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Web Site Hosting
April 15, 2004 - When using the internet, few of us pay attention to the man behind the curtain. We type in our online destination, and only think twice if something goes wrong. But have you ever considered the series of requests and responses that are systematically bounced back and forth through networks, routers, switches, and servers all for the purpose of successfully retrieving a Web page?
We have. Web site Hosting makes having a web site and daily web browsing possible, and it is but one of the hosting services we are fully proficient in. To understand just what happens every time you or one of your customers click “Go,” we sat down with our network administrator, Kirk, who explained the fundamentals of the entire process.
For starters, we arrived at a basic definition of Web hosting: the process of holding a web site on a server and making it available, through server software, to be viewed by an internet browser upon request. Here at Fishnet NewMedia, we own and operate several servers, each one individually configured to manage specific web sites and web based applications. The server software acts as the middle man between the browser and the hosted sites. Kirk configures the software by telling it where to look and how to act for each web site. Now equipped with this knowledge, the server is ready for hosting.
When a user enters a domain name, the browser needs to be directed to the correct server that hosts the site. Just like our names are matched to a street address to find our location, the domain name needs to be matched or resolved to it’s I.P. address. A request is initiated, and the corresponding I.P. address leads it to the server. The software then retrieves the site from our server, extracting each piece of the web page, one-by-one. As complex as this communication can become, the entire procedure takes place in the blink of an eye and happens simultaneously with millions of other requests.
In maintaining this intricate set-up, two major issues keep Kirk up at night: connectivity and security. Both are of the utmost importance to us. To ensure that all the web sites we host will always be functional, we have backups and those backups have backups, and those backups have plans, and those plans etc. We are prepared for every occurrence that could interfere with network connectivity. The internet security measures we employ protect our network from the web’s inherent vulnerabilities. We are constantly updating security software and fixing potential problems before they can even become problems. This proactive stance guarantees a worry-free web existence for all the sites we host.
Web hosting is one type of hosting that enables the internet as you know it. We also specialize in e-mail hosting, DNS hosting, dedicated server hosting, and streaming media hosting. The ability to host web sites on our own servers allows us to offer immediate maintenance and quality service for our clients. We make it so that even if they know how it all works, our clients never have to think of Kirk, our very own man behind the curtain.
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