Ever wanted to know how web hosting or more specifically, how the internet worked? Well this article is going to explain the whole process for you and answer the question; how does hosting work?

So How does Hosting Work & How Does it Fit into the Internet?

In order to run a website you need to have a couple of things. Firstly you will need a domain.

A domain is sort of like the number of your house. You might live at number 7 Juniper Drive but your website may be 7juniperdrive.com.

Your hosting is sort of like the land that your house is on. For instance you may have a 7 acre property with a gym and swimming pool, or you may live in a tower block in central london.

You can't have a website without hosting it's impossible and the amount you spend on your hosting, should be proportional to the amount of traffic you intend to send to it (or people you wish to invite round).

If you're running a small blog or website, there's no point in buying a high spec business hosting package. All you need is somewhere to keep your website files for people to access them easily.

So how does hosting work then?

So by looking at the picture above you should be able to see how hosting works. If you want your users browsers to find your website files stored in your hosting account you're going to need to change your nameservers.

This is done by logging into your domain provider i.e. UK2.net or GoDaddy.com and changing the name servers for your domain.

*If you don't know what the nameservers should be then contact your hosting providers support desk and ask what you should change your nameservers to i.e. ns1.hostingnameserver.com & ns2.hostingnameserver.com.

In essence the nameservers specify where the files for that site are located.

How Does Hosting Work? What Tool is There to control Your Account?

Most hosting accounts have a cPanel dashboard. cPanel is the central control dashboard for your hosting. When you set up your account you will register a domain with the account and from that domain you can create ftp accounts, email accounts, MySQL Databases, WordPress installations and many many more.

How does hosting work? Very simply, it is a bit of virtual space on a hosting providers server that allows you to store your website files. By changing your nameservers and pointing an externally registered domain to your hosting account, you're able to host your own content onto a domain that you may own.

Here at EnterTheNet.co.uk we have a very powerful hosting option for beginners in the Hosting world, as well as step-by-step how to tutorials on Website building.

If you're thinking of building a WordPress site then please visit our WordPress Workshops section where you can learn how to build one from scratch. This is an article by EnterTheNet, thanks for reading How Does Hosting Work.