The Internet
The internet is a large and complex network of computers, including your computer, referred to as the client-side computer; and the web server, referred to as the server-side computer. Each computer is assigned, by its internet service provider (ISP), an internet protocol (IP) address; a series of four three digit numbers separated by a period (234.567.345.234, for example),
When users, such as your self, wish to view a file on a website, such as a webpage, a request consisting of the uniform resource location (URL), must be made to the web server where that website is hosted, usually using a web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Fire Fox for example). The URL is a unique address on the internet where that file can be found and is a combination of the IP address, the folder containing the file, and the file name.
Rather than using the unfriendly IP address, most websites have their own private domain name, such as efficientpresence.com or gentledoberman.com. When a request is made using a domain name, the web browser first points to the domain name server where the domain name is registered; there the domain name server replaces the domain name with the IP address and continues the request.
Once the web server receives the request, using its hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) software, it replies back to the user’s IP address by sending the requested file. The user’s browser then accesses the contents of the file and depending on the file type and its contents, reads and displays the content.
Websites
A website is a collection of files organized on a web server. These files produce webpages intended for users to view with a web browser or other user agent and are linked together using a user interface system that enables the user to move from webpage to webpage.
As we discussed above, the website is hosted on a web server. This means that the owner of the website either owns the server or is renting space on the server where the website resides. We also discussed the domain name; this item must be register with a domain name host, for a specified and renewable period of time.
When choosing a web host there are three main variables, besides price: space, bandwidth, and uptime.
Space, often referred to as disk or server space and usually measured in megabytes (MB), is the amount of room available for the storage of files.
Bandwidth, measured in gigabytes (GB) per month and often called 'gigabytes of transfer', is the amount of room for data to be transferred to users. For example: if a user were to request three webpages with the sizes of 3kb, 9kb, and 5kb; 17kb of bandwidth would been used.
Uptime is the percentage of time the web server is running and able to serve files. When there is a charge for web hosting, the uptime should certainly be greater than 99.9%.
Files that constitute a website can be of any type, however, the files with which the user interacts with and views are almost always hypertext markup language (HTML) files, extensible hypertext markup language (XHTML) files, active server page (ASP) files, or php hypertext preprocessor (PHP) files.
HTML and XHTML both have an .htm or .html designation in your address bar. These two languages are the same with XHTML being a stricter and updated version of HTML, main update being extensibility, or in less technical terms, content is separated from style.
ASP and PHP, with the designations .asp and .php, are both created by the web server. Using a number of scripting or programming languages or both, the website developer programs the web server to create and recreate the page it sends to the user’s browser, especially for that user. Examples of these pages can be found on interactive websites where information is gathered and where large amounts of information is displayed discriminately according to user inputs, such as shopping websites (e-commerce websites), forums, and websites with online accounts.
These viewable page files make use of other files such as image and style files, as well as files holding additional program functions. Keeping these files separate allows the viewable page to hold only the content and allows the non-viewable files to be used by a number of viewable pages.
Once these files are complete and tested, they must be uploaded to the web server. This is done with a method called file transfer protocol (FTP). On the web server there is a program with which web developers are able to communicate using this protocol, enabling them to transfer the files. Immediately upon transfer, the files are viewable on the internet and your website exists.
