussnbooks.com

A host provides you with the disk space on a server designed to deliver your content to the web with programs like Apache and MySQL so your phpBB will work properly and people everywhere can access it.
Hosting also comes with e-mails like yourname@pussnbooks.com or whatever and features like statistic reporting so you know who has been to your site and when.

All you need to do is find a good, reputable web host that provides the level of services you need with quality (not a kid on summer vacation with a reseller account) Most all (like us) have phpBB and SMF included these days (personally I recommend SMF of phpBB for free software but that's the customer's choice)

So you have plenty of good hosts to choose from, just check here and on the web in general for bad reviews before you decide, look for one that has no contracts and only charges by the month so if you don't like them you can leave easily, a 30 day money back or 30 days free offer is good for trying out a host.

And most hosts will walk you through getting everything set up. I can't count the support calls we have had that were as simple as "now how to I put this name server you sent me in at GoDaddy or yahoo or wherever?...This little box says..."

So for most of us helping you will be nothing they haven't done a ton of times before.


1 note with Yahoo since you had the low price plan. They did do some low-price promotions where you got the name cheap but had to host with them or pay for some other service for "X" months or else you can't move the domain. We have run into that 2 or 3 times where the customer could not move to us without paying some unreal fee to Yahoo or just go ahead and get the hosting for a year or whatever that had agree to from them. I recall seeing one support e-mail where the lady told us Yahoo wanted over $300 for the name if she didn't host with them for a year so she put up a little site with them for a year until she could move because she had a great name too and didn't want to lose it. Just beware, those cheap offers from yahoo come with a lot of "fine print".

[MISS CHIEVOUS]

Originally Posted by David

You will not have any issue with the Yahoo branding issue. Once the nameservers are changed nothing regarding Yahoo will show up. The only reason they do now is it's "parked" at Yahoo's page.

Okay and, forgive my continuing density about this — the nameservers is something I change in my Admin panel . . . or the host changes in their (whatever it's called lol)?

Oh yes and — once a domain is approaching its expiration date and I need to renew it, will I always be returning to Yahoo to do this . . . or is this just automatically done through the renewal process with the new (Registrar? please correct terminology) that I choose, so that something like the following takes place:

___1) I purchased the domain through Yahoo
______2) I hosted the domain with XYZ Host
Choose the right ones:
_________3a) Yahoo offers to renew the name for me when the time comes . . .
_________3b) XYZ Host offers to renew the name for me when the time comes . . .
but I prefer the name to be renewed with Godaddy, so
____________4a) Godaddy pulls (transfers) the name from Yahoo
____________4b) Godaddy pulls (transfers) the name from XYZ Host

God I'm exhausted just reading my own reply lol.

MC

[David]

MC,

The nameservers would be something you modify through your registrar's panel. As far as domain renewal goes, you can continue to renew it through yahoo or you can "transfer" it to another registrar.

1) 4a.
I like multiple choice!

[MISS CHIEVOUS]

Originally Posted by David

1) 4a.
I like multiple choice!

So Registrar and Host can be two separate companies at any time, if you wish?

MC