Web Hosting 101
So even though I’ve been programming and playing with computers since the early 80s and have been using the Internet since late 1989, I have never had my own domain – until today. Now I’m wondering why the heck I waited so long to do it. It wound up being very easy to do and it’s a whole lot of fun. I now have my own blog, can create email addresses for myself at will, and host files that people can download via HTTP or FTP. For the benefit of anyone who has not been through this process I am going to use the first few posts in this blog to share the experience that I had with setting up a new domain.
The first thing to know is that there are two services that you need when setting up your own domain: domain name registration and web hosting. Domain name registration is the act of registering your domain name with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is responsible for managing and coordinating the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS). They control the distribution of all IP addresses and domain names. They also make sure that domain names are unique and map to the correct IP addresses. In order to get your domain name registered with ICANN you must go through an accredited domain name registrar. Web hosting is the term used for getting disk space and internet connectivity provided for your domain.
Many companies offer both domain name registration and web hosting, but you do not have to use the same company for both services. There is a fairly wide variety of pricing and features for both services.