When you first start out trying to get a site on
Internet everything seems so confusing. Obtuse acronyms flow freely through 'Beginner Friendly' information sites and definitions can be hard to come across. The main reason for this is that Internet and process of getting a website online is really very simple, and once people get past first stumbling steps they rarely remember difficulty they once had, which leads to them being unable to understand next wave of dot com newbies.So let's begin with defining some of basic terms that are commonly thrown around when looking for a web host. You'll quickly realize that computer geeks like using big words for simple concepts. What do you expect from a group of people that decided to call half a Byte a Nibble?
Web Host: These are people that supply your website with somewhere to sit and be accessed from. They're often a wealth of information, so when you're trying to find your feet it will often be worthwhile to contact their tech support and get your questions answered. Because of this, it's important to contact them BEFORE you sign up for any packages to ensure that you'll receive a timely response. Just fire an email their way and see what happens.
Disk Space: This is same as space on your own PC's hard drive. Web Hosts will allocate a certain amount of space to your website, usually in Megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). This determines how much you can store on your site.
Bandwidth: Bandwidth is amount of data that can be retrieved from your site within bandwidth period. The bandwidth period is length of time before your bandwidth gets reset once again, usually about a month. Bandwidth is measured in MB and GB, like disk space. Always find out consequences of exceeding your allocated bandwidth before you purchase a hosting package.
Domain Name: The domain name is your personal identifier on Internet. This is what gets typed into a web browser's address bar to reach your site. Some hosting companies will offer a domain for free, while others will have facilities to provide one for a minimal cost.
SQL (MySQL, SQL Server etc.): Structured Query Language. This is language used to interact with databases. Chances are that if you don't know about it when you start looking for web hosting, you're not going to need to know about it for at least a little while longer.
HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Basically, how Internet works. It is protocol governing transfer of web pages from one place to another.
