Website and Domain Names
Author: JasonKlein-NPSIS.com Total views: 22 Word Count: 656
Your website communicates with other computers and the internet by using its network adapter or NIC (Network Interface Card) that is within the server. This card and thereby the server uses a unique address known as an IP address. An IPv4 ip address is a address annotated as four numbers segmented by dots. Each segment or octet can have a value between zero and 255, so your dedicated server or business computer address format would look similar to this: 172.16.65.17 On a Windows Server you can determine what the server ip address is by selecting the start button then selecting run. Type in ipconfig and click "OK", a black command prompt should appear in which you can type ipconfig. On a Linux Server you can open a terminal window and type ifconfig. You can use the same command on your home Windows or Linux system to determine your static dedicated ip address.
When you browse for websites on the internet your browser communicates with web servers via their IP address. Methods have been devised to assign human readable names or hostnames to ip addresses. On a local windows or linux computer this translation can be accommodated in what's called a host file. On most windows systems the hosts file is located in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ directory; on Linux or Unix servers the hosts file is commonly stored in the /etc directory.
Have you ever been to 3111 World Dr. in Orlando Florida? Do you know where that is? You may be able to figure out what location I am talking about but wouldn't it be easier if I said have you ever been to Disney Magic Kingdom? That is essentially name resolution 3111 World Dr. Orlando, Florida 32830 is equivalent to the IP address and Disney Magic Kingdom is equivalent to a hostname. The server space or website hosting is equivalent to the land that the theme park sits on. So when you register for a domain name you get the name but you also must rent or purchase some "land" or server space for your website to reside. Likewise if you rent or buy the server space but do not register a domain name or an address, no one will know how to get to your website.
Hostfiles are typically used to translate names for a small number of computers. A hostfile contains lines that look like this: 192.168.20.34 www.npsis.com . This tells your computer to look for www.npsis.com using the address 192.168.20.34 whenever you try to access http://www.npsis.com using your web browser.
DNS (Domain Name System) is commonly used by Internet Service Providers to translate hostnames to IP addresses. When you type www.npsis.com or any other web address URL, your computer contacts a DNS server to find out what IP address is assigned to that domain name. All websites and servers have domain names if they are accessed over the internet.
Be sure to choose a domain name or website address for your business that is easy to remember and if possible choose a name that relates to your business or service (i.e. tomsgarage.com). You can use this to your by registering multiple website addresses and having their website design optimize the web pages for all those key words. You can then point multiple website addresses at your website (i.e. sarahs-hair-studio.com, bestlocalhairstyles.com and quickperms.com).
If you plan on having a web presence at some point, be sure to go ahead and register your website address now. There are many people and businesses that reserve the most desirable website addresses and resell them at costs much higher than the original reservation price.
Have you hired a web design store or individual web design consultant? Make absolutely sure that you own your website address and not them. By purchasing your domain name yourself, you protect yourself from negligent people and predators looking to take advantage of the fact that you might not know better.
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