Web Hosting - What is It?

The focus of this article will be the essential components of web hosting and show how it all comes together to allow you to publish your content on the Internet.

Web hosting itself is like a flea market or shopping mall. A company will purchase a large amount of space and then rent that space out to other companies or individuals. Once the space has been rented to these other individuals or companies then they will use that space to sell their products and services.

Purchasing a web hosting package is also the process of one company purchasing space and renting it to others to use. The difference is that the space is on a hard drive of a web server. A web server is nothing more than a high-end computer that has particular software which interprets requests from your browser.

Web servers are connected to the Internet via data cables. There are very large data cables that circle the world called trunk lines. These trunk lines are actually multiple cables put together in order to increase the speed at which data can flow through them. The name Trunk Line comes from a tree with its trunk and many branches. All the trunk lines and data cables criss-crossing the world look like webs and is the reason it’s called the World Wide Web.

Trunk lines, also called backbone networks, are what web hosting companies usually use to get high speed access to the Internet. Then this access is offered to their customers for a fee.

There are many different technologies layered on top of one another. All of these technologies must work in unison in order for a web page to show up on the Internet.

You have the two computers at either end. On the opposite end you have the web server that is housed at your web hosting company. Usually, web servers have much larger data capacity, faster CPUs and more RAM than a personal computer has.

On the other end of the line is your personal computer and your web browser. The browser is the software that analyzes and displays the information that the web server sends.

When you type in a domain name into your browser that request is sent to the DNS servers at your ISP, or Internet Service Provider. The correct IP address is then attached to that request and forwarded through the necessary hops in order to arrive at your web hosting company. The request is the sent to a router which has a firewall and is able to log all network traffic.

The router then routes the request to the appropriate switch. Often times a high-end data center will have the switch mounted in the top of a rack of web servers. Less data cable is needed when the switch is located in the server cabinet. The cabinets are also air conditioned which cools the switch down.

From the switch, the request hits your web server and is pointed to the correct folder by the web server software. This server software pulls the correct information and then sends that information back to your web browser. Your browser then interprets the information and displays it according to a particular protocol.

Within a matter of seconds the whole process is complete and a world of information is at your fingertips.

Not all Web Hosts are created equal. Find out who the best web hosting companies are.