Hosting Guide's
Web Hosting & Web Development
If you’ve ever browsed the World Wide Web and wondered how you could stake your
claim on the Internet, like the millions of others that have done so already,
then web hosting can provide you with the services to do just that. The Internet
is a great way of sharing information and it is possible for you to take a
portion of the web and make it your own. This article introduces the term ‘web
hosting’ and provides some useful tips for web development once you've obtained
some web space.
What is the World Wide Web?
The ‘World Wide Web’ is the network of computers from all over the world that
communicate with each other using the HTTP protocol, a language that allows the
transmission of web documents. Be careful as this term is not synonymous with
the ‘Internet’ because it is defined as a network of networks, where the
computers communicate with protocols other than HTTP. The web is what you see on
your Internet browser, the web pages complete with graphics, sound and other
information. All this has got to come from somewhere, and this is where web
hosting comes in.
Web Hosting
The information that you see from your web browser is contained in web pages.
These web pages are kept on computers called web servers. Web hosting is about
the storage of the web pages so that people can access them. It is possible to
host your own websites yourself but the reasons stopping most people doing this
is that there are issues to consider with having the right hardware and software
to successfully host your web pages. Your web pages will take a certain amount
of space, users will need to download each page to view them and your Internet
connection needs to be fast to offer good performance to your viewers. Using
specialised companies that offer web hosting capabilities on their web servers
will take most of these worries away from you but you will need to choose wisely
and weigh up the costs and your needs. In addition to having access to a web
server, you will also need to register a domain name (for a cost) that uniquely
identifies your website.
What Web Hosting Can Do For You
The most basic service that web hosting offers is that it exposes your web pages
for others to see. The other services are: email capabilities that allow for
email to be received and sent from your server; database capabilities that allow
for large amounts of information to be updated and accessed on the web; and
dynamic content which allows for users to interact with the web pages you've
made.
Website Development
Poorly designed websites will most likely turn away users and harm the
credibility of the information it contains. Thought should be put in on the way
it looks and the way you intend your users to interact with the content. It is
also recommended for more complex websites, a structured development process
should be followed. Here is a guide to the logical steps of web development:
- Requirements Analysis: What is the purpose of the website? What content should
it contain?
- Design: How should the pages be linked? What structure should they take? How
should the pages interact with the user?
- Implementation: This step is the actual coding of the websites in accordance
to the previous websites. - Testing: Does the website do what it should?
- Maintenance: Is the information on the website up-to-date?
Some useful hints for web development below are taken from software quality
aspects but they apply to the development of websites as well. They are
described in terms of web development:
Reliability: Is the website reliable? Do faults allow for the system to continue
running?
Robustness: How does the website respond to incorrect input?
Performance: How fast does the web page respond to users actions? Is it
efficient in processing requests and inputs?
Usability: Is the website easy to navigate and understand?
Maintainability: Is the website easy to change? Can new functionality be added?
Portability: What software requirements does the website require? Will this
limit the amount of potential users?
Understand ability: How well do you understand the website you've developed?
When designing your website, keep these quality aspects in mind as they will
help you develop pages worth visiting. How to choose the way to host your
website is half of the problem, the other half is to create a website that
people would want to visit and come back to. Knowledge of producing a good
design can help you get the most out of your creations.