# Doubts with Web Hosting???



## go4saket (Aug 3, 2006)

Hi Guys!

I have a few doubts with regard to web hosting. I hope you guya can help me out of this...

1. What are DNS and what is the function of it.

2. If I register a domain with some company, they provide the DNS. Now, if I want to host my website with some other company, they ask to change the DNS to their owns. What actually happens in this and does this mean that I am no more a customer of the old company. What are the actual basics behind this all.

3. If I want to transfer my domain to some other company, what is the process of doing that.

4. What is the basic behind Web Forwarding and Email Forwarding.

5. What is the difference between Individual IP address and Shared IP address.

If you guys can tell me anything more in this topic or provide me with an ebook or a link where I can learn more about this, I shall be very grateful.

Thank you.


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## tuxfan (Aug 3, 2006)

NOTE: This is a very newbie kind of explanation. So please don't nitpick for tecnical errors 

Every server has an IP address (like 63.57.100.54). So to reach a site, you can simple type an IP address in your bowser. But isn't it very difficult to remember that IP address of every site? Its far easy to remember the domain name. So a domain name is assigned to an IP address for ease. (2 IP addresses are required for proper functioning).

Now once again, to simplify the problem of assigning IP address to every domain name, DNS (Domain Name Server) were designed. DNS typically look like *dns1.hostingsite.com* and *dns2.hostingsite.com*. Each DNS is attached to some IP address. All that you have to do is specify that DNS with your domain name.

There are various databases maintained all over the world that maintain the record of which DNS is attached to which domain. So when you tell your browser to open site, it checks it with those databases for DNS and then IP address of the server and takes you to that server and opens the site. This all happens pretty quickly


When you want to change hosting from one server to another, you have to change the DNS of your domain name. This updates the database that I mentioned earlier. So you no longer host with the previous service provider and shift to the new one. That really means that you are no longet the customer of your old company.

Are you asking about transferring the domain name or hosting? For transferring the hosting you have to change DNS  For transferring the domain name, this is the procedure. We assume that you have your domain with X and now want to transfer to Y.

You go and apply for a transfer at Y. Y will contact X and X will send you an email to confirm the transfer. You have to typically click on a link given in the email to transfer the domain. Once you confirm the transfer, X will authorise the trasfer to Y and it will get transferred to Y (and in most cases renewed for one more year).

Web-forwarding (domain forwarding): Assume you have a site like www.somefreesite.com/members/asia/yourname/. Its really cumbersome for people to remember this. So you can register a free domain like yourname.tk or yourname.co.nr or yourname.uni.cc and make it forward your site. So a visitor has to only type yourname.tk to come to your site and not this long URL.
Email forwarding: Similar to domain forwarding. It forwards your emails to a specified account.


PHEW!!  Hope this is clear


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## go4saket (Aug 3, 2006)

Thanks Tux. But I expected answers to all my questions atleast from you. I guess you are in this line of business and I am sure you have answers to all of them. No doubt it will take some time for you to answer all this, but that can really help me and many more in this forum.


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## tuxfan (Aug 3, 2006)

I have tried to answer all, but kept saving it in between. You only saw a part while the other part was being typed


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## go4saket (Aug 3, 2006)

Thanks a lot Tux... I added a 5th question later, thats why you missed it, I guess. So I hope you will help me in that too. As such, your rest of the explanation was really very clear and good.

Repping you although you dont need... Hey, where's the thans button???


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## thecyclone2k (Aug 3, 2006)

With individual/ dedicated ip you can have private name-servers and ssl certificates while with shared you can't.

Your website can have the following ip format with shared (in case of cpanel)
xx.xx.xx.xx/~username

and in case of dedicated you can have
xx.xx.xx.xx also!

You may refer -
*www.100best.com/articles65.html for complete help!


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## tuxfan (Aug 3, 2006)

Let me give a little different explanation!!

Shared IP as the name suggests is an IP address shared by many sites. So when thru DNS the request reaches a site, the server finds out the site for which the request is and then opens that site.

Dedicted IP means the IP is for only one site. But there are some cases like having a SSL certificate and online payment gateways where you need to have dedicated IPs. 

There are 2 advantages of shared IP.

1. *To the site owners*
Shared IP is cheaper as IP costs are divided amongst the sites on the same server. A dedicated IP costs about $2 per month! So that increases the hosting costs!!

2. *Generally Advantage*
As the size of internet increases, there could be a shortage if unique IP addresses. So if all sites had a unique/dedicated IP address, internet would have run out of them already! So shared is better as well. However, current IP has four parts x.x.x.x So max number ofunique IPs could be about 4.3 billion. IPv6 will have 6 parts! That will increase this possibility tremenodously  Here're the Wikipedia entries for IPv4 and IPv6.

Each x can have a value from 0 to 255. So max 256 values.
IPv4 can therefore have 256 x 256 x 256 x 256 = 4,294,967,296 unique IPs. You calculate it on your own for IPv6 

I think by the time we are through with this thread, I will have enough material for technical FAQ for my site  and that too all original


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## go4saket (Aug 3, 2006)

Well in that case Tux, let me help you to build FAQ for your site...
Answer this...

Generally there are two OS referred, Linux & Windows. Now, which one is better and how. Moreover, as I am on Windows platform, wont I face any problem if I take a host with Linux OS.


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## kalpik (Aug 3, 2006)

Obviously Linux is better.. And no it wont be a problem if you take linux hosting.. It does not matter if you are on windows or linux..


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## thecyclone2k (Aug 4, 2006)

I find linux easier to use and good free scripts are easily available.


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## tuxfan (Aug 4, 2006)

I will always prefer a linux server for the following reasons:


Linux is safer and more stable
Linux hosting is cheaper
cPanel is not available for Windows  and I don't like HSphere too much. Have never used any other general control panel. Custom control panels suck all the more.
I prefer PHP/MySQL/Apache. All these run on Windows as well as Linux. So there is no specific need to use Windows server and I have other reasons to use Linux server 

You may have a Windows machine to make your site offline and can use a Linux server to host it. But be careful about the case. Linux is case sensitive. So "Host" and "host" are different. Windows is not case sensitive. So a site may work perfectly well offline but may give errors online.


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## Stick (Aug 16, 2006)

kalpik said:
			
		

> Obviously Linux is better.. And no it wont be a problem if you take linux hosting.. It does not matter if you are on windows or linux..



Hi Mate,

If I use my friends experience with Windows Server.

"Linux is more stable and Secure than Windwos server and cheap too"


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## tuxfan (Aug 18, 2006)

Stick said:
			
		

> Hi Mate,
> 
> If I use my friends experience with Windows Server.
> 
> "Linux is more stable and Secure than Windwos server and cheap too"



Huh?? What are you trying to say?


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## Stick (Aug 21, 2006)

tuxfan said:
			
		

> Huh?? What are you trying to say?



I am clear what I say, but what you are trying to say?


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## tuxfan (Aug 21, 2006)

Entering into useless arguments! Aren't we?

I did not understand what you said, so I asked "what are you trying to say?" Anything wrong in that? Why don't you just explain instead of arguing?


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## din (Aug 22, 2006)

Stick,

We didn't understand what you meant by 


> Hi Mate,
> 
> If I use my friends experience with Windows Server.
> 
> "Linux is more stable and Secure than Windwos server and cheap too"



U tried to say from ur friends experience Linux is better ? Or vice versa ?


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## Stick (Aug 28, 2006)

Hey Mate,

I didn't arguing yaar, we are not compititors but share our experience here.
One of my friend using Windows Server for his site, he have various sites and only one with Window. He gots lot of troubles I don't know others but one of them is that he can not able to run a Directory Software there which is wrking fine with all (including mine) LINUX SERVER and the Windows Hosting is not from Indian Provider but from US provider.

Sorry if some one find my thread as Arguing.


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## tuxfan (Aug 29, 2006)

Ok. Now I understood what you are saying. You simply said that Linux servers are better than Windows servers because they are more stable, secure and cheap. 

I agree.


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