Web Application:

Overview
Millions of businesses use the Internet as a cost-effective
communications channel. It lets them exchange information with their
target market and make fast, secure transactions. However, effective
engagement is only possible when the business is able to capture and
store all the necessary data, and have a means of processing this
information and presenting the results to the user.

Web applications use a combination of server-side scripts (PHP and

ASP) to handle the storage and retrieval of the information, and client-
side scripts (JavaScript and HTML) to present information to users. This
allows users to interact with the company using online forms, content
management systems, shopping carts and more. In addition, the
applications allow employees to create documents, share information,
collaborate on projects, and work on common documents regardless of
location or device.

Definition:
A web application is a computer program that utilizes web browsers and
web technology to perform tasks over the Internet.

A web application (or web app) is application software that runs on

a web server, unlike computer-based software programs that are run
locally on the operating system (OS) of the device. Web applications are
accessed by the user through a web browser with an active internet
connection. These applications are programmed using a client–
server model structure—the user ("client") is provided services through
an off-site server that is hosted by a third-party. Examples of commonly-
used web applications include: web-mail, online retail sales, online
banking, and online auctions.

How a web application works

Web applications are usually coded in browser-supported language such

as JavaScript and HTML as these languages rely on the browser to
render the program executable. Some of the applications are dynamic,
requiring server-side processing. Others are completely static with no
processing required at the server.
The web application requires a web server to manage requests from the
client, an application server to perform the tasks requested, and,
sometimes, a database to store the information. Application server
technology ranges from ASP.NET, ASP and ColdFusion, to PHP and
JSP.
Here's what a typical web application flow looks like:

1. User triggers a request to the web server over the Internet, either
through a web browser or the application’s user interface
2. Web server forwards this request to the appropriate web
application server
3. Web application server performs the requested task – such as
querying the database or processing the data – then generates
the results of the requested data
4. Web application server sends results to the web server with the
requested information or processed data
5. Web server responds back to the client with the requested
information that then appears on the user’s display

Example of a web application

Web applications include online forms, shopping carts, word processors,
spreadsheets, video and photo editing, file conversion, file scanning, and
email programs such as Gmail, Yahoo and AOL. Popular applications
include Google Apps and Microsoft 365.

Google Apps for Work has Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google
Slides, online storage and more. Other functionalities include online
sharing of documents and calendars. This lets all team members access
the same version of a document simultaneously.

Benefits of a web application

 Web applications run on multiple platforms regardless of OS or

device as long as the browser is compatible
 All users access the same version, eliminating any compatibility
issues
 They are not installed on the hard drive, thus eliminating space
limitations
 They reduce software piracy in subscription-based web
applications (i.e. SaaS)
 They reduce costs for both the business and end user as there is
less support and maintenance required by the business and lower
requirements for the end user’s computer
Conclusion
Increased Internet usage among companies and individuals has
influenced the way businesses are run. This has led to the widespread
adoption of web applications as companies shift from traditional models
to cloud-based and grid models. Web applications give businesses the
ability to streamline their operations, increase efficiency, and reduce
costs.

These online apps such as email clients, word processors,

spreadsheets, and other programs provide the same functionality as the
desktop versions. However, they have an added advantage of working
across multiple platforms, having a broader reach, and being easily
accessible from anywhere.

Basic Concepts of Web:

What is Internet?
The Internet is essentially a global network of computing resources.
You can think of the Internet as a physical collection of routers and
circuits as a set of shared resources. Some common definitions given in
the past include −

 A network of networks based on the TCP/IP communications

protocol.
 A community of people who use and develop those networks.

Internet-Based Services:
Some of the basic services available to Internet users are −
 Email − A fast, easy, and inexpensive way to communicate with
other Internet users around the world.
 Telnet − Allows a user to log into a remote computer as though it
were a local system.
 FTP − Allows a user to transfer virtually every kind of file that can
be stored on a computer from one Internet-connected computer to
another.
 UseNet news − A distributed bulletin board that offers a
combination news and discussion service on thousands of topics.
 World Wide Web (WWW) − A hypertext interface to Internet
information resources.
What is WWW?
WWW stands for World Wide Web. A technical definition of the World
Wide Web is − All the resources and users on the Internet that are
using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
A broader definition comes from the organization that Web inventor Tim
Berners-Lee helped found, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C):
The World Wide Web is the universe of network-accessible information,
an embodiment of human knowledge.
In simple terms, The World Wide Web is a way of exchanging
information between computers on the Internet, tying them together into
a vast collection of interactive multimedia resources.
What is HTTP?
HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This is the protocol being
used to transfer hypertext documents that makes the World Wide Web
possible.
A standard web address such as Yahoo.com is called a URL and here
the prefix http indicates its protocol
What is URL?
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and is used to specify
addresses on the World Wide Web. A URL is the fundamental network
identification for any resource connected to the web (e.g., hypertext
pages, images, and sound files).
A URL will have the following format −
protocol://hostname/other_information
The protocol specifies how information is transferred from a link. The
protocol used for web resources is Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Other protocols compatible with most web browsers include FTP, telnet,
newsgroups, and Gopher.
The protocol is followed by a colon, two slashes, and then the domain
name. The domain name is the computer on which the resource is
located.
Links to particular files or subdirectories may be further specified after
the domain name. The directory names are separated by single forward
slashes.
What is Website?
Website is a collection of various pages written in HTML markup
language. This is a location on the web where people can find tutorials
on latest technologies. Similarly, there are millions of websites available
on the web.
Each page available on the website is called a web page and first page
of any website is called home page for that site.
What is Web Server?
Every Website sits on a computer known as a Web server. This server
is always connected to the internet. Every Web server that is connected
to the Internet is given a unique address made up of a series of four
numbers between 0 and 256 separated by periods. For example,
68.178.157.132 or 68.122.35.127.
When you register a Web address, also known as a domain name, such
as google.com you have to specify the IP address of the Web server
that will host the site.
What is Web Browser?
Web Browsers are software installed on your PC. To access the Web,
you need a web browser, such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft
Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.
Currently you must be using any sort of Web browser while you are
navigating through a site gmail.com. On the Web, when you navigate
through pages of information this is commonly known as browsing or
surfing.
What is SMTP Server?
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Server. This server
takes care of delivering emails from one server to another server. When
you send an email to an email address, it is delivered to its recipient by
a SMTP Server.
What is ISP?
ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. They are the companies who
provide you service in terms of internet connection to connect to the
internet.
You will buy space on a Web Server from any Internet Service Provider.
This space will be used to host your website.
What is HTML?
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the language in
which we write web pages for any Website. Even the page you are
reading right now is written in HTML.
This is a subset of Standard Generalized Mark-Up Language (SGML)
for electronic publishing, the specific standard used for the World Wide
Web.
What is Hyperlink?
A hyperlink or simply a link is a selectable element in an electronic
document that serves as an access point to other electronic resources.
Typically, you click the hyperlink to access the linked resource. Familiar
hyperlinks include buttons, icons, image maps, and clickable text links.
What is DNS?
DNS stands for Domain Name System. When someone types in your
domain name, www.example.com, your browser will ask the Domain
Name System to find the IP that hosts your site. When you register your
domain name, your IP address should be put in a DNS along with your
domain name. Without doing it your domain name will not be
functioning properly.
What is W3C?
W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium which is an international
consortium of companies involved with the Internet and the Web.
The W3C was founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the original
architect of the World Wide Web. The organization's purpose is to
develop open standards so that the Web evolves in a single direction
rather than being splintered among competing factions. The W3C is the
chief standards body for HTTP and HTML.

Web - How it Works:

On the simplest level, the Web physically consists of the following
components −
 Your personal computer − This is the PC at which you sit to see
the web.
 A Web browser − A software installed on your PC which helps
you to browse the Web.
 An internet connection − This is provided by an ISP and
connects you to the internet to reach to any Website.
  A Web server − This is the computer on which a website is
hosted.
 Routers & Switches − They are the combination of software and
hardware who take your request and pass to appropriate Web
server.
The Web is known as a client-server system. Your computer is the
client and the remote computers that store electronic files are the
servers.

How the Web Works

When you enter something like Google.com the request goes to one of
many special computers on the Internet known as Domain Name
Servers (DNS). All these requests are routed through various routers
and switches. The domain name servers keep tables of machine names
and their IP addresses, so when you type in Google.com it gets
translated into a number, which identifies the computers that serve the
Google Website to you.
When you want to view any page on the Web, you must initiate the
activity by requesting a page using your browser. The browser asks a
domain name server to translate the domain name you requested into
an IP address. The browser then sends a request to that server for the
page you want, using a standard called Hypertext Transfer Protocol or
HTTP.
The server should constantly be connected to the Internet, ready to
serve pages to visitors. When it receives a request, it looks for the
requested document and returns it to the Web browser. When a request
is made, the server usually logs the client's IP address, the document
requested, and the date and time it was requested. This information
varies server to server.
An average Web page actually requires the Web browser to request
more than one file from the Web server and not just the HTML / XHTML
page, but also any images, style sheets, and other resources used in
the web page. Each of these files including the main page needs a URL
to identify each item. Then each item is sent by the Web server to the
Web browser and Web browser collects all this information and displays
them in the form of Web page.
Web - Browser Types:
Web Browsers are software installed on your PC. To access the Web,
you need a web browser, such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft
Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.
Currently you must be using any sort of Web browser while you are
navigating through our site tutorialspoint.com. On the Web, when you
navigate through pages of information, this is commonly known as web
browsing or web surfing.
There are four leading web browsers − Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, and
Safari, but there are many others browsers available. You might be
interested in knowing Complete Browser Statistics. Now we will see
these browsers in bit more detail.
While developing a site, we should try to make it compatible to as many
browsers as possible. Especially sites should be compatible to major
browsers like Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Netscape, Opera, and Safari.

Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer (IE) is a product from software giant Microsoft. This is
the most commonly used browser in the universe. This was introduced
in 1995 along with Windows 95 launch and it has passed Netscape
popularity in 1998. You can download a latest version of this browser by
clicking here → Download Internet Explorer

Google Chrome
This web browser is developed by Google and its beta version was first
released on September 2, 2008 for Microsoft Windows. Today, chrome
is known to be one of the most popular web browser with its global
share of more than 50%.

Mozilla Firefox
Firefox is a new browser derived from Mozilla. It was released in 2004
and has grown to be the second most popular browser on the Internet.
 Safari
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included in Mac
OS X. It was first released as a public beta in January 2003. Safari has
very good support for latest technologies like XHTML, CSS2 etc.

Opera
Opera is smaller and faster than most other browsers, yet it is full-
featured. Fast, user-friendly, with keyboard interface, multiple windows,
zoom functions, and more. Java and non Java-enabled versions
available. Ideal for newcomers to the Internet, school children, handicap
and as a front-end for CD-Rom and kiosks.

Conqueror
Conqueror is an Open Source web browser with HTML 4.01
compliance, supporting Java applets, JavaScript, CSS 1, CSS 2.1, as
well as Netscape plugins. This works as a file manager as well as it
supports basic file management on local UNIX filesystems, from simple
cut/copy and paste operations to advanced remote and local network
file browsing.

Lynx
Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web browser for users on Unix,
VMS, and other platforms running cursor-addressable, character-cell
terminals or emulators.

Web - Server Types:

Every Website sits on a computer known as a Web server. This server
is always connected to the internet. Every Web server that is connected
to the Internet is given a unique address made up of a series of four
numbers between 0 and 255 separated by periods. For example,
68.178.157.132 or 68.122.35.127.
When you register a web address, also known as a domain name, such
as tutorialspoint.com you have to specify the IP address of the Web
server that will host the site. You can load up with Dedicated Servers
that can support your web-based operations.
There are four leading web servers − Apache, IIS, lighttpd and Jagsaw.
Now we will see these servers in bit more detail.
Apart from these Web Servers, there are other Web Servers also
available in the market but they are very expensive. Major ones are
Netscape's iPlanet, Bea's Web Logic and IBM's WebSphere.

Apache HTTP Server

This is the most popular web server in the world developed by the Apache
Software Foundation. Apache web server is an open source software and
can be installed on almost all operating systems including Linux, Unix,
Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and more. About 60% of the web server
machines run the Apache Web Server.

Internet Information Services

The Internet Information Server (IIS) is a high performance Web Server from
Microsoft. This web server runs on Windows NT/2000 and 2003 platforms ( and
may be on upcoming new Windows version also). IIS comes bundled with Windows
NT/2000 and 2003; Because IIS is tightly integrated with the operating system so it
is relatively easy to administer it.

lighttpd
The lighttpd, pronounced lighty is also a free web server that is distributed with the
FreeBSD operating system. This open source web server is fast, secure and
consumes much less CPU power. Lighttpd can also run on Windows, Mac OS X,
Linux and Solaris operating systems.

Sun Java System Web Server

This web server from Sun Microsystems is suited for medium and large websites.
Though the server is free it is not open source. It however, runs on Windows, Linux
and Unix platforms. The Sun Java System web server supports various languages,
scripts and technologies required for Web 2.0 such as JSP, Java Servlets, PHP,
Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, ASP and Coldfusion etc.

Jigsaw Server
Jigsaw (W3C's Server) comes from the World Wide Web Consortium. It is open
source and free and can run on various platforms like Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac
OS X Free BSD etc. Jigsaw has been written in Java and can run CGI scripts and
PHP programs.
Web - Site Advantages:
we have listed out a few major advantages of keeping a website.

Business is Open 24x7

This means that once you put your business onsite, then your business is open 7
days a week and 365 days a year. Even if you are in different locations of the world
then you will be able to serve your customers on 24x7 hours basis.

Increased Customer Base

Because anyone in the world can see your website so you will gain customers from
other states and countries while you are putting in the same amount of effort and
money.

Tremendous Cost Saving

This is one of the biggest advantages of having a business online. You do not need
to keep a big man power and lot of resources to maintain a business on site. There
are many other cost saving opportunities while keeping business online. Think of
how many cards you mail out to let customers know about your sale. All of that can
be eliminated by putting the sale information on your website and inviting your
customers to visit it.

Advertising Opportunities
Apart from saving your advertising cost, you have additional opportunities to run
advertisements from other companies and start making money. If you ever
advertised in a local newspaper, you know the costs. You are being charged per
line, per inch, and per color. On the Web, there is no limit to how much you can put.
So whenever there is a new product or service, then you can advertise it in a better
way.

Creates a Brand Image

Internet is a great medium through which you can create any image of yourself
which you want. It is all in your hands. For example, you can design a professional
website, add helpful content, and your company will immediately take a step up in
the image it represents. No matter how small your business is, with the right tools
and a great desire you can make it look like a corporation on the Web.

Customer Satisfaction
If you have a really good site online, then you can give your customers a lot of
satisfaction in terms of customer care. You can keep online help, FAQ, and other
important information which is useful for your customers. You can create online
forums for open discussion and you can conduct customer survey to take customer
feedback etc.
Showcase Your Work
Whether you are a real estate agent, construction business owner or a beauty salon
specialist − you can put your work on display when you have a website. Anytime a
potential client wants to see your past work and projects, simply refer him or her to
your site. No need to scan and mail pictures, or bring your client to a finished
building project.

Web - Tools Required:

As a basic necessity, you need a good internet connection from a reliable service
provider which provides decent connectivity and speed. Evaluate vendors based on
their services and support before selecting. Here due diligence plays a major part.
The following tools and infrastructure will help you in developing a Website −
 Computer Machine − If you do not have computer available and you
received this tutorial printed on a paper then I would say that first of all you
would need a computer machine running either Windows or Linux or UNIX or
Macintosh system or any other operating system.
 Internet Connection − If you are not connected to the internet and you
received this tutorial printed on a paper then I would say that this is second
and another most important tool would need to connect to the Internet and to
you Web Server where you will host your website. For this purpose you can
buy either a dial up connection or broadband connection of high speed
connectivity based on your requirement and budget.
 A Web Server − Apart from basic Internet connectivity you will need one
Web Server to keep all the files related to your Website. So you would need
to buy space on a Web Server. There are millions of ISPs who are in
business of selling web space at competitive prices.
 A Text Editor − This is another most important tool which you will need to
develop your Website. If you are using Windows then you can
use notepad as a text editor, or if you are using Linux/Unix then vi editor is
one of my favourite editors. You will need this editor to write your HTML,
PHP or ASP pages or for any other editing purpose.
 A Web Browser − You will need this tool to see the result of your HTML file.
So you should have either Internet Explorer or Firefox etc. installed on your
computer.
 Web Authoring Tools − If you don't want to use a simple Text Editor to edit
your HTML files then there are many commercial Web Authoring Tools
available. These tools are also called HTML editors. Microsoft's FrontPage
and Macromedia Dreamweaver are both a visual HTML (WYSIWYG) and
HTML source code editor. These editors help you to develop your HTML
pages vary rapidly.
 Secure telnet client − If you are connecting to your Web server directly then
you can use a tool called PuTTY. This is what I'm using while connecting to
my web server.
 Secure FTP client − If you are connecting to your Web server directly using
FTP client to upload or download your web files then you can use a tool
 called PSFTP. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Simply put, after you
design your website, you need to send it to the Web and your FTP program
will do just that for you. This is what I'm using while connecting to my web
server.

Web - Domain Names:

A domain name is the part of your Internet address that comes after "www". For
example, in yahoo.com the domain name is yahoo.com.
A domain name becomes your Business Address so care should be taken to select
a domain name. Your domain name should be easy to remember and easy to type.

How to Get a Domain Name?

When you plan to put a site online, this is one of the important steps to
buy a domain name. This is always not necessary that whatever
domain name you are looking that is available so in that case you will
have to opt for any other good domain name.
When you buy a domain name it is registered and when domain names
are registered they are added to a large domain name register, and
information about your site − including your Internet IP address is stored
on a DNS server and your contact information etc. is registered with
your registrar.
You can buy domain name from any domain registrar like GoDaddy

Domain Extension Types

There are many types of domain extensions you can choose for your
domain name. This depends on your business nature.
For example, if you are going to register a domain name for education
purpose then you can choose .edu extension.
Below is a reference of the correct usage of certain extensions. But
there is no hard and fast rule to go for any extension. Most commonly
used is .com
 .com − Stands for company/commercial, but it can be used for
any website.
 .net − Stands for network and is usually used for a network of
sites.
 .org − Stands for organization and is supposed to be for non-profit
bodies.
 .us, .in − They are based on your country names so that you can
go for country specific domain extensions
  .biz − A newer extension on the Internet and can be used to
indicate that this site is purely related to business.
 .info − Stands for information. This domain name extension can
be very useful, and as a new comer it's doing well.
 .tv − Stands for Television and are more appropriate for TV
channel sites.
Newer domain extensions such as .biz .info and .us etc. have more
name choices available as many of the popular domains have yet to be
taken and most of them are available at very nominal prices.

Choosing a Domain Name

The domain name will be your business address. Hence, it is imperative
that you choose the domain name with utmost care.
Many people think it is important to have keywords in a domain.
Keywords in the domain name are usually important, but it usually can
be done while keeping the domain name short, memorable, and free of
hyphens.
Using keywords in your domain name gives you a strong competitive
advantage over your competitors. Having your keywords in your domain
name can increase click through rates on search engine listings and
paid ads as well as make it easier to using your keywords in get
keyword rich descriptive inbound links.
Avoid buying long and confusing domain names. May people separate
the words in their domain names using dashes or hyphen. In the past
the domain name itself was a significant ranking factor but now with
advanced search engines, it is not a significant factor anymore.
Keep two to three words in your domain name − it will be more
memorable. Some of the most memorable websites do a great job of
branding by creating their own words. Examples include eBay, Yahoo!,
Expedia, Slashdot, Fark, Wikipedia, Google...

What are Sub-Domains

You can divide your domain into many sub domains based on your
requirement. If you are doing multiple business using the same domain,
then it would be useful to have sub-domains for every business.
Following are examples of some sub-domains −
You must have seen google.com as a main domain but google has
created many subdomains based on their business. Some of them are
as follows −
  adwords.google.com − This sub domain is being used for Google
Adwords.
 groups.google.com − This sub domain is being used for Google
Groups.
 images.google.com − This sub domain is being used for Google
Images.
This way, you can present your different business sections in a very
good segregated way. It is not a big thing to create a sub-domains. If
you already have registered a domain, then your registrar will provide
you a way to create sub-domains. You may need to talk to your
registrar for more detail.

Web - Site Construction:

Now you are ready for a website construction. We have to take many
factors into consideration. The major factors that will help you to
construct a better website −

What to Put on Your Website?

What you would have on your website totally depends on your business
and the nature of your website. Here is a list of pages that you might
want to create for your website.

 Attractive Home Page: Always required for every website.

 List of Product and Services along with complete detail.
 Complete Pricing Information.
 About your company and nature of business including your
achievements.
 About your staff and if possible, their experience.
 Your complete contact information.
 Frequently Asked Questions.
 Success Stories and Feedback from Customers.
Finally, make your site useful and interesting for your customers. Your
site visitors are your customers and they should find each and
everything they are looking for. Customer satisfaction should be your
prime concern.

How to Design Your Website?

You should not simply start developing your website, otherwise you will
end up with a bogus website. First, you should put a complete plan and
your design on a paper or in an electronic document.
In this section, we have listed out a few points which can help you to
design a better website −
 Consider what technology you are going to use to develop your
website. Adopt one which gives you better flexibility and rapid
development opportunities and then design it accordingly.
 Design a generic framework so that in future you can enhance and
modify your website by putting minimal effort.
 Design a site to keep required performance in mind. If you are
designing database driven website then lot of effort has to put to
design good database schemas.
 Keep your design as simple as possible so that any new
developer should become familiar with your design as soon as
possible.
 Identify repeatable components of your website and then keep
them separate and try to use them wherever possible.
 Identify the nature and qualification of your site visitors and give
importance to look and feel accordingly.
 Think from the perspective of a site visitor. If you were a visitor,
then how would you like to see this website? If the same site
belongs to somebody else, then would you like to spend some
time on such site?
 You should create a search engine friendly website.
Once again.... your presentation should be unique and attractive,
otherwise there are a lot of websites available on the Internet and it will
be difficult for you to retain a site visitor for more than a minute.

How to Make a Website Interactive?

Many statistics show that if you are able to retain your site visitors for a
long time, then they do bigger shopping and visit the site again and
again.
So make sure you have done something for your site visitors to do on
your website. Offering a lot of quality information can serve as a great
magnet for visitors.
Here is a list of some interactive tools that you can add to your website
without any programming skills or incurring any costs −

 Poll
 Forum
 Guest book
 Chat room
  Greeting cards
 Tell-a-friend about this site
 Feedback form
 Live customer service
 Daily joke or daily cartoon
 Daily news headlines
 Site Search Engine
 Mailing List
 Automated Frequently Asked Questions
 The list can go on and on, depending on what will attract your type
of visitors.

How to Code Your Website?

Finally, when you start coding for your website, you should be well
aware of the following tips for a better website −
 Your site should meet all the quality requirements defined by
W3C. Today we are using XHTML to develop any website.
XHTML is just a cleaner version of HTML.
 You should keep validating your source code using W3C
Validator.
 Do use appropriate comments but avoid using to many comments
inside HTML files.
 Keep your style sheets and JAVA or VB scripts into separate files
and then include them where ever is required.
 Do not use too much graphics in your web pages.
 Try to keep your web pages static instead of generating them
dynamically.
 Make sure there is no broken link on any web page.
 Test your developed web page in major browsers like Internet
Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, etc.
 Test your all the scripts for all the possible scenarios. Do not host
any page without complete testing.
How to Create a Search Engine Friendly Website?
It is very important to make your website search friendly, otherwise you
will be away from a large chunk of your customer base which comes
from search engines like google and yahoo.
Securing Your Source Code Frequently
While developing your website, it is very important to keep a backup of
your complete source code. Many times, you might accidentally delete
a file. If you have a backup, then you can restore previous files and start
doing your work.
It is a good practice to take backup on an hourly basis or at least on a
daily basis. Keep this backup on a different machine or media.
Web - Hosting Concepts:
Web hosting deals with putting the contents of your website on a Web
server. Hosting your website on your own server could be an option.
But this will become very much expensive unless you are hosting a site
like yahoo.com or google.com. Buying a server space or renting a
complete server from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the most
widely used option. This section guides you to choose a hosting type
and makes you aware of other related concepts.
Hosting Platforms
You can go for any of the following two most widely used hosting
platforms −
 Windows Hosting Servers − If you are a Windows lover then you
will find many hosting servers running different flavours of
Windows and you can buy space from these servers.
Normally Windows hosting servers are more expensive because
of lot of software licensing costs are involved with these servers.
 Linux Hosting Servers − If you want to go for Linux then
opportunities are unlimited and you will have to pay less then
what you will pay for Windows Hosting Server. There are many
ISP who provides Hosting Servers with different flavours of Unix.
Hosting Types
There are many options available and you can select any hosting type
based on your requirement and budget. Following are most widely used
hosting types −
Free Hosting
Yes, this is true there are many service providers who will give you free
space on their web server with a condition that you will allow them to
run their advertisement at your web pages. So if you are OK with this
option, then you have nothing to pay for a space. There are some
websites like geocities.com, lycos.com, myspace.com, etc. that give
you space to build your web pages.
Shared Hosting
With shared hosting, your website is hosted on a powerful server along
with other websites. On a shared host, you will have your own user ID
and password to login to the shared host and you will be allowed to
work in your work area. You would not be able to touch any file or
directory belonging to other host partner. Even you would not know how
many sites are hosted on your shared host. This type of hosting is very
cost effective and good for small websites where your space and speed
are not very important. Here traffic on one site will affect the spee d of
all other hosted sites.
Virtual Dedicated Hosting
This type of hosting is better for medium size business. With virtual
dedicated hosting, you will have a dedicated bandwidth and dedicated
RAM for your site. You will be given a root ID and password to maintain
your Web server. You will be the complete owner of your virtual
dedicated server and will be able to install or de-install any software.
This type of hosting is created on a single server, but it is managed in
such a way that every user will have dedicated speed and bandwidth.
This is bit more expensive but really good one for medium size
business.
Dedicated Hosting
This type of hosting is very similar to virtual dedicated hosting, but here,
a complete machine will be allotted for you. They are more expensive
than virtual dedicated hosting and should be considered when you have
a very high traffic requirement.
Collocated Hosting
It is very difficult to set dedicated resources such as high-security
against fire and vandalism, regulated backup power, dedicated Internet
connections and more. Collocation is the option which allows you to put
your machine in a service provider's premises to avail all the available
facilities. This is also a very expensive option and should be opted
when you have very high traffic requirement.
Hosting Components
When you buy a Web server space, then you should be clear about the
follows. You should do a price comparison between different service
providers based on the following components −
Disc Space
A small or medium website will require between 10 and 100MB of disk
space. If you plan to keep a lot of audio and video on your website, then
you need plan to buy more space. Before buying server space, you
should check the options available to expand your disc space if you
need it in future.
Monthly Traffic
A small or medium website will need between 1GB and 10GB of data
transfer on a monthly basis. If you plan to keep a lot of audio and video
on your website, then you need a plan with more data transfer capacity.
Check different options based on your requirements. What are the other
options available in case you cross the given data transfer limit. Your
site should not be stopped in case you exceed given limit.
Processing Speed
If you are buying space on a shared machine, then you cannot guess
how much speed will be given to you. In that case, only way is to see
other hosted sites with the same service provider to know about their
hosting quality. But if you are buying virtual dedicated server or
dedicated server, then you should consider how much RAM is being
allocated to you. Your pricing will depend on the given processing
power to you.
Connection Speed
Nowadays, most service providers allow very fast connection speed. So
choose a service provider who is giving better connection speed in
terms of bits per second. You can have a connection speed ranging
from 64Kb per second to 2.488Gb per second.
Email Accounts
Make sure you are going to get sufficient number of e-mail accounts.
There are many other options available which come along with your e-
mail account. Like, will you get IMAP, POP and E-mail Forwarding
options available along with your e-mail facilities.
Emailing Support
Apart form having email accounts, it is also very important that your
web server should have a facility to send emails from back-end. In case
your site visitors want to contact to you using a form, then you will be
able to use that emailing facility to send emails to your designated
account. In simple terms, you should make sure that the SMTP Server
is setup and working on your Web server.
Latest Technologies
You should make sure that your web server is equipped with all the
latest technologies. It should have the latest version support for PHP,
PERL, ASP and JAVA, etc.
Databases
There are many databases available MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, etc.
You should choose your server based on your database requirement. If
you are buying space on a shared server, then you need to verify how
much space will be allocated for your database. Many ISPs do not give
more than a limited space for databases. If your site needs a lot of
database size, then you should go for a virtual dedicated server.
Server Uptime
It is important that you buy a web server from a reliable and reputed
ISP. You should make sure your ISP is giving you 99.99% server
uptime. If the is server down, then there are many service providers
who gives you compensation in case your sites goes down more than a
limited number of time.
Backup & FTP
Make sure your Service Provider is giving you more ways of taking
regular backup of your website. If your site is changing everyday, then it
becomes very important that you should take regular backup of your
website. Many service providers do it on your behalf by charging a
small cost for this service.
Control Panel
Just make sure what type of facilities you will get to maintain your
hosting account. Check if your service provider is providing you an
easy-to-use Control Panel or some other similar tool. Using a Control
Panel, you should be able to maintain basic operations related to your
website such as logging your service request, your reboot request, or
any other problem.
Customer Support
Before finalizing a deal with your service provider, you should make
sure they provide you the required support. You can get this information
using Internet forums or from your friends. There are many service
providers who give you 24x7 support for any technical or non-technical
problem.
Web - Ecommerce Hosting:
Ecommerce is a way of doing business through Internet. You are doing
ecommerce, especially when you are selling your products or services
through Internet. If you planning to put a website which will have
transactions such as buying or selling items or services, then it means
you are going to setup an ecommerce website. If this is the case, then I
don't think this guide will help you up to a level where should be able to
setup an ecommerce site because there are many more things which
should be considered while setting up an ecommerce website.
Still, you can start from here − E-commerce hosting is a bit expensive,
but they are not as expensive that you cannot start an ecommerce
website. Nowadays, it is very easy to set up an ecommerce site. All that
one needs to do is to get in touch with any good service provider and
start gathering basic information.
There are many service providers who help you set up your virtual store
and charge you unexpectedly very low. Google has also started google
account service in which you can sell your products.
While finalizing your ecommerce hosting setup, you should be very
clear on how to handle the following −

 Customer Registrations
 Customer Transactions
 Product Catalogues
 Customer Orders
 Order Security
 Server Security
 Server Maintenance
 Server Backup
 Server downtime
 Inventory Control
 Shipment Methods
 Payment Methods
 Foreign currency
 Credit Cards
 Taxes issues

Web - Site Backup:

Your server's hard drive crashed. Your site is hacked and the hacker
deleted all your files. Your web host disappeared with your money and
your data. Even worse, there was and earth quack and your ISP
building is gone down and everything is lost.
Touch Wood!!! Nobody should face such a situation. But if you are not
prepared for these situations, your hard work might be lost forever. That
is why it is of the utmost importance that you keep regular backups of
your data.
Now there are many questions −

 How frequently backup should be taken?

 Where this backup should be preserved?
 What type of backup should be taken?
 Who should take these backups?
 Now let us answer these questions one by one −
How Frequently Backup Should be Taken?

If your site is not changing over a period of time, then it is advisable to

take backups only once and keep it on your hard disc or data disc or
DVD wherever you like. In case you need to restore it, just do it and see
if your website is up and running.
But if you are in the habit of making frequent modifications on your site,
then it is necessary that you take regular backup. Websites like
amazon.com have very tight backup schedules and very expensive
backup infrastructure.
It depends on your business and you have to see how much data loss
you can bear. If you think it is not affordable to lose even a single day’s
data, then I would recommend to schedule daily backup and similarly,
you can decide if weekly or monthly backup are OK for you or not.
Where the Backup Should be Preserved?

Most of the times, backups are taken from one machine and saved on
another machine or media. If possible, you should arrange a different
backup server where you can FTP your complete data to be backup up.
If this is not too much then you can keep it in data CD or DVD etc.
If possible, keep multiple copies of backup but with a managed way to
avoid any confusion. You should have a proper version control over
different backups. There are many service providers who provide you
different backup servers with a very nominal cost and it is
recommended that you spend that amount on backup services.
What Type of Backup Should be Taken?
There are two types of backups − incremental and full. It depends on
what type of backup tools you are using. There are many backup tools
− for example, Oracle provides its own utilities to take different types of
backups.
 Incremental Backup − The backup’s controller compares the
existing backup with the data that you wish to backup. If there is
an exact match between the two, then no additional files will be
backed up. However, if you have added or edited any file, these
files will be updated in the backup, thus the name incremental.
 Full Backup − Here all files are written to the backup, even if they
already exist in the most current backup.
Who Should Take These Backup?
The simplest case is that you can login to your web server on a monthly
or weekly basis and copy all the website related files on different
computer or media. It works only in case you have limited amount of
data on your site.
If you have a huge database and numerous files, then it is difficult to
manage such backups on an everyday and weekly basis. In such
cases, you may need to have automated scripts to take backup and
keep them at another machine or media.
You can write your shell script or perl script and browse through
different directories and collect all the files and zip them automatically,
assign them a unique backup number and then ftp those files on a
designated backup server or media like tap drive.
Conclusion
It is up to you to decide how you want to take your backup. If you are a
website owner, then you must take regular backup without failure. Else,
it might lead to serious consequences.

Web - Site Statistics:

Once your site is up and running, it is important that you track your
visitors and analyze what they are using. You should have a detailed
information on the following −
  Who is your visitor? − You should have your site visitor IP
address available with you to know the geographical location and
identity of that visitor.
 Visitors’ Timestamp − You should be aware of the time when
your site gets the most number of visitors so that you can plan a
server down easily. Secondly, timestamp and IP address will help
you identify your site visitors in case an investigation is required
against a site visitor.
 What the visitors prefer? − What pages did the site visitor view
on your website will give you an idea about the importance of
various sections of your website.
 How visitors came? − This is another important information you
should be aware of. How are you getting your site visitors? Are
they coming directly or coming through some other website or
advertising program.
 How long do they stay? − How much time a visitor spends on
your site? If visitors are leaving your site just after browsing 1 or 2
pages, then you should come up with some innovative ways to
retain them for a longer duration.
 Visitors’ Browser − This information is important to improve your
website for that type of web browsers.
Statistics Programs
There are many websites that help you to find out all the information
discussed in the previous section. You just need to keep a small piece
of code in the <head<....</head> section of your web pages and you will
have not only all the above mentioned information but also a complete
analysis of your site.
 You can try Googles Analytics Program to capture your website
statistics.
 Another good program is Webalizer. This will give you all the basic
site statistics you need.
 There is a site from sourceforge which gives you opportunity to
collect your website statistics. So you can try it as well AWStats.
Site Statistics Terminology
Go through the following terms so that become more comfortable with
your site statistics report and analysis.
 Unique Visits − The number of unique visitors you had in a given
time period. Example − if there was only a single person who
visited your website, and visited 1,000 separate times in a day,
 the unique visits would just be one. The uniqueness is counted
based on the IP address of the visitor.
 Total Visits − The total number of visits including duplicate visits
that a website receives in a given time period. Each time a site
visitor reaches your site, it is counted as one visit.
 Page Views or Page Impressions − Each time a web page is
loaded, it is referred to as a page view. If you are counting a
website link available on this page, then it will be counted as a
page impression.
 Hits − Hits are very similar to page views and will be counted
every time a visitor clicks any link related to your website.
 Direct Access − It refers to the people who accessed your
website through their bookmarks or typed in your URL manually in
the URL box of the browser.
 Referrer & Referral URL − The web address where the visitor
followed a link to reach your website. For example, if someone
finds your website in google search and clicks over the link to
reach your site, then google will be the referrer.