Comments on: How Website Hosting Works (in Plain English)

By: colin hunter

colin hunter — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:02:46 +0000

@brett - good question maybe, but great answer! I didn’t even think about mail servers….

By: Brett Derricott

Brett Derricott — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:08:50 +0000

@Colin: Great question! The role of DNS is, as you’ve stated, to translate domain names (like mydomain.com) into the IP addresses that are actually used by computers and networking equipment. If we did away with DNS and just used IP addresses for everything, there are a few things we’d sacrifice.

1. DNS also keeps track of mail servers for a given domain. It’s essentially a way of saying, “here is the address of the server that handles the mail for our domain.”

2. Multiple websites are often hosted on one IP address. The domain name is what tells the server which website the user wants to view. If we only used IP addresses, we’d be limited to just one website per IP address.

3. Obviously we’d also lose our minds if we had to keep track of the IP address for every website we frequently visit!

Does that answer your question, Colin?

By: colin hunter

colin hunter — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:59:36 +0000

If websites only used IP addresses (e.g., instead of agencybyte.com users would type 70.87.126.226 in the URL bar on their browsers), would DNS services or functionality be required? Is DNS simply a liaison between the IP address and a domain name for better usability? Or is it an integral segment of the backend architecture?

By: Brett Derricott

Brett Derricott — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:35:13 +0000

@Gene: To host your own website(s) does require a computer with software called a “web server” installed. On computers running Microsoft Windows, the web server software is called IIS. On a Linux-based computer people commonly use Apache. One of the most important factors in hosting your own website on a server like this is a reliable and fast Internet connection. How reliable and how fast are dictated by how much traffic your website will receive. Also, this server must be configured to accept incoming connections. If there is a firewall blocking access to this computer, the outside world will never be able to view your website.

This is a pretty brief and high-level response but hopefully this helps! If not, feel free to ask another question. Good luck!

By: Gene Orrico

Gene Orrico — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:47:45 +0000

I’ve noticed that many entities have their own servers and
host their own websites. Is this an extra computer dedicated
as a server w/server software and a seperate domain name?
Have I got it right? What is necessary to host one’s own web?

By: Agency Byte » Blog Archive » Building a Website is Like Building a House

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:40:51 +0000

[...] You’ll need to purchase a lot or a tract of ground before you can build a custom home. Likewise, on the Web you’ll need a domain name (the address of the website) and a hosting server (the physical location where your website files will reside) in order to make your website available for the world to visit. [...]

By: Agency Byte » Blog Archive » Building a Website is Like Building a House

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:40:24 +0000

By: Brett Derricott

Brett Derricott — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:55:48 +0000

@Rachel: Thanks. Without doing this stuff day-in and day-out I think it’s tough to keep all of the pieces straight. Glad to know this helped a bit.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:51:14 +0000

I always get confused with this stuff, but this is a really nice explanation, thank you!

By: Jake Rutter

Jake Rutter — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 13:35:10 +0000

Nice Write-Up!