Are you unsure of the internet or even how it works. Maybe you do not understand how it works. James River Webs (JRW) encounters these questions almost every engagement that we do. Our clients want to know why buying a domain entails paying a yearly fee. Or why they need to pay a monthly hosting fee after they have "bought" the name. We have put together a single page on some internet terminology. This is not intended to give you everything you need to understand the web. Our attempt is to give you a brief description and some general definitions.
To start with when "buying" a name you are actually buying a domain.
Think of setting up a web site as setting up a store. First you must decide what name you wish to call it. Then you must find a place to put your store. This scenario is no different for the web. First must purchase the name (ie. www.domain.com), then the place to put this store, is the cost of monthly hosting.
The web consist of many pieces. First there is your computer and web browser software. The browser is used to display the content of the pages. When you type in an address URL (ie. www.jamesriverwebs.com) and press enter, you travel through many routers and switches to end of at the server which is associated with the address. Once there that server finds the first page (Home Page) that is being requested. These web pages are stored in specific locations on the server. Once you have requested it, that server sends data back to your browser which displays it on your screen.
A web site is simply a collection of single web pages. These web pages are written in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). This html can contain graphics, audio, video, text, animation, as well as interactive items such as forms, data entry, reports, etc.
DEFINITIONS:
Domain:
Hosting:
Web Site:
Web Page:
Url:
Browser: