Web Hosting is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity

A domain name is what you type in the browser's address bar to go to a specific website. For example, http://www.webhive.co.nz (in today's browsers, it is not necessary to type the symbols http:// any more). A domain name provides an online identity and a contact point for your business, organization, or project. Almost every transaction on the Internet relies on a domain name to conduct commerce, display Web pages, deliver e-mail, and more.

As explained earlier in Web Servers, the location of a website in a server is really specified by a series of numbers, called the IP address (for example: 63.241.136.31). However, this would be too hard to remember.

The creators of the Internet took this into account, and domain names were created. Domain names act like an address forwarding service that directs the Internet user to the server, and then looks for the IP address that corresponds to the domain name.

A domain level extension (also known as a Top Level Domain) is the letter combination to the right of the domain name, after the "dot". Therefore, a domain name like yahoo.com has what we call a "dot com extension". You will also find .net, and .org extensions, along with a host of newly popularized extensions like .biz, .name, .tv, etc., as well as country level domains (.us for the US, .br for Brazil, .it for Italy, and so on.)

Originally, .com extensions were intended for commercial ventures, while .net's were intended for use by Internet Service Providers and .org's by non-profit organizations or groups. Truth is, this original classification is no longer accurate, and anybody can register a domain name with those extensions.

Web servers are computers on the internet that host websites, serving pages to viewers upon request.

Every web server has a unique address so that other computers connected to the internet know where to find it on the vast network. The IP (Internet Protocol) address looks something like this: 67.205.59.181. This address maps to a more human friendly address, such as webhive.co.nz.

Webhive rents out space on our web servers to people or businesses to set up their own websites. The web server allocates a unique website address to each website it hosts.

When you connect to the internet, your personal computer also receives a unique IP address assigned by your ISP (internet service provider). This address identifies your computer's location on the network.

When you click on a link to visit a website, like www.webhive.co.nz, your browser sends out a request to Webhive's IP address. This request includes return information and functions like a postal letter sent across town, but in this case the information is transferred across a network. The data package passes through several computers on the way to Webhive, each routing it closer to its ultimate destination.

When your request reaches its destination, the web server that hosts Webhive's website sends the page in HTML code to your IP address. This return package travels back through the network. Your computer receives the code, then your browser interprets the code and displays the page for you in graphic form. Web servers stay connected to the Internet 24/7, 365 days a year.

Bandwidth indicates how much data can be relocated at one time from a web server onto an Internet user's computer.

Data transfer - on the other hand - refers to how much data is moved (received or sent) from your account during a specific period. Webhive measures data transfer on a monthly basis. Every visit to your web page will move all the relevant data on your site (all the HTML code, the text and all the graphics) from the web hosting server onto the visitors computer, where it's viewed via a web browser.

The amount of data that's being transferred can be calculated easily by multiplying the size of your site (all the code, text, graphics and multimedia) by the number of visitors. Most of your data transfer will be used up by the pictures and multimedia files your visitors will see each time they visit your site. Audio, video and Flash files are real transfer eaters.

It's important to remember to be able to balance your visitors with the amount of transfer you have available and the size of your site. If you're new to the Internet and have little or no experience with web site design, if you mainly want a personal site, then you'll most probably need no more than 150-200 MB monthly. Webhive offers tiered hosting, so if you ever need more data transfer, you can easily upgrade to a larger plan.

The term data allocation refers to how much of the space on the web server you will be allowed to use for storage. The files you wish to make accessible via your website have to be able to fit into this space. HTML files, text files, graphics, multimedia and Flash all take up room on the server.

An easy way to calculate how much disk space allocation you will need is to copy all of your web site to your local hard disk. The size of all the documents combined represents how much disk space your site will take up on the web server.

Webhive offers allocation starting from usually a few MB to several GB for larger web sites. It's important to understand that anything stored on your web hosting accounts counts as disk allocation. Everything from email to Flash files take up space on your account.