Registrars, Hosts, Domains, OH MY!
7/11/2017
This article is a summary of some of the geeky mumbo jumbo that goes along with registering a domain name and getting your website up there on the internet.
If you already know all that stuff just scroll down to the bottom for today's dictionary.com word of the day.
Without getting into all the gory details - an inviting website should have a recognizable domain name -like myUMCchurch.org or facebook.com to help people find your website. Buying or renewing a domain name isn't the most exciting thing you'll do this week, but it's easy and relatively cheap.
Here's some of the vocabulary that goes with the process:
- Domain Name - a unique name that ends in .com, .org or dot something else. Web browsers use domain names to find files and code stored on web servers.
- Registrar - a company that holds the lease on your domain name and points it to the server that stores your website files.
- Hosting Service, Host - a company that leases you some space on their servers for your website files.
- Internet Service Provider - a company that connects your computers to the internet - for a small monthly fee, of course.
- Cloud Based Hosting Service - a regular hosting service leases you a set amount of space and bandwidth. Cloud based services offer virtually unlimited space and additional services.
The important things to know...
You purchase or '
register' a
domain name from a
registrar. You can never own it forever - you have to lease it for one or more years. There is no set cost - most
registrars will lease you something like
myUMCchurch.org for about eight bucks a year. They might lease
myUMCchurch.biz or
.info for $.99. You'll get better discounts for multi-year registration.
Your
registrar will provide a way for you to point your
domain name to special servers that control how
domain names relate to their respective web sites.
Many
registrars are also
hosting companies. They would love you to
register domain names and then pay them to
host the websites - but that is never required. GoDaddy is the biggest name in this business. You can
register a
domain name at GoDaddy - but that doesn't mean you need to pay them to host your site. Brick River should host your site.
When you register a domain name you have dibs on it forever - as long as you renew it before it expires. One minute after it expires anyone else can buy it - even your arch-nemesis.
If you own a
domain name, you should have some process in place to get reminders from your
registrar when it is time to renew. If you don't know the details of your domain ownership, you can look up the
registrar and other info at:
https://whois.icann.org.
Registrars and
Hosts have nothing to do with your
Internet Service Provider. If you call Comcast or Horizon they will not help you to register a domain name or host a website.
With
traditional hosting services, your site is your responsibility. Most of them offer tools to help you create web pages and do other tasks, but unless you pay them for data backups and software updates - you will have to do all that stuff yourself.
Brick River provides
cloud hosting for all Brick River for Churches websites. You never need to pay another provider for hosting services when you create your site with Brick River.
AND... (this is huge)
cloud based services provide far better data protection and backup then
traditional hosting services. Our servers are backed up continuously throughout the day.
If you were to accidentally delete the entire content of your website - we can restore it within a few hours - at no charge.
That's it. Email us if you have any questions!
Today's
dictionary.com word of the day is perambulator. (
per-am-byuh-ley-ter ) - noun
- a baby carriage
- an odometer pushed by a person walking.
"My Brick River website gets more attention than a perambulator full of french fries at a seagull convention!"
Share this page
