Passkey Providers and Enabling Portability: FIDO Paris Seminar.pptx
Web Hosting 101 - HOW ID 2012
1. WEB HOSTING 101
A QUICK GUIDE TO DEMYSTIFY THE TECHNOLOGY OF WEB HOSTING
PATRICK MCNEIL – HOW INTERACTIVE DESIGN 2012
2. LET’S TALK ABOUT
ACRONYMS
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3. WHY?
WHY BOTHER TO LEARN THE TECHNICAL SIDE?
1. To help your clients solve problems
2. To help you work better with your tech team
3. To better understand how the web works
4. To help you deal with hosting
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4. WHO AM I?
I AM PATRICK MCNEIL
1. Find me on pmcneil.com
or on twitter @designmeltdown
2. I am a writer, designer, teacher and developer
3. I have worked in the web community for around
12 years now
4. I started in the IT field and my foundation in the
web started with the hardware
5. I love to write books, talk about design and teach
designers about the web
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5. 3 PARTS TO
HOSTING A SITE
TO HOST A WEBSITE YOU NEED THREE BASIC THINGS:
1. A domain name
2. DNS
3. A web host (aka a server)
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6. PART 1:
DOMAIN NAMES
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7. DOMAIN NAMES
A TEXT STRING USED TO IDENTIFY A WEB SERVER ON THE INTERNET
Such as:
1. Google.com
2. Irs.gov
3. HOWinteractivedesign.com
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8. REGISTERING A
DOMAIN
MANY WAYS TO GET A DOMAIN NAME
1. Through registrars such as Name.com
2. Through all-in-one hosting services such as GoDaddy
3. Through hosted CMS systems such as Squarespace
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10. FINDING A
DOMAIN OWNER
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11. WHOIS
A QUERY TO THE REGISTRAR DATABASE
• Domains are registered in a database, which
WHOIS lets you search.
• It's easy; knowing where to start is 90% of the
battle. Go here: http://whois.domaintools.com
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12. Contact information
1. Registrant
2. Administrative
3. Technical
4. Billing
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13. WHOIS PRIVACY
WORTH THE GAMBLE?
1. Pay to play
2. Gives registrar added control
3. New rules regulate this
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14. TRANSFERRING
DOMAINS
MOVING DOMAINS BETWEEN REGISTRARS
• A little work
• A little money
• Why?
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15. PART 2:
DNS
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16. DNS
STANDS FOR DOMAIN NAME SERVICES
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17. TTL TRICKS
MANIPULATE TTL WHEN CHANGING HOSTS
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18. DNS IS THE GLUE
THAT CONNECTS
YOUR DOMAIN
TO A SERVER
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19. WHAT IS A
HOSTNAME
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF HOSTNAMES:
1. pmcneil.com
2. www.pmcneil.com
3. mail.pmcneil.com
4. www2.pmcneil.com
5. intranet.pmcneil.com
6. anything-i-want.pmcneil.com
7. many.sub.domains.pmcneil.com
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20. URLS
STANDS FOR UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR
A sample URL
http://www.howinteractivedesign.com/site-of-the-day
Protocol Sub domain Domain name File path
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21. WHERE DO YOU
SET UP DNS?
DNS SERVERS ARE ESTABLISHED WHEN YOU REGISTER A DOMAIN
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22. HOW TO
MANAGE DNS
YOU HAVE OPTIONS
1. You can use a dedicated service such as dyn.com
2. You can do it through your domain registrar, usually for free
3. You can do it through your web host, often automagically
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24. 3 KEY TYPES OF
RECORDS
THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF DNS RECORDS, BUT THESE ARE THE ONES TO KNOW:
• Hostname
• CNAME
• MX record
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25. HOSTNAME
RECORD
POINTS A HOSTNAME TO AN IP ADDRESS, ALSO KNOWN AS AN “A RECORD”
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26. CNAME RECORD
POINTS A HOSTNAME TO ANOTHER HOSTNAME – AN ALIAS
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27. MX RECORDS
USED TO ROUTE EMAIL
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28. PART 3:
THE WEB HOST
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29. WEB HOSTING
A WEB HOST STORES THE DOCUMENTS THAT MAKE UP YOUR WEBSITE.
How does this work?
• Web servers are computers connected to the
internet at all times.
• Each web server (an actual computer) can host
dozens, hundreds or thousands of sites.
• A web host stores your site’s documents and
sends them to people's computers as they are
requested.
• You pay a host to store and deliver your site's
files.
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30. HOSTING TYPES
FOUR KEY HOSTING OPTIONS
• Shared
• Virtual private
• Dedicated
• Cloud
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31. SHARED
HOSTING
THIS IS YOUR TYPICAL $2.99 UNLIMITED HOSTING PLAN
• Least amount of control
• Hundreds and even thousands of sites on a single server
• Cheapest option
• Slowest option
• Often they offer unlimited sites
• Backups are not trustworthy
• Speed can be impacted by the other sites
• Often the servers are extremely cheap computers
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32. VIRTUAL PRIVATE
THE NEXT STEP UP, FOR A BIT MORE CASH
• Your own private virtual server
• Less sites per physical server
• Much greater control
• Backups are typically an add-on
• Still impacted by the other sites
• Price is based on the server you configure (memory, disk etc)
• Maintenance issues!
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33. DEDICATED
SERVER
MOST EXPENSIVE OPTION
• Your own private server
• A physical computer just for you
• Total control – you can install anything and host tons of sites
• Backups are typically an add-on
• Price is based on the server you configure (memory, disk etc)
• The ultimate in power and control!
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34. CLOUD HOSTING
A MIX OF BENEFITS
• Almost always priced per site
• Powerful, reliable and very affordable
• Extremely reliable
• Backups are typically an add-on
• Price is based on the plan you configure (memory, disk etc)
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35. YOU GET WHAT
YOU PAY FOR
NOT ALL HOSTS ARE CREATED EQUAL
• Carefully consider the price point
• What about backups?
• Consider the business needs
• What about security?
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36. HEY, WHAT
ABOUT EMAIL?
EMAIL HAS TO BE HOSTED AS WELL
• Often bundled with web hosting (you'll see it in a plan "with X email accounts")
• Typically not included with dedicated servers and sometimes included with virtual servers
• It can be separated from your web host
• MX records route email and can point anywhere you want
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37. ALL-IN-ONE
HOSTS
THESE HOSTS COMBINE ALL THESE SERVICES TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER:
They combine:
• Domain registration
• DNS
• Web hosting
• Email hosting
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38. HAVE A
STRATEGY
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39. IT’S SIMPLE
JUST SEPARATE ALL THE COMPONENTS
1. Domain registration
2. DNS
3. Email
4. Web hosting
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40. WHY?
KEY BENEFITS TO SEPARATING THE COMPONENTS OF YOUR WEBSITE:
1. It lets you shop around.
2. You select components based on your needs.
3. You select providers based on their key strengths.
4. Managing many sites and domains becomes easier.
5. 5.Above all, changes are easier.
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41. MY APPROACH
MY MIXED APPROACH BALANCES CONVENIENCE AND COSTS
1. Domain registration & DNS combined : name.com
2. Email: Google Apps for free email hosting
3. Web hosting: the cloud hosting service from Rackspace.com, and sometimes Media Temple
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42. RECOMMENDED
SERVICES
1. Domain registration
1. Name.com
2. DNS
1. Via name.com
3. Email
1. Google Apps (free!) - http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/
2. Rackspace Email - http://www.rackspace.com/apps/email_hosting/
4. Web hosting
1. http://www.bluehost.com/
2. http://mediatemple.net/
3. http://www.rackspace.com/
4. http://www.firehost.com/
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43. QUESTIONS?
GET IN TOUCH: MCNEILP@GMAIL.COM
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44. THANK YOU
VIEW THIS PRESENTATION:
PMCNEIL.COM
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Editor's Notes
But with a laser focus!I promise to only introduce the needed onesAnd I promise to keep it clear
This comprises the necessary components to host and run a website. Next time you have to help a customer move or setup a site you will encounter these elements. Often times they are all grouped into a single service, but they can also be split up and built using separate components. Personally I combine domain registration and DNS into one provider (name.com) and web hosting in an appropriate location.
A domain name is used to identify a web server on the internet. Behind the scenes your computer translates domain names into IP addresses. These addresses are what are actually used to locate computers online. A good comparison is to physical mailing addresses, which don’t mean much without out the latitude and longitude associated to them. The address is just a pretty name for a set of numbers. Note that the domain name doesn’t include the “www” or anything after the suffix at the end.
DNS is what your computer uses to translate a domain name into an IP address.
URL This stands for Uniform Resource Locator. But is most easily understood as the address to an individual web page
In order for a web browser to be able to request documents for the user to view, those documents have to be stored someplace. Web hosting is where documents are stored. When web hosting is setup, a domain name is connected to the plan or account. In this way, the web server knows that when a request comes in for a certain domain name it can respond with the correct documents. Web servers are connected to the internet at all times and are ready to send out documents at any time. Each server (an actual computer) can host many web sites. So one web server might host dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of web sites. When you purchase web hosting, you are getting an account on a server to store your documents.
Contrast an all in one host with a separated approach
