Don't Know Where to Start? We Can Help!
Overwhelmed? Confused? Not sure where to start? We understand!
Getting started with a web hosting project can be a daunting and often overwhelming task. We'll help you get started by walking you through the mess so you can get going quickly and with a minimum of confusion.
Choose from one of the following areas for more information on getting started.
- I need a web site but I have no idea where to begin. Can you explain all this hosting stuff to me?
- I want to register a domain name. What do I need to know?
- I have customers I need to sell hosting to. Please explain how reselling works and how it will meet my needs.
- I've outgrown my shared or reseller hosting and now I'm considering my own server. Should choose VPS or Dedicated Server?
- I have another question not listed here. How do I contact you?
I need a web site but I have no idea where to begin. Can you explain all this hosting stuff to me?
Getting started with a web site can be a little overwhelming. But once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad.
Having a web site presence is critical to today's businesses. Chances are your competition has a web site, so if you don't, that's one customer who may be getting information about your competition that they aren't getting about you. A web site is available 24x7, so even when you're closed your potential and existing customers can get information and help about your company from your web site. This leads to greater customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
When setting up a web site, there are a few major components you need to worry about to get it running: 1) A Domain Name 2) Web Hosting 3) Web Site Design. We'll explain these below:
- A Domain Name.
Domain Names are how people find you on the Internet. A domain name is what you type into a web browser to locate a web site. For example, www.yahoo.com is a well-known domain name. If you want customers to find you, you need to come up with a domain name. When you pick one, make sure you keep it fairly short and as descriptive of your company as possible (i.e. company name or product). When you have complicated domain names, it makes it difficult for people to spell them correctly, much less remember them.
You purchase a domain name through a "Registrar." There are many, many registrars and registering your domain name at one is no different than registering at another. It usually comes down to price and personal preference. Some web designers prefer to use Registrars they are comfortable with. Many web hosts (like Infuseweb) also provide excellent domain registration services so you can buy your web hosting and domain name from one place to keep things simple.
To buy a domain name, visit the registrar and follow their instructions. At Infuseweb, you can easily register a domain name by clicking here. Domain names can only be bought in increments of 1 year. You can transfer between Registrars but you do not get credit for any money paid at the old Registrar if you transfer in the middle of your registration term.
Anyone can buy a domain name. You don't even have to have a web site. Some people buy domain names because they think they'll be valuable at a future point in time, or to reserve it for when they are ready. Domain names go quickly so it's best to buy your domain name as soon as possible if it's available before it gets bought up.
Once you purchase a domain name, you'll need to "point" it to some place where your web files reside. This is why you need a web host.
- Web Hosting.
Once you have a domain name, you need a place to put your web site files so they are available 24x7 on the Internet. This is what a web host does for you. They provide you space on the Internet to "serve" your web pages to the general public. You can sign up with any web host regardless of where you purchased your domain name. And you can change web hosts at any time without changing Registrars and just "point" your domain name to the new web host.
You will often see either Linux or Windows web hosting plans. Which one you choose depends on your needs. For just basic hosting, a Linux hosting plan will do fine. However, you require Windows hosting when you need such features as Microsoft Access or SQL Server databases, and ASP.NET scripting. Your web developer or the software vendor can tell you which software you will need which will help you determine which path to choose. We'll also be happy to help you if you have questions.
A web host usually provides much more than web hosting. They provide you with e-mail services so that you can send and receive e-mail. They may also provide webmail services so you can check your e-mail from the Internet 24x7 or when you're on the road. They provide the disk space to put your web files, database services if you need them, scripting languages so you can develop dynamic and complex web applications, statistics to track your web traffic, and much, much more.
Infuseweb provides excellent web hosting (and domain name registration) services. We'll be glad to help you get going if you're ready to start hosting your web site with someone.
- A Web Site.
The last major component you need is obviously your web pages themselves. You can choose to design your web pages yourself using a program like Adobe Dreamweaver, or you can hire someone to build your web pages for you. There are many different web design programs to help you design your web site, and also many design companies that can do it for you. Keep in mind if you are going to hire someone to do your web site design for you, you can expect to spend a minimum of $500 USD and up. Once you have designed your web pages, you'll need to copy them to your web host.
To copy your web page files to your web host, you'll need an FTP program (short for File Transfer Protocol). There are a number of free and paid FTP programs out there, one of our favorite free ones being FileZilla. Your web host will provide you with the FTP connection information once you have set up your web hosting account that you will use to copy files from your computer to the "server" (the computer that will "serve" your pages to the public).
If you need someone to design your web site, we will be happy to discuss your design needs with you. Infuseweb can provide complete customized web site design solutions to help get your site up and running. For more information, please feel free to contact us.
For more questions and answers about Infuseweb hosting, please visit our Web Hosting FAQ.
I want to register a domain name. What do I need to know?
Domain Names are how people find you on the Internet. A domain name is what you type into a web browser to locate a web site. For example, www.yahoo.com is a well-known domain name. If you want customers to find you, you need to come up with a domain name. When you pick one, make sure you keep it fairly short and as descriptive of your company as possible (i.e. company name or product). When you have complicated domain names, it makes it difficult for people to spell them correctly, much less remember them.
You purchase a domain name through a "Registrar." There are many, many registrars and registering your domain name at one is no different than registering at another. It usually comes down to price and personal preference. Some web designers prefer to use Registrars they are comfortable with. Many web hosts (like Infuseweb) also provide excellent domain registration services so you can buy your web hosting and domain name from one place to keep things simple.
To buy a domain name, visit the registrar and follow their instructions. Domain names can only be bought in increments of 1 year. You can transfer between Registrars but you do not get credit for any money paid at the old Registrar if you transfer in the middle of your registration term.
Anyone can buy a domain name. You don't even have to have a web site. Some people buy domain names because they think they'll be valuable at a future point in time, or to reserve it for when they are ready. Domain names go quickly so it's best to buy your domain name as soon as possible if it's available before it gets bought up.
For frequently asked questions about the Domain Registration Process, please visit our Domain Registration FAQ.
To buy a domain name now, please click here.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.
I have customers I need to sell hosting to. Please explain how reselling works and how it will meet my needs.
Reselling web hosting is a way you can offer web hosting services to your customers without having to deal with the frustration of maintaining a hosting infrastructure and constantly changing technology yourself.
Essentially, a web host provides you with a Control Panel to manage your own customers. The Reseller (you) builds a web site that looks just like a web hosting company and offers products that the provider makes available to them. Customers sign up and are hosted through the Reseller, but in reality it is the provider that is doing the hosting. Done properly, this will be completely transparent to the reseller's customers.
Reselling is more complicated to set up than regular web hosting. It involves the Reseller creating web hosting plans to sell their customers, setting up billing to track payments, setting up a personal DNS server registration (through the reseller's registrar), and providing support to the customer. The Reseller is directly responsible for providing support to their customers and when they can't answer a question, the Reseller then contacts the provider for assistance.
However, the benefits to being a Reseller is quite evident. The low cost of reselling combined with the fact resellers do not need to spend their time or money on purchasing and managing expensive hosting infrastructure means the reseller can focus on making more money with little outlay. Even web design companies can benefit as they can resell the hosting to their customers which allows them to retain an ongoing residual income from their design jobs after the sites are completed.
If you're considering Reseller Hosting, please take a look at Infuseweb's affordable and very comprehensive Windows reseller hosting plans.
For frequently asked questions about Infuseweb reselling, please visit our Reseller FAQ.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.
I've outgrown my shared or reseller hosting and now I'm considering my own server. Should choose VPS or Dedicated Server?
If you've outgrown your current web hosting or reseller hosting plan, or you have some specific requirement such as DLL or applications you need to install, a VPS or Dedicated Server would be a good option for you.
The difference between a VPS and a Dedicated Server is that a Dedicated Server is a complete physical server and one operating system devoted to you, whereas a VPS is a complete operating system devoted to you but it shares the hardware with other VPSes.
VPSes are normally quite a bit cheaper than Dedicated Servers because they do not require their own independent physical hardware. This sharing saves the provider money, and hence that savings is passed on to you. And for all intensive purposes, a VPS "looks and feels" identical to a dedicated server. You probably wouldn't know the difference if someone didn't tell you.
The drawbacks are that because the physical hardware is shared in a VPS environment, you are competing for limited server resources. However, Infuseweb uses Virtuozzo as its underlying core operating system that manages the VPS's and it is extremely efficient at ensuring the resources you are allocated in a VPS are always available to you.
For more information on the advantages and disadvantages of VPS and dedicated hosting please see the VPS FAQ.
I have another question not listed here. How do I contact you?
Feel free to contact Infuseweb with any questions you have about our hosting services. To contact us, please click here.