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How Web Sites Work
Many different components are
involved in getting a web page up and running. A web browser, server, and host
work together to call up a given web site.
What a Web
Browser Does
A web browser is a computer software program that can
go to a web server and request a page. Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator
are the most common browsers, although there are a number of others. Online
services such as America Online (AOL) and CompuServe use adaptations of these
popular browsers. The browser then pulls the page through the Internet, and
ultimately shows it on your computer screen. It's also able to interpret the
various computer "languages" that web sites use to form web pages, and it
displays the web site you've requested on your computer screen.
What
a Web Server Does
Web servers are programs that run on server
machines, either at your business or at the web host. They identify and
retrieve the particular page you've requested through your browser, and then
instruct that it be sent out over the Internet and displayed on the requesting
computer screen. They handle many requests on many pages simultaneously. In
general, the more powerful the server machine, the more pages it can serve at
the same time.
What a Web Host Does
Web hosts literally
house web sites and provide the web services that make those sites available on
the Internet. Host computers store the contents of your site, as well as your
email and web site address — identifying information that enables others
to communicate with your site. Some larger companies and many government and
educational institutions host their own sites, but virtually all individual
users and many companies find it too unwieldy and expensive to purchase and
maintain the equipment necessary to host their own sites.
What a
Domain Name Does
Web browsers and web servers work together through
web hosts to call up web pages by using the Internet protocol (IP) address that
is registered along with a domain name. A web browser finds a web page based on
its IP address, also known as its URL (uniform resource locator). All web
servers on the Internet also have domain names, which are registered to a
particular IP address. Domain names are easier for humans to remember than the
numerical locator that makes up the actual IP address. Ours is
www.MyWebGal.com or
www.MyInternetBusinessStrategy.com. This name is actually a
three-part designation: the host name (www, for World Wide Web), the domain
name (MyWebGal), and the top-level domain name, .com, which indicates a
commercial or business site. Other domains include .edu, for education-oriented
sites; .org, for organizations; .net, for some specialized Internet and
computing sites; .gov, for government sites; and .mil, for military sites.
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