Web Hosting
· What is web hosting?
· What is shared (virtual) web hosting?
· Can I keep my domain name when I change a host?
· Will I have forced advertising on my site like I do on Geocities, etc.?
· What is domain parking?
· What is disk space?
· What is bandwidth or data transfer?
· How do I upload my site?
· Can I use Java applets, JavaScript, and Flash pages on my site?
· Can I run my own software on my site?
· Are there any extra costs involved in hosting a secure site?
What is web hosting?
Web hosting refers to the process of publishing a
web site so that it is available on the World Wide Web.
What is shared (virtual) web hosting?
Shared (or virtual) web hosting is the most fitting way of hosting
for 99% of web sites. It means that a web hosting company will
have one or more servers (computers constantly connected to the Internet
that run a web server software such as Apache or IIS) that will be running
multiple web sites (it will be shared). Unless a web site is exceptionally
busy or requires a lot of bandwidth, this is the least expensive way to get a
real web site. You can still have your own IP address with virtual hosting
and the site won't look any different to users. Other options are dedicated,
co-location, or doing it yourself web hosting. In those options you have the
whole computer to yourself and you can do things like install your own software.
Can I keep my domain name when I change a host?
Yes. When you need to move to another host, you just need to point your domain's name servers
to this new host. If you registered your domain name with a host and now you want to move,
you should find your registration records or contact this host and ask them how to control
your domain name. If you have a problem, you can usually see the name of the registrar
by performing a "Whois" query on your domain name and contact them.
Will I have forced advertising on my site like I do on Geocities, etc.?
NO. Usually paid web hosting companies do not force advertising on their clients. SUPERSTACKS.COM
does not have forced advertising.
What is domain parking?
Domain parking allows you to have multiple domain names pointing to the same exact website.
Most web hosting companies charge extra for this feature; however, they don't pay extra for
you to be able to have this feature. SUPERSTACKS.COM allows you to park as many domains as you desire.
What is disk space?
Space is the amount of "stuff" you can put on your web site.
Available space is usually listed in megabytes (MB, millions of bytes).
Single letter takes up one byte. HTML files are usually rather small
(this file is about 25,000 bytes) but pictures and programs can get quite big.
Your scripts, emails and stats will also take up space on your hosting account.
What is bandwidth or data transfer?
Bandwidth or sometime referred to as data transfer is the amount
of "stuff" that visitors to your site can download before you reach your monthly limit.
Transfer is usually listed in gigabytes (billions of bytes). After the transfer limit
is reached for the month, you will need to pay extra for additional transfer at higher rates.
You can estimate how much bandwidth use. For example, if an average visitor to your site views
3 HTML pages of 20 KB (thousands of bytes) each and 8 small embedded pictures of 10 KB each, and
you get 500 visitors per day, you will require at least
(3 * 20 + 8 * 10) * 500 * 30 = 2,100,000 KB =
2.1 GB of transfer per month.
You can control your bandwidth easily. Try to optimize all the graphics on your site.
Many GIFs don't look noticeably worse with fewer colors. Don't duplicate graphics files,
let the browser cache them. Try to clean up your HTML by using
relative paths, short filenames, less extras, and reducing the number of spaces and new lines.
How do I upload my site?
The main method of uploading files to your site's account is by using FTP.
When you sign up with SUPERSTACKS.COM, you will get an FTP account that lets you access
files in your account (ftp://yoursitename.com, your main account name and password).
Then you can use a built-in Windows or Internet Explorer FTP client, or some other software
that supports FTP such as CuteFTP, WS_FTP, or Total Commander, to transfer files from your hard drive to your account.
If you don't get an FTP account or if you prefer a Web interface, you can use your cPanel account's
File Manager instead. Yet another method is to use an SSH client software, such as SecureCRT,
to upload using Zmodem protocol (sz and rz commands).
All these methods will work fine, but we recommend using dedicated FTP programs as the
preferred solution because these programs have the best user interfaces and support advanced
options like setting file permissions and resuming aborted file transfers.
Can I use Java applets, JavaScript, and Flash pages on my site?
Yes. Those are client-side technologies, so the host doesn't have to do anything to support or enable them.
Any browser (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, or Mozilla) that supports them is enough.
Can I run my own software on my site?
This depends on what service you want. Most plans will allow running scripts in languages such as Perl or PHP.
Only dedicated server plans will allow you to compile program in C/C++ and run them.
Unix plans will allow you to run "cron" which enables you to automatically execute programs or scripts
at a specific time and date. However to get a full control over all aspects of your server,
you will need a dedicated server instead of a shared plan.
Are there any extra costs involved in hosting a secure site?
Yes, you'll need to get a digital certificate from a SUPERSTACKS.COM
Click Here for mor information on SSLs