Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

September 22, 2009

A Look at Web Hosting Technology

The technology that powers the web hosting business is essentially the same technology that powers the World Wide Web and keeps the internet running smoothly.  There are several components that work in perfect harmony to make sure the process remains seamless, but this article will focus on three of the most important: domains, web servers and the actual web pages.

Domains

The first step most users take in reaching a web page is typing in the address of the site they want to visit in their browser.  Although this address is called a URL, it actually refers to piece of web property known as a domain name.  This name represents an Internet Protocol or IP address, which enables computers connected to the internet to refer to one another.   In its natural form, an IP address looks something like “208.77.188.166.”  Because this is difficult for most users to recall, domain names are used to simplify the process as they resemble “yoursite.com.”  When someone types a domain in to find your website, they are actually requesting the underlying IP address.  This address is quite similar to the physical address of your home residence.  People need your home address in order to find you out in the real world, so for web surfers to find you out in cyberspace, they must know your domain name.

Web Servers

The web server plays an integral part in making sure users receive the information they request.  Although a web server could refer to the computer hardware, which also plays an important role, most associate the term with a piece of software.  The most commonly used programs are Apache, an open-source web server, and IIS (Internet Information Services), a web server developed by Microsoft.  Hence the name, the server is responsible for helping to serve the pages of a website to the user making the request.  Though other technologies are often involved, the output of the user’s request is typically in the form of HTML.

Web Pages

While many view HTML as the most simplistic of web languages, even it can be complex to the unknowing.  Just view the source code of any given website and you will see the programming logic used to create the page, most of which will probably look foreign to you.  It is this code that ultimately determines how the web page will be displayed in your browser.  The average web page also contains image files, which are loaded within your browser simultaneously with others.  The code used to construct the page contains links to those images, which are downloaded and temporarily saved so that they can be displayed with the page.  If you save a web page to your local drive, you will likely see far more than text as it usually contains a number of files, images and folders.

Conclusion

The technology that is involved in the displaying of a simple web page is impressive to say the least.  What is even more amazing is how this process occurs at all times of the day all throughout the world in what is for the most part, seamless fashion.  This technology may be difficult to grasp but without it, the web as we know it today would not exist.

Tags: web pages,  web hosting technology,  web hosting business,  IP address,  HTML,  domains,  web servers,  apache