Welcome to the business website FAQ page. This page should provide you with a basic understanding of how your website will be seen throughout the world, and also answer many of the questions we are often asked.
I am making my first website, explain how things work?
If I am downloading text, how does it look so nice when I view a website?
If I have my own computer then can I just make my website on it?
I am making my first website, explain how things work?
Any ordinary website as you know it is not much more than a text file on a computer which can be read by anybody on the internet. When you visit a website you are actually downloading the contents of a text file and that file is then displayed to you.
If I am downloading text, how does it look so nice when I view a website?
When you download a page from a website, the page is not written the same way as you might write a report, letter, or email. Instead, web pages have their own language which is supposed to ensure that a website looks almost exactly the same no matter which country, computer, or operating system you are using to view the page. This language is called Hyper Text Markup Language (or HTML). This special way of writing web pages handles the formating of a page, the images on the page and its menu system. When you download a web page your computer's internet browser reads the HTML and displays the words and pictures to you correctly formatted. Along with HTML, there are other website technologies to help create a page such as CSS, Java, Flash, php and more.
How do you get to a website?
Every connection to the internet has an Internet Protocol address (or IP Address). Much like every house has a mailing address and every connected phone has a phone number, an IP address is a unique number which identifies a computer, or connection to the internet. When you wish to call a friend you dial their phone number, and when you wish to visit a website you must use the web site's IP address. In order to make your life simpler you are not required to remember the IP address of a website, but instead you can type in the name of the website and your computer will look up the number for you in the same way that a phone book allows you to find phone numbers by searching for a name.
What is a Domain Name?
A Domain Name is a unique name which is registered to a specific IP address. When someone types a domain name into their web browser, it will get resolved into the IP address corresponding to the website who owns the domain name. Some examples of a domain name would be "BestBuy.com", "Walmart.com", and "FournierComputerService.com". Typing in these names brings you to their respective websites, without you having to worry what their IP address is. Domain names are used because it is easier for people to remember names than it is for them to remember long numbers.
If I have my own computer then can I just make my website on it?
We do not recommend that you host your own website for a couple of reasons. While it is entirely possible to host your own website from your own computer - there are a lot of aspects you may not be prepared for. First, the computer hosting your website must always be turned on. People do not want to check your website only during business hours. For similar reasons, you cannot have a website hosted on computer which will be turned off, restarted, crashed, or used by too many other programs. You must be able to upload your site from the computer to those looking at your website quickly. It may require, at times, significant bandwidth. You most likely have consumer internet which provides you with a large download bandwidth, but much much less upload capabilities. Lastly you much always stay on top of security, software, and performance upgrades and patches, plus have a general understanding how to host your site, manage your IP address, and keep your system and network secure behind a firewall while also allowing normal website traffic to flow freely.
How does Email Work?
When you send or receive email you are sending or receiving a text based message to a virtual "mailbox". That mailbox is actually hard drive space on an email server. An email is saved on the email server until the owner of the mailbox downloads the email to their personal computer. The size of this virtual mailbox varies from company to company. When you write a message and send it to "
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
" you are sending the message to the FournierCS.com email server, and it is being placed in a mailbox for Nicholas. Remember that FournierCS.com is a domain name, and that the @ symbol denotes email. Any text before the @ symbol is the name of the mailbox. If the mailbox name you typed does not exist, the email will be sent back just as a letter in the mail will come back saying "no such address".
I am looking at buying a website - what is "web space"?
As you know, a web page is not much more than a text file. A web site is a series of web pages, or also a series of text files. Websites of course also contain pictures, some have video, and almost all of them have a lot of content. Each file and each photo takes up a small amount of space on the web server ( a web server is the computer hosting a website). When you are looking to buy a website from a company, you are actually renting an amount of space on a computer. The amount of hard drive space you are allowed to use to create, and store files and pictures and content is referred to as "web space".