WHAT IS A WEBSITE? Answer.....

When you register a Domain Name (i.e. websitecreationhelp.com) with a Web Hosting Provider you normally rent some Web Space from them as well. That web space is just some hard drive space on their computer (server), and more precisely just a Folder on their computer. That folder, which acts as your main/root folder, is normally named after your domain name (i.e. websitecreationhelp.com) and has a sub-folder inside it called public_html.

The public_html sub-folder is where you should store your website content (html files, image files, forum files, blog files, video files and so on). It is your web hosting provider's job to link your domain name (i.e. websitecreationhelp.com) to your web space, which in turn links to your public_html folder, so that when someone types your domain name into their web browser's (i.e. internet explorer's) Address Bar edit box they should be able to see your website content (i.e. web pages) through the display area of their web browser. This is because your web hosting provider has registered (made public/live on the internet) your domain name and has pointed it (linked it) indirectly to your public_html sub-folder.

On top of this scenario your web hosting provider also puts other files and sub-folders of their own into your web space (i.e. your Control Panel files and their system files). Therefore a website to you is the main/root, websitecreationhelp, folder that contains a public_html sub-folder for your web pages and so on. To the general public though, because they only get to see what is inside your public_html sub-folder, they would say/think a website is the content of your public_html sub-folder only.

Fig 1.0  Inside the web space (main/root, websitecreationhelp, folder) of websitecreationhelp.com




Fig 1.1  Inside the public_html sub-folder of websitecreationhelp.com

Fig 1.0 shows you an example of what is inside the web space (main/root, websitecreationhelp, folder) of websitecreationhelp.com. There is a sub-folder specifically for the Automatic Response of emails and email in general. A sub-folder for Control Panel ADD-ONs and Passwords. And a sub-folder called public_html for your website content (html files, image files, video files and so on).

Fig 1.1 shows you an example of what is inside the public_html sub-folder. By treating the public_html sub-folder as a main folder in its own right (instead of a sub-folder of the main/root, websitecreationhelp, folder) you can then treat its sub-folders as sub-folders and not as sub-sub-folders of the main/root, websitecreationhelp, folder. So CGI-BIN for example is classed as a sub-folder of public_html and not as a sub-sub-folder of the main/root, websitecreationhelp, folder. In other words. Treat the main/root, websitecreationhelp, folder and the public_html sub-folders as two separate entities, because that is normally what happens anyway - Very rarely should you need to use the main/root, websitecreationhelp, folder. Most of the time you will use the public_html folder (sub-folder!) to upload files and install PHP Scripts.

A standard/classic web page (website page) is a file ending with the file name extension .htm or .html. It is a text file that normally contains Internet & Web Browser Instructions (HTML codes, JavaScript codes and/or CSS code), Text (Information) and HyperLinks (Links to Pictures and other Web Pages and Websites) but can also contain (be embedded with) Video, Music and Animation files. I say standard/classic because these days a web page can contain HTML codes, JavaScript codes, CSS codes and PHP codes for example instead of just 100% HTML codes like years ago and it can end with a .php file name extension.

HTML is the core programming language of a web page (text file). Without it the other codes (JavaScript, CSS and PHP) cannot exist. Many people think PHP web pages (.php files) are raw web pages that can work without HTML codes, but this is not true. PHP, CSS and JavaScript are programming languages in their own right that extend the possibilities for the HTML language. In other words. Each web page has to have the core HTML codes inside it for it to work with a web browser. After that, PHP codes and so on can be combined and/or linked into the web page (HTML text file). Hence why they are also termed as Scripting (text based) Languages. So to clarify. A web page at its root is simply a text file made up of codes from different languages.

Inside each folder, main folder or sub-folder, there has to be a file (web page) called index.htm or index.html (or even index.php). It is called the Index Web Page because it is supposed to index all the other web pages (files) within its folder, and because it is the first web page (file) that a Web Browser (such as Internet Explorer) displays. For example. If you type www.websitecreationhelp.com into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box it will display the index.htm web page (file) within the public_html sub-folder.

Without getting strictly technically; A website address is normally the full domain name. For example. This website's full domain name is www.websitecreationhelp.com. So when someone asks me "What is your Website Address" I reply with "www.websitecreationhelp.com". Strictly speaking though, a website address (domain name) does not have to end with .com. It can end with .net, .co.uk, .biz and so on. A website address, just like a house address, tells you where to find something. For example. My house address tells everyone where I live (where to find me) and my website address (www.websitecreationhelp.com) tells everyone where to find these lessons.

Again, without getting strictly technically; An URL is just another way of saying Path Name or Location. For example. When you want to view a web page from within the public_html folder, but not the Index web page, you type its URL (path name/location) into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box. So if you wanted to view this web page you could type the web address www.websitecreationhelp.com into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box and then click on the link called Website Terminology. Or you could just type in its URL www.websitecreationhelp.com/web_terminology.htm. With website addresses and URLs the forward slash / is used in the path name - With a computer folder the back slash \ is used instead.

One thing to remember is that because an URL is a path name it means it can point (be linked/directed) to a video file, music file or zip file for example. It does not have to point to a web page. Examples: www.websitecreationhelp.com/video.wmv, www.websitecreationhelp.com/sound.wma and www.websitecreationhelp.com/software.zip.

To view a web page (file) from a particular website you use a program called a Web (Website/Internet) Browser. The five most common web browsers, at this time, are Internet Explorer (Microsoft), Firefox (Mozilla), Chrome (Google), Opera (Opera Software) and Safari (Apple) but there are others out there.

After typing a website address (i.e. www.websitecreationhelp.com) or URL (i.e. www.websitecreationhelp.com/web_terminology.htm) into your web browser's Address Bar edit box and then clicking on its GO button it is the job of that web browser to connect to the computer (server) hosting the typed website address or URL. Once this connection has been made the web browser can then begin to download and display the content that the website address or URL points to - Website Address: download/display the index web page and its content. URL: download/display a web page and its content. URL: download/display a folder's index web page and its content. URL: Download a non-web page file directly. Remember. The URL is a path name that can point to the location of something.

A Server is a master (hosting) computer that serves the needs of its clients, with your computer being one of those clients. Your ISP's (Internet Service Provider's/Broadband Provider's) computer is a server for example that serves your computer's internet needs - Connections to web pages, forums, blogs, security/ftp/email servers and so on. In relation to your website, your web hosting provider's computer is a server because it serves your website/ftp needs. For example. Your computer (the client) can upload files, via ftp, to your public_html folder which resides on your web hosting provider's computer (server).

When your ISP's computer cannot make a connection to another computer, such as the Hotmail computer (server) to check your email for example, you say "The (Hotmail) Server Is Down" because no connection could be made to it. In the case of Hotmail, who have millions of client computers (connections) to serve, sometimes their server will shutdown. And the same thing can happen to your web hosting provider's server. These days though big companies usually have more than one server, attached to each other as a network of servers, so that in the event of a server breaking down another server can easily be employed with a backup of your data on it. In this case a backup of your website files. Something else that can shutdown your website is too many visitors, especially if you do not have enough bandwidth and/or if your web hosting provider cannot cope with too many connections.

Your computer can change from a client computer to a server computer. For example. If you set up a wireless or cable network you can set it up so that your computer is the master computer - the server. So at the end of the day a website-specific server is a master computer that manages visitors (client connections), uploads/downloads, email and website tools (i.e. Control Panel tools). And a client is the visitor's computer.

A home page is the web page that you first see when your web browser opens. For example. If the home page is set to www.google.com, every time you open a new Internet Explorer the first web page it will display is the Index web page from the Google website.

The home page does not have to be a website. It could be an URL. For example. The home page could be set to www.bbc.co.uk/bbc2/ if you wanted the BBC2 web page as the first web page to display when internet explorer starts. In this case the connection would be to the sub-folder called bbc2 of the main/root folder (web space) called bbc. The web page that would be displayed (not specified in the URL) is the index web page inside the bbc2 sub-folder. Because the bbc2 sub-folder was the last folder to be named in the URL it is set to the current folder. And because no web page was given in the URL (i.e. television.htm) the default (standard/normal) web page is used instead, which is always the index web page. Hence why every folder (main/root folder or sub-folder) must have an index web page inside them. If the index web page does not exist you normally get an error web page displayed instead (i.e. Page Not Found) or you are able to see the contents (sub-folders and files) of that, unindexed, folder which is bad if you have private files inside it.

All HTM, CSS, PHP and MySQL files in the websitecreationhelp.com folder and its sub-folders are (c) John White, 2010. All Rights Reserved.