Understanding website and hosting in a simple way
From a layman point of view the website concept can be simply understood by relating it to a school where students are issued with a Roll Number and an Identity Card.
A class with students is identified by a list of Roll Numbers and Names.
A hosting provider like HostGator or Hostinger provides you with a 3 in 1 account which provides a domain name, website and hosting space. Here is how you can understand how this concept works.
Hosting space is like a class room. Once you buy hosting space, you will get a blank class room. Your package can have just one student in a class room or there can be three students or there can be unlimited students in a class. But just like in a regular school, you cannot have unlimited students, similarly you cannot have unlimited websites in one package. There will be limitations and we shall come to that later.
Website is the physical student. The actual person who is going to put on the uniform and will be identified by a Roll Number and a Name.
The Name of the student is like the domain name of a website. It is linked with a Roll Number which is the IP address. Since you cannot remember a Roll Number, you remember the student by name. But numbers are easy to process, hence there is a Roll Number list too.
What to know as an owner of a website
Many times small brand owners will need a website and they will hire professionals to do the same. There will be some tech aspects to it. Here is how each thing is linked and processed.
Your hosting package is registered with an Email address. You need access to this email and no one else should have access. If someone wants to steal you hosting package, the email is the first barrier. Then comes the password. So if any person wants to steal it, the first thing on the agenda is to change the email address.
The hosting provider can give additional security to the account by enabling two factor authentication. That means every login will happen only after password and a code. While the password remains same, the login code will change every time and will be created at the time of login.
One hosting account just like a classroom can have multiple websites, like students. Each website if created in WordPress will have an admin username and password. There are different role enabled for a WordPress Website. So as per that there can be multiple accounts within a website. An admin account will have full control over the website. The account can be in the form of a username or email and a password.
Lastly the domain name also like a roll number is registered within your hosting account. It is registered against your name. If domain privacy is enable, this information is not available to view in public. If someone wants to steal your domain name, they will have to login in your hosting account first and then generate a transfer code from within. All this information will be send to your on the registered Email Address.
A periodic backup of the website is important so that if both the hosting package and the domain name gets stolen, you can still get the website up and running with another domain name. At least your data is safe.
If you are hosting websites on Blogger, it is a good idea to activate two factor authentication on your gmail account.
So here is the master list again
- Hosting package – Username and password
- Website – Admin account username and password
Both Hosting and Website admin details have to be under the control of the owner of the brand.
