Web - Server Types

Every Website sits on a computer known as a Web server. This server is always connected to the internet. Every Web server that is connected to the Internet is given a unique address made up of a series of four numbers between 0 and 255 separated by periods. For example, 68.178.157.132 or 68.122.35.127.

When you register a web address, also known as a domain name, such as want2host.com you have to specify the IP address of the Web server that will host the site. You can load up with Dedicated Servers that can support your web-based operations.

There are four leading web servers − Apache, IIS, lighttpd and Jagsaw. Now we will see these servers in bit more detail.

Apart from these Web Servers, there are other Web Servers also available in the market but they are very expensive. Major ones are Netscape's iPlanet, Bea's Web Logic and IBM's WebSphere.

Apache HTTP Server

This is the most popular web server in the world developed by the Apache Software Foundation. Apache web server is an open source software and can be installed on almost all operating systems including Linux, Unix, Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and more. About 60% of the web server machines run the Apache Web Server.

You can have Apache with tomcat module to have JSP and J2EE related support.

You can have detailed information about this server at Apache HTTP Server

Internet Information Services

The Internet Information Server (IIS) is a high performance Web Server from Microsoft. This web server runs on Windows NT/2000 and 2003 platforms ( and may be on upcoming new Windows version also). IIS comes bundled with Windows NT/2000 and 2003; Because IIS is tightly integrated with the operating system so it is relatively easy to administer it.

You can have detailed information about this server at Miscrosoft IIS

lighttpd

The lighttpd, pronounced lighty is also a free web server that is distributed with the FreeBSD operating system. This open source web server is fast, secure and consumes much less CPU power. Lighttpd can also run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris operating systems.

You can have detailed information about this server at lighttpd

Sun Java System Web Server

This web server from Sun Microsystems is suited for medium and large websites. Though the server is free it is not open source. It however, runs on Windows, Linux and Unix platforms. The Sun Java System web server supports various languages, scripts and technologies required for Web 2.0 such as JSP, Java Servlets, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, ASP and Coldfusion etc.

You can have detailed information about this server at Sun Java System Web Server

Jigsaw Server

Jigsaw (W3C's Server) comes from the World Wide Web Consortium. It is open source and free and can run on various platforms like Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac OS X Free BSD etc. Jigsaw has been written in Java and can run CGI scripts and PHP programs.

You can have detailed information about this server at Jigsaw Server

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Reasons why your business should shift to Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting has been on the rise since its inception. The improvement to your website performance and business efficiency that comes with Cloud hosting is almost tangible.

Cloud hosting provides hosting through a network of virtual servers that are interconnected and scattered throughout the world. This makes it possible for users to access their website from any location without any trouble.

Let’s begin!

Scalability / Flexibility

As a business owner you are always looking to grow your business but often that growth in unpredictable. Your marketing campaign might prove to be more successful than you predicted it to be and that doubled or even tripled the traffic on your website. In these circumstances, there is always a chance of your website crashing leaving your potential customers locked out.

Cloud hosting provides scalability that makes sure that your web server is scaled to handle the sudden spike in traffic. Also, the web server down scales so that you are not over paying for the server capacity you are not using.  

No Technical Skills Required

As a business owner you are looking to cut costs on your operation wherever possible. Hiring a developer or an IT expert to launch and maintain your server can be costly. Also, there is a very slim chance that you yourself are equipped with all the knowledge and skills that are required to manage a web server.

Remote Access

Your employees might have shown the desire to work from a different location and not stay confined to the walls of an office. Or, you might want to hire a manager who is located in a different country. This is only possible if you have remote access to your website.

Since cloud hosting is a network of virtual servers, you have the ability to access your website and web server, from anywhere around the world. All you need is an internet connection and you are in. Some hosting providers even provide application so that you are not bound by the type of device.

Reliability

A server downtime can lead to many problems. Internally you may see a wastage of man hours as the entire workflow would come to a halt. Your employees might sit idle in your office or go home leaving unfinished work. Externally, you might lose a lot of customers as they wont be able to access your website.

Cloud hosting’s biggest selling point is its amazing uptime. Reliability is the very fabric of Cloud hosting’s business model. Incase of downtimes or outages, cloud hosting providers have backups that take control in a matter of seconds. Your customers won’t even realize there was a down time.

Security

As a business owner, the last thing you want is your data getting in the wrong hands. A lot of internal data might be stored in your files that are too sensitive and confidential to be accessed by outsiders. If you own an online store, you require personal information everytime a customers makes a purchase. Things might go south if such data is leaked. You will lose your customers’ trust and spoil your brand image in the industry.

Security is something all cloud hosting providers are proud of. Whether you run a blog, a business website or an online store, you will get rock solid security on your cloud web server. Hosting providers like Cloudways offer tightly controlled firewalls on application level to make sure all attacks and data leaks are blocked.

Data Backups

Starting and managing a business is tough. Your days are filled with meetings, replying to emails, phone calls and looking after your employees. In this packed schedule, you might not the time to look after your website and maybe create timely backups.

Cloud hosting offers automated backups that creates backups after certain intervals as per user configurations. This relieves you from the hassle of taking out time from your busy schedule and creating backups yourself. Also, some cloud hosting providers offer one click restoration of your backup. So incase of a disaster and a data loss, it will take you no more than a minute to restore your entire data on just one click.

Cost

Reducing cost to increase profits is a proven profit maximising strategy. Rather than cutting costs on your product and lowering its quality, why not reduce cost on something like web hosting?

As mentioned earlier in the article, the auto scaling feature down scales your web server when the usage is low. This lets you pay for only the capacity you are using and not the entire server resulting in lower cost.

Cloud also saves you the the cost of purchasing and maintaining an infrastructure. The virtual servers are installed and maintained by highly professional and technical staff saving you the time and cost of hiring a developer.

Final Words

Choosing a better cloud hosting provider for your business is the most important and crucial decision that you will have to make. Cloud hosting ensures that you are relieved of the burden of looking after your web server. As a business owner, you want to focus completely on your core operations and cloud hosting allows you to do that.

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Address Resolution in DNS (Domain Name Server)

Prerequisite – Domain Name Server

Mapping a domain name to an IP Address is known as Name-Address Resolution. The Domain Name Server (DNS) Resolver performs this operation by consulting name servers.

In order to find a particular DNS the requesting host place it’s query to the Local DNS Server with a mapping request. If it has the information, the resolver is satisfied else the resolver is referred to other servers or other servers are asked to provide the information. After the resolver, gets the response, it checks whether the response is correct or not. If the response is correct, the response is passed to the process that requested it, else the name query fails.

A resolution can be of two types – iterative and recursive.

1. Recursive Resolution

Here, client requires the Local Server to give either the requested mapping or an error message. A DNS Query is generated by the application program to the resolver to fetch the destination IP Address. The Query is then forward to the local DNS Server. If it knows the IP Address, it sends a response to the resolver. Assuming, it does not know the IP Address, it sends the query to the root name server.

The root name server contains information of about at least one server of Top Level Domain. The query is then sent to the respective Top-Level Domain server. If it contains the mapping, the response is sent back to the root server and then to host’s local server. If it doesn’t contain the mapping, it should contain the IP Address of destination’s local DNS Server. The local DNS server knows the destination host’s IP Address. The information is then sent back to the top-level domain server, then to the root server and then to the host’s Local DNS Server and finally to the host.

2. Iterative Resolution

The main difference between iterative and recursive resolution is that, here each server that does not know the mapping sends the IP Address of the next server to the one requested it. Here, client allows the server to return the best answer it can give as a match or as a referral. A DNS Query is generated by the application program to the resolver to fetch the destination IP Address. The Query is then forward to the local DNS Server. Assuming, it does not know the IP Address, it sends the query to the root name server.

The root name server returns the IP Address of the Top-Level Domain Server to the Local Server. The Top-Level Domain server is contacted by Local Server and it returns either the IP of the destination host or its local DNS Server. If it returns the server’s address, then by contacting the destination’s Local DNS Server, we get the IP Address of the destination host. The response/mapping is then passed from host’s local DNS server to the resolver and then finally to the host.

Caching Mechanism

In both iterative and recursive resolution, after a server asks a mapping request from another server, it receives the response and it stores this information in the Cache memory before sending it to the client. This is done to lower the search time it takes for a server to check the IP Address in its Database. So, from the next time, if a request comes to the server, it first checks its cache memory and tries to resolve the request. The response is marked as Unauthoritative to inform the client that the response is from Cache. The only way caching can be problematic is when server caches the mapping for a long time and the mapping gets outdated. However, there are techniques to resolve this like using TTL.

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How Secure Is A Virtual Private Server?

The idea of sharing your information with strangers is something that many people have concerns about when looking at server options… 

One of the first concerns people have when they discover that Virtual Private Servers (VPS) involve sharing the same hardware with multiple users is ‘how secure is it?’. Fears range from whether other users of the platform can steal data through to how attacks from malicious people may compromise the server.

Let’s address the first concern by looking at how a VPS works. This starts with the software running on the main hardware server on which all the VPS are run. This software is called hypervisor software, and hardware servers running this hypervisor software are generally just referred to as hypervisors. The hypervisor software is responsible for managing the individual VPS running on a hardware server.

The hypervisor software controls how each VPS communicates with the hardware on the hypervisor server. This includes scheduling how the various VPS use the CPU resources, allocating them memory and managing their virtual hard disk images. When a VPS is created it has a hard disk image made for it. This image is where all of the data for that VPS will be stored. In the configuration for the VPS, the disk image will be referenced and only allowed to be used by the relevant VPS. When the VPS is booted up, the hypervisor software will allocate the required amount of memory for that VPS and ensure that only that specific VPS’s control processes are able to write to and read from it. These systems ensure that the data for each individual VPS, both in memory and on disk, is kept separate and secure.

With the hypervisor software keeping the the VPSs separate from each other and controlling how they run, the next question would be: ‘what is protecting the hypervisors from being attacked to get at all the VPS?’. Access to the hypervisors is tightly controlled and kept behind a number of network level security features, as well as firewalls, to ensure that attackers will be unable to target the hypervisors themselves. Similarly the storage servers which hold the disk images are protected in the same manner.

Finally comes the security of your individual VPS. As the VPS is a server in its own right it comes with all the security vulnerabilities of any other ‘non-virtual’ server. This means that a VPS is no more or less secure than running a dedicated server. It also means that the level of security your VPS is reliant on the configuration of the software on which it runs, and is vulnerable only to any flaws that may exist within that software. Securing an individual server is an in-depth topic that we won’t look at in any detail here, but secure server will generally make use of the following areas:

◉ Only run software that you need and remove software that you don’t.

◉ Configure any software that doesn’t need to communicate with the internet to only listen to local requests.

◉ Configure your firewall to limit access to important services to just those locations that need access and block anything that shouldn’t be public facing.

◉ Use strong secure passwords for user accounts.

◉ Disable superuser logins to the server, and only allow normal users to log in who must then request superuser access.

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Should Web Hosts Offer Stock Images to Customers to Cut Down on Infringement?

If you have ever done very much posting on the web, you have likely turned to images to help illustrate a point you were trying to make. When you pull that image from somewhere else on the Internet, do you ever consider who made it? Do you know if you have permission to post it on your website? This is an issue that many bloggers and website businesses in the U.S. and abroad face.

Countries all over the world are starting to crack down on copyright infringement, meaning users of images need to be more conscious about the permissions they have to use certain pictures. Should you as a web host offer stock images to customers so as to cut down on rampant infringement? There may be many benefits to doing so.

The Infringement Predicament 

Nearly everything is just a click away thanks to the Internet. Information all over the world is available in just a few seconds. If you have the technological know-how, then taking information or images off of someone else’s page is also very simple. Many authors and creators attempt to mark their works in such a way that they cannot be used without identifying the original creator. Yet there are still people who take the work of others and tout it as their own. When this kind of use of someone else’s material falsely attributes work to another or infringes financially on the original creator, it is known as copyright infringement. While such infringement has always existed, it has become much easier to do thanks to Internet access.

More Countries Are Joining the Copyright Battle 

Although the enforcement of copyright seems to be prevalent mostly in the United States, more and more countries all over the world are joining the copyright battle. Most countries have some sort of copyright law that protects a written piece of work for the life of the creator plus an additional 50 or more years after the creator’s death. Movies are usually copyrighted for 50 years following creation, and images may be copyrighted for at least 25 years after creation.

Your Role in Copyrighted vs. Fair Use Material 

How does the use of copyrighted material affect you as a web host? It’s not like action is taken as soon as something that is copyrighted appears on a site that you are hosting. In most cases, there is only legal action if the original creator cites infringement. In this case, you and the client accused of copyright infringement would need to be notified and given a chance to take the material down. It’s often more of a nuisance than anything else, since many of your clients might not even realize they are breaking any copyright laws.

Fair use material, on the other hand, can be used on anyone’s website. In fact, there are businesses dedicated to providing customers with a wealth of stock images they can freely use—provided they subscribe to the service. With careful searching, there are also sites dedicated to providing copyright- and royalty-free images for anyone to use at no cost.

What Options Do You Have? 

You have a few options when it comes to helping your customers avoid copyright infringement. You can notify your customers any time you find out they are using copyrighted material without permission. You can purchase smaller stocks of images and provide them to your clients with your hosting service. You can also create your own images and provide or sell them to your clients for use.

Purchasing Smaller Stock Sources 

There are some companies that sell stock images at a specified price per image. If you want your customers to have a variety of images to use that are not tied up under copyright, you may be able to purchase a set of these images. There are many benefits to using stock images from another source.

◉ You don’t have to stress about creating them

◉ There are a variety of subjects and styles to choose from

◉ The images are already appropriately sized for use on a website (in most cases)

There may be specific rules and regulations regarding the use of certain stock images. You will want to make sure that you are allowed to share whatever stock sets you purchase or download with your customers. You also might not be able to charge your customers for certain sets after purchase. Although stock images may help you and your customers avoid copyright infringement, make certain you are using and providing them to your customers appropriately.

Starting Your Own Image Stock 

If you really want to avoid the risk of copyright infringement altogether, you can create your very own image stock. This may or may not be difficult to do depending on your skills as an artist or photographer. Although it can take some time to build up your very own stock, creating your own set has many benefits, including that you know who created the image and you may be able to charge extra for using them. In fact, creating your own image stock can be a great way to collect a little cash on the side, especially if you make the images available for purchase by more than just your hosting customers.

Your Customers Aren’t the Only Ones Affected by Infringement

Although it might seem like a harmless act, copyright infringement is very serious. When someone uses another’s work without permission, it can affect the reputation and even the finances of the original creator. In essence, violating copyright is violating a part of someone else’s livelihood. As a web host, it is your duty to make sure your business is following the laws of your country, and that even images and work created in another country are used in compliance with that country’s copyright laws. When your customers break copyright laws, it affects you and the original creator of the work. If the fear of copyright infringement has you down, then you might consider offering stock images to customers in order to cut down on infringement. This lets you know where the images came from, and it can even earn you some extra income if you sell your own image stock. It also gives you a way to provide your customers with other options if you need to ask them to remove copyrighted images from their sites. You can help to cut down on the spread of copyright infringement.

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cPanel - SSH / TLS

SSL (Socket Security Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) is a mechanism for encrypting data, which is transferring from your computer to host or server and vice versa.

Generate Private Key

Private Key resides at your server and decrypts the incoming data coming from visitor’s device. Without Private Key, your server will not be able to decode the data sent by user. Private Key is automatically generated when generating a CSR.

To generate a Private Key, follow these steps −

Step 1 − Open cPanel SSL/TLS manager, by clicking on SSL/TLS found under the security section of cPanel.

Step 2 − In Private Keys, click on Generate, view, upload, or delete your private keys.

Step 3 − You can use Generate a New Private Key Interface to generate a new key.

Step 4 − Choose a Key Size from the dropdown menu. Provide a description which is optional, you can leave it blank.

Step 5 − Click on Generate Button to generate a new private key.

Upload a Private Key

To upload a Private Key to your server, you can use the interface below to Generate a New Key Section, which is Upload a New Private Key. Just paste your existing key into textbox and provide a description. Then click Save to import the key.

Or if you have an existing private key in ‘.key’ file, you can also import it. Just scroll down to choose a .key file under Upload a New Private Key. Browse for the file and select it. Click Upload button to Import the key into server.

Generate a CSR

CSR (Certificate Signing Request) is an encoded certificate, which CA authorities ask for when we purchase a SSL certificate from them. To issue a SSL certificate they need some additional information, which we provide in the CSR.

To generate a CSR, follow these steps below.

Step 1 − Click SSL/TLS link found under Security section of the cPanel.

Step 2 − Under Certificate Signing Request (CSR) click Generate, view, or delete SSL certificate signing requests.

Step 3 − In SSL Certificate Signing Request Interface, scroll down to see Generate a New Certificate Signing Request (CSR).

Step 4 − Choose an existing Private Key from Key dropdown. You can also choose to generate a new Private Key.

Step 5 − Enter Domains for which you want to generate CSR. You can choose a wild card domain by putting * as a subdomain. E.g. *.want2host.com.

Step 6 − Provide all necessary information in text fields like City, State, Country, Company etc.

Step 7 − Click Generate Button to generate a CSR.

Upload an SSL / TLS Certificate

If you have obtained an SSL/TLS certificate from a Trusted Certificate Provider, then you will need to upload it to your server to use it on your website.

To generate Upload a SSL/TLS certificate, follow these steps below −

Step 1 − Click on SSL/TLS link found under Security section of cPanel.

Step 2 − Under Certificates (CRT), click on Generate, view, upload, or delete SSL certificates.

Step 3 − Scroll down to Upload a New Certificate, paste your SSL/TLS code in textbox and click Save Certificate or Upload a .crt file, which will be provided by hosting provider and Click Upload Certificate.

Self–Signed Certificate

You can also use a self–signed certificate on your website too, but when somebody will open your website, it will show an error that the certificate is not form a trusted certificate provider. It is recommended that in production environment, you use a purchased SSL/TLS certificate.

To Generate a Self–signed Certificate, you can follow these steps.

Step 1 − Scroll down to Generate a New Certificate in Certificates section.

Step 2 − Choose an existing Private Key from Key dropdown, you can also choose to generate a new Private Key.

Step 3 − Enter Domains for which you want to generate CSR, you can choose a wild card domain by putting * as a subdomain. E.g. *.want2host.com.

Step 4 − Provide all necessary information in text fields like City, State, Country, Company etc.

Step 5 − Click Generate to generate a Certificate.

Installing SSL

To activate SSL/TLS certificate in your domain or Subdomains follow these steps −

If you have obtained a SSL/TLS certificate from a Trusted Certificate Provider, to use it on your website, you will need to upload it to your server.

To generate Upload a SSL/TLS certificate, follow these steps below.

Step 1 − Click SSL/TLS link found under Security section of cPanel.

Step 2 − Under Certificates (CRT), click Install and Manage SSL for your site (HTTPS).

Step 3 − In this interface, you can choose to install SSL in your website. Scroll down to install an SSL Website.

Step 4 − Choose a certificate from the installed certificates by clicking on Browse Certificates. At the same time, you can also select a Domain from the dropdown box and Click Autofill by Domain.

Step 5 − All fields of Certificates, Private Key and Certificate Authority bundle will be filled automatically.

Step 6 − Click Install Certificate button to activate the certificate for the Domain or Subdomain.

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How DHCP server dynamically assigns IP address to a host?

DHCP is an abbreviation for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. It is an application layer protocol used by hosts for obtaining network setup information. The DHCP is controlled by DHCP server that dynamically distributes network configuration parameters such as IP addresses, subnet mask and gateway address.

What is Dynamic host configuration protocol?

◉ Dynamic – Automatically

◉ Host – Any computer that is connected to the network

◉ Configuration – To configure a host means to provide network information(ip address,subnet mask,Gateway address) to a host

◉ Protocol – Set of rules

Summing up, a DHCP server dynamically configures a host in a network.

Disadvantage of manually Configuring the host: Configuring a host when it is connected to the network can be done either manually i.e., by the network administrator or by the DHCP server. In case of home networks, manual configuration is quite easy. Whereas in the large networks, the network administrator might face many problems.

Also, the manual configuration is prone to mistakes. Say a Network administrator might assign an IP address which was already assigned. Thus, causing difficulty for both administrator as well as neighbors on network.

So, here comes the use of DHCP server. Before discussing about how DHCP server works, lets go through the DHCP entities.

Configuring a host using DHCP

To configure a host, we require the following things:

◉ Leased IP address – IP address to a host which lasts for a particular duration which goes for a few hours,few days or few weeks.

◉ Subnet Mask – The host can know on which network it is on.

◉ Gateway address – The Gateway is the Internet Service Provider that connects user to the internet.The Gateway address lets the host know where the gateway is to connect to the internet.

DHCP Entities

◉ DHCP server: It automatically provides network information(IPaddress, subnet mask, gateway address) on lease. Once the duration is expired, that network information can be assigned to other machine.  It also maintains the data storage which stores the available IP addresses.

◉ DHCP client: Any node which request an IP address allocation to a network is considered as DHCP client.

◉ DHCP Relay Agent: In case, we have only one DHCP server for multiple LAN’s then this Agent which presents in every network forwards the DHCP request to DHCP server. So, using DHCP Relay Agent we can configure multiple LAN’s with single server.

How DHCP server assigns IP address to a host?

1. DHCPDISCOVER: When a new node is connected to the network, it broadcasts the DHCPDISCOVER message which contains the source address as 0.0.0.0 to every node on the network including server. DHCP server on receiving the message, returns the DHCPOFFER message to the requested host which contains the server address and new IP address to the node.

2. DHCPOFFER: If there are multiple servers on the network, host receives multiple DHCPOFFER messages. It is up to the host to select a particular message.

3. DHCPREQUEST:  The requested host on receiving the offer message, it again broadcasts the DHCPREQUEST message on the network with the address of the server whose offer message is accepted by the host. The server which pertains to that server address sent by the host checks whether the address to be assigned to the node is available in the data storage.

4. DHCPACK : If the address is assigned , it marks the IP address in the storage as unavailable to ensure consistency. Now, the server sends DHCPACK packet to the requested host which contains network information(IP address, subnet mask, gateway address). In case, if the address is assigned to other machine meanwhile, then the server sends the packet DHCPNAK to the requested host indicating that the IP address is assigned to some other machine.

5. DHCPRELEASE : And finally, If the host wants to move to other network or if it has finished  its work, it sends the DHCPRELEASE packet to the server indicating that it wants to disconnect. Then the server marks the IP address as available in the storage so that it can be assigned to other machine.

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Internet Domain Name System

Overview

When DNS was not into existence, one had to download a Host file containing host names and their corresponding IP address. But with increase in number of hosts of internet, the size of host file also increased. This resulted in increased traffic on downloading this file. To solve this problem the DNS system was introduced.

Domain Name System helps to resolve the host name to an address. It uses a hierarchical naming scheme and distributed database of IP addresses and associated names

IP Address

IP address is a unique logical address assigned to a machine over the network. An IP address exhibits the following properties:

◉ IP address is the unique address assigned to each host present on Internet.

◉ IP address is 32 bits (4 bytes) long.

◉ IP address consists of two components: network component and host component.

Each of the 4 bytes is represented by a number from 0 to 255, separated with dots. For example 137.170.4.124

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) refers to a web address which uniquely identifies a document over the internet.

This document can be a web page, image, audio, video or anything else present on the web.

URL Types

There are two forms of URL as listed below:

◉ Absolute URL

◉ Relative URL

Absolute URL

Absolute URL is a complete address of a resource on the web. This completed address comprises of protocol used, server name, path name and file name.

For example http:// www.want2host.com / internet_technology /index.htm. where:

◉ http is the protocol.

◉ want2host.com is the server name.

◉ index.htm is the file name.

The protocol part tells the web browser how to handle the file. Similarly we have some other protocols also that can be used to create URL are:

◉ FTP

◉ https

◉ Gopher

◉ mailto

◉ news

◉ Relative URL

Relative URL is a partial address of a webpage. Unlike absolute URL, the protocol and server part are omitted from relative URL.

Relative URLs are used for internal links i.e. to create links to file that are part of same website as the WebPages on which you are placing the link.

Difference between Absolute and Relative URL

Absolute URL	Relative URL
Used to link web pages on different websites	Used to link web pages within the same website.
Difficult to manage.	Easy to Manage
Changes when the server name or directory name changes	Remains same even of we change the server name or directory name.
Take time to access	Comparatively faster to access.

Domain Name System Architecture

The Domain name system comprises of Domain Names, Domain Name Space, Name Server that have been described below:

Domain Names

Domain Name is a symbolic string associated with an IP address. There are several domain names available; some of them are generic such as com, edu, gov, net etc, while some country level domain names such as au, in, za, us etc.

The following table shows the Generic Top-Level Domain names:

Domain Name	Meaning
Com	Commercial business
Edu	Education
Gov	U.S. government agency
Int	International entity
Mil	U.S. military
Net	Networking organization
Org	Non profit organization

The following table shows the Country top-level domain names:

Domain Name	Meaning
au	Australia
in	India
cl	Chile
fr	France
us	United States
za	South Africa
uk	United Kingdom
jp	Japan
es	Spain
de	Germany
ca	Canada
hk	Hong Kong

Domain Name Space

The domain name space refers a hierarchy in the internet naming structure. This hierarchy has multiple levels (from 0 to 127), with a root at the top. The following diagram shows the domain name space hierarchy:

In the above diagram each subtree represents a domain. Each domain can be partitioned into sub domains and these can be further partitioned and so on.

Name Server

Name server contains the DNS database. This database comprises of various names and their corresponding IP addresses. Since it is not possible for a single server to maintain entire DNS database, therefore, the information is distributed among many DNS servers.

◉ Hierarchy of server is same as hierarchy of names.

◉ The entire name space is divided into the zones

Zones

Zone is collection of nodes (sub domains) under the main domain. The server maintains a database called zone file for every zone.

If the domain is not further divided into sub domains then domain and zone refers to the same thing.

The information about the nodes in the sub domain is stored in the servers at the lower levels however; the original server keeps reference to these lower levels of servers.

Types of Name Servers

Following are the three categories of Name Servers that manages the entire Domain Name System:

◉ Root Server

◉ Primary Server

◉ Secondary Server

Root Server

Root Server is the top level server which consists of the entire DNS tree. It does not contain the information about domains but delegates the authority to the other server

Primary Servers

Primary Server stores a file about its zone. It has authority to create, maintain, and update the zone file.

Secondary Server

Secondary Server transfers complete information about a zone from another server which may be primary or secondary server. The secondary server does not have authority to create or update a zone file.

DNS Working

DNS translates the domain name into IP address automatically. Following steps will take you through the steps included in domain resolution process:

◉ When we type www.want2host.com into the browser, it asks the local DNS Server for its IP address.

Here the local DNS is at ISP end.

◉ When the local DNS does not find the IP address of requested domain name, it forwards the request to the root DNS server and again enquires about IP address of it.

◉ The root DNS server replies with delegation that I do not know the IP address of www.want2host.com but know the IP address of DNS Server.

◉ The local DNS server then asks the com DNS Server the same question.

◉ The com DNS Server replies the same that it does not know the IP address of www.want2host.com but knows the address of want2host.com.

◉ Then the local DNS asks the want2host.com DNS server the same question.

◉ Then www.want2host.com DNS server replies with IP address of www.want2host.com

◉ Now, the local DNS sends the IP address of www.want2host.com to the computer that sends the request.

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What is a Web Server?

Many people know how to drive a car, but have little or no knowledge about how the car actually works. So, too, are many people familiar with how to view and navigate web pages, but have limited knowledge of how those web pages do what they do. Here we will answer the question: "What is a web server?"

At the most basic level, a web server is simply a computer program that dispenses web pages as they are requested. The machine the program runs on is usually also called a server, and the two references are interchangeable in everyday conversation. When someone sits down at a computer and enters an address into an internet browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox, the browser sends a request off into the internet asking to view the web page found at that address. The web server is the program or machine that responds to that request, and delivers the content of the page back to the user.

This can be done because every computer or device that connects to the internet has a uniquely identifying number, called an Internet Protocol address, or IP address for short. This address is what allows computers to find one another and communicate across the network. In brief, the process works as follows.

Every web page on the internet also has a unique address, called a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL. Something like "www.example.com/page1.htm" is an example of a typical URL. When a user types that URL into a web browser, the machine the browser is running on sends a request to the IP address of the machine running the web server for that page, requesting that all the content found there be sent back. Once the web server receives that request, it sends the page content back to the IP address of the computer asking for it. The web browser then translates that content into all of the text, pictures, links, videos, etc. that so many web pages contain.

Web servers can sometimes be slowed down by things like inadequate resources on the machine they run on, or an overwhelming number of requests being received in too short a time, but generally the whole process happens so quickly it's hardly even noticeable as users navigate from page to page. The data being transferred back and forth during these exchanges must conform to a specific protocol, called Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), to ensure that all web pages and servers communicate with one another efficiently and without error.

The most common web server software today, that is, the program that actually does the receiving and answering of page requests, is Apache. This open-source software handles more than half of all websites in existence today - many developers of web-based applications and technologies use Apache as their default environment when designing new products. The second most common is Internet Information Services (IIS), released by Microsoft, which accounts for nearly 25% of all websites, leaving various other smaller applications to compete for the remaining niche.

Though web servers can also handle data requests for other protocols not covered here, like SMTP for email, or FTP for file transfer and storage, it is their ability to respond to web page requests that is the underlying force keeping the entire world wide web up and running.

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cPanel - Addon Domain

Addon Domains are addition domains hosted in your account, stored in subfolders. System treats these domains as a subdomain to your system. If you want to run a whole different website under the same hosting plan, you can use this feature of cPanel. It is the best option to run multiple websites on a single cPanel account. For example, you have a hosting for blogging website, and you want a different website for your CV, you will not need to purchase a different hosting account, but you can use the same hosting for your CV website.

To use this feature, you will need to click Addon Domains link under your Domains section from cPanel Home.

In Addon Domains interface, you can do the following tasks.

Create an Addon Domain

To create an Addon Domain, follow these steps −

Step 1 − Find Create an Addon Domain section in Addon Domains, as shown below.

Step 2 − Fill your domain name in New Domain Name textbox.

Step 3 − Subdomains and Document Root will be automatically filled. Then you can leave the setting as it is or you can change them according to your need.

Step 4 − You can create an FTP account, which will be associated with the Addon Domain. To create an FTP account, select the checkbox on which Create an FTP account associated with this domain is written.

Step 5 − Enter FTP Username and Password to create an FTP account.

Step 6 − Click on the button “Add Domain”, if no error occurs, you will get a success message.

Remove an Addon Domain

To remove an Addon Domain, Scroll down to “Modify Addon Domain” Section and press remove link from Actions corresponding to the Addon Domain.

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Web Hosting Providers

If you want your web site to be visible to the world,  you have to store it on a web server.

Most small businesses and companies store their web site on a server provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Hosting Your Own Web

Hosting your web site on your own server is always an option. Here are some problems to consider:

Hardware Expenses

To run a "real" web site, you will have to buy some powerful server hardware. Don't expect that a low cost PC will do the job. You will also need a permanent (24 hours a day ) high speed connection to your office, and such connections are expensive.

Software Expenses

Don't forget to count the extra cost for software licenses. Remember that server licenses often are much higher than client licenses. Also note that some server software licenses might have limits on number of concurrent users.

Labor Expenses

Don't expect low labor expenses. Remember that you have to install your own hardware and software. You also have to deal with bugs and viruses, and keep your server constantly running in an environment where "everything could happen".

Using an Internet Service Provider

Renting a server from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a common option. Here are some advantages:

Connection Speed

Most providers have very fast connections to the Internet, like full T3 fiber-optic 45Mps connections equivalent to about 2000 traditional (28K) modems or 1000 high speed (56K) modems.

Powerful Hardware

Service providers often have many powerful web servers that can be shared by several companies. You can also expect them to have an effective load balancing, and necessary backup servers.

Security and Stability

Internet Service Providers are specialists on web hosting. Expect their servers to have more than 99% up time, the latest software patches, and the best virus protection.

Things to Consider

24-hour support

Make sure your Internet service provider offers 24-hours support. Don't put yourself in a situation where you cannot fix critical problems without having to wait until the next working day. Toll-free phone could be vital if you don't want to pay for long distance calls.

Daily Backup

Make sure your service provider runs a secure daily backup routine, otherwise you may lose some valuable data.

Traffic Volume

Study the provider's traffic volume restrictions. Make sure that you don't have to pay a fortune for unexpected high traffic if your web site becomes popular.

Bandwidth or Content Restrictions

Study the provider's bandwidth and content restrictions. If you plan to publish pictures or broadcast video or sound, make sure that you can.

Email Capabilities

Make sure your provider fully supports the email capabilities you need. (You can read more about email capabilities in a later chapter)

Front Page Extensions

Make sure your provider fully supports FrontPage server extensions if you plan to use FrontPage to develop your site.

Database Access

Make sure your provider fully supports the database access you need if you plan to use databases from your site.

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cPanel - Registering a Domain Name

If you have a website developed locally or you have planned to make a website, then there are two things that you will need — a Domain Name and Web Hosting. A Domain name is the address of your website, which will be used by your users to access it. For example, want2host.com or google.com these are domain names.

A domain name has two parts, TLD (Top Level Domain) and SLD (Second level domain), for example in want2host.com, want2host is second level domain of TLD .com, or you can say it’s a subdomain of .com TLD. There are many top level domains available, like .com, .net, etc. and also country specified TLD like .in, .uk, .ae, etc.

Importance of a domain

Getting a domain name of your choice can be very useful. You can use it for many reasons, for instance, you can create the identity of your brand online or you can create a personal blogging website. If you have a business, people will be able to learn about your business remotely.

Registering a Domain Name

Domain names are registered with a non–profit organization ICANN. It does not let you register your domain directly, but you will have to go with a domain registrar for this purpose. Domain name registrations involve a registration fee for a year, and you have to renew the domain every year by providing a renewal fee. Domain names cannot be purchased permanently at once, but you have to renew it every year, if you fail to renew the domain, it is automatically deleted from registry.

If you want to register your domain name, then you will have to follow these steps −

Step 1 − Choose a perfect domain name for your website. If it’s a business website, then you may want to go with a domain name, which is the name of your business.

Step 2 − Choose a good domain registrar company having good support infrastructure. For example, GoDaddy or BigRock.

Step 3 − In the registrar’s website, check if your domain name is available for registration. If the domain you selected has been already registered by someone, then you will have to think of some other domain name. If your domain name is available to register, then you can proceed further.

Step 4 − Provide your contact information and everything that the registrar asked for. It is mandatory that you provide correct information while registering a domain name, as it will be visible to everyone if the user looks for WHOIS information.

Step 5 − You can hide your contact details by choosing to be viewed by anyone by subscribing privacy protection service. This service hides all your contact information to everyone except the registrar, this service is provided by many domain registrars at some extra cost.

Step 6 − Complete the purchase by paying the registration fees. Domain name will be registered to you.

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Web - Ecommerce Hosting

Ecommerce is a way of doing business through Internet. You are doing ecommerce, especially when you are selling your products or services through Internet. If you planning to put a website which will have transactions such as buying or selling items or services, then it means you are going to setup an ecommerce website. If this is the case, then I don't think this guide will help you up to a level where should be able to setup an ecommerce site because there are many more things which should be considered while setting up an ecommerce website.

Still you can start from here − E-commerce hosting is a bit expensive, but they are not as expensive that you cannot start an ecommerce website. Nowadays, it is very easy to set up an ecommerce site. All that one needs to do is to get in touch with any good service provider and start gathering basic information.

There are many service providers who help you set up your virtual store and charge you unexpectedly very low. Google has also started google account service in which you can sell your products.

While finalizing your ecommerce hosting setup, you should be very clear on how to handle the following −

◉ Customer Registrations

◉ Customer Transactions

◉ Product Catalogs

◉ Customer Orders

◉ Order Security

◉ Server Security

◉ Server Maintenance

◉ Server Backup

◉ Server downtime

◉ Inventory Control

◉ Shipment Methods

◉ Payment Methods

◉ Foreign currency

◉ Credit Cards

◉ Taxes issues

You should take this list and discuss it with your service provider as well to understand how they will support you to handle all these items.

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How world-wide-web (www) is different from the Internet?

Before answering the question of how www is different from the Internet?

First, let’s understand what does Internet means ?

According to Wikipedia, the definition of the Internet is:

The Internet (a portmanteau of the interconnected network) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide.

In simple terms, it is also known as Networks of Networks which links all devices together globally.

Is anyone in charge of the Internet?

Honestly, nobody is in charge of the Internet. The Internet is a large distributed network there is no central authority of controlling it how the packets should be routed from the networks. It makes sure everyone has an end to end connectivity Just like a phone call.

Now, let’s talk about what is the world wide web is ?

An information system on the Internet which allows documents to be connected to other documents by hypertext links, enabling the user to search for information by moving from one document to another.

World Wide Web is one of the services which is provided by the internet over HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol). It uses URL(Uniform Resource Locator) to locate file and HTML(Hypertext markup language) to display the information which can be rendered by your browser.

In analogy, we can consider the world wide web is a movie theater and the road as an internet.

Apart from world-wide-web, the Internet supports other protocols like FTP(File Transfer Protocol), SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), POP(Post Office Protocol), etc.

Nowadays the rise in mobile computing there is a steady decline in the usage of the world wide web. Most of the world wide web services are provided as a mobile app like Gmail, Spotify, YouTube, etc. which are easily accessible to the users.

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cPanel - Overview

cPanel is a Linux-based hosting management control panel. It is used to manage your website and server’s backend working system. It provides graphical user interface for most of the tasks we perform on the website’s server, for example, uploading files, creating emails, setting cron jobs, handling databases, etc.

cPanel Users

cPanel is installed on a Linux system by the server administrator. With the help of the cPanel Software Server, an Administrator can create Virtual Private Servers or it can dedicate the whole server for shared hosting environment. cPanel Shared hosting has three types of user levels.

Server Administrator − This user is the root user of a cPanel Linux Server and has all the permission over the server. Server Admin can create, modify or delete any account from the cPanel Server. The Server Admin has access to cPanel WHM (Web Host Manger), which can be understood as the backend of cPanel.

Reseller Accounts − This user is created by the server administrator and server administrator can choose which type of permissions should be given to reseller accounts. A Reseller account can further create user accounts and has access to all those accounts, which they have created. One reseller account does not have access to the user accounts that were created by another reseller accounts. They also have access to WHM with limited permissions.

User Account − These are normal user accounts, each user who subscribes for a web hosting from a company, is given this type of account. They do not have access to Web Host Manager. User account can host single or multiple websites according to their plans they have purchased from web hosting provider.

Why cPanel

cPanel is packed with many features that is not provided by other web hosting management panels. It is graphical, hence, non–technical users can also use it perfectly. cPanel is responsive to the screen size, hence can be used in mobile and tablets. It will automatically adapt the screen size of the device.

cPanel is very easy to use and configure. It automatically adjusts all the advanced setting for web hosting. A user hardly needs to go to the command line to configure any settings, as it already has all the features inbuilt.

Advantages

cPanel offers the following advantages −

◉ It is very easy to host a website using cPanel.

◉ It is multiannual and available in many languages.

◉ It is responsive and adapts to any screen size, it can be used efficiently in mobile and Tablet too.

◉ cPanel has in–built File Manager, which helps in managing your files without the hassles of an FTP.

◉ cPanel has integrated webmail software, which helps in sending and receiving emails through online webmail client.

◉ You can easily create a backup of your website in a few steps. This will help you to restore your backup, if your website encounters any error.

◉ You can easily manage your website databases, as cPanel has integrated phpMyAdmin, which helps to directly manage databases.

Disadvantages

cPanel does not have any significant drawbacks, however here are a couple of its notable disadvantages −

◉ cPanel is a commercial software and you need to pay to get this.

◉ cPanel is meant for small and medium websites only. Creating a large website using cPanel is not recommended.

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