Hosting Guidebook - Hosting Explained - Join In

Day 1:
Addon, Sub & Parked Domains.

Addon Domain:

• This is a domain (that you have to register with a domain name registrar) that you attach a website to. It is located within the public_html folder of the main domain. Treat an addon domain as 'addondomain.com'
• An addon domain's dns needs to be pointed to same place as the main domain.
• An addon domain needs to be added within cpanel before adding sites files and databases

Subdomain:

• A subdomain points to a folder within the main domain?s public_html folder.
• It can be reached directly by typing its location address into a browser, this is useful for whenever you want a completely different section to your site, like a shop that you might promote differently to the rest of your site.
• Visitors can access it either through your site (if that's what you want) or by typing its address into their browser, something like ?myshop.maindomain.com'

Parked Domain:

• The simplest to explain of the 3, a parked domain points to the main domain, therefore if you typed into your browser ?parkeddomain.com? you would see the site ?maindomain.com?. I can't think of a reason yet why you'd want to do this but hopefully someone can tell us.

Day 2 will be explaining dns

Joined in

love this thread

nice idea for all the people who aren't to sure what things mean in cpanel or whm

hahaha yeah - me included!

darylb said:

nice idea for all the people who aren't to sure what things mean in cpanel or whm

Click to expand...

great thread ben...keep em coming

Thank you, I'll try

DNS - Domain Name Server/System/Service
Throughout this whole post when I mention ‘DNS' I specifically mean ‘Domain Name System' because for me it's easier to understand

Introduction:
When you type a domain name into a browser this request is treated as if you had dialled a number into your telephone. I initially thought that this request would the go to the root zone (HQ) of the whole DNS but to increase efficiency and reduce internet traffic this request is instead sent to a DNS cache server.

A cache server is local, it remembers the last time the domain you typed was requested and then when you type in the same domain it answers your request from its memory. This stops the need for the initial inquiry to go all the way to the root server for the DNS.

Domain Name Registrar
Is responsible for keeping a database of domain names and publishing them to the DNS. It does this by registering the domain name at the relevant TLD nameserver/database. (more of this further down)

Each domain name registrar is governed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). ICANN are responsible for the maintaining of the DNS of the www.

So what does DNS actually do?
The Domain Name System translates the domain names that we can read into ip addresses that computers can read.

The DNS also allocates responsibility for certain regions/zones to the Authoritative Name Servers that do the DNS's job in specific regions/zones throughout the world.

TLD
Top level domain is the part of a domain name that is country/area specific - .com, .co.uk etc. These TLD's are managed in a database by an organization and they publish all the TLD info so it's accessible when you do a ‘who is' enquiry. These organizations are also appointed by ICANN.

When a domain registrar actually registers a domain name it does so at that domain name's relevant TLD database/nameserver. So you buy a .co.uk domain name and your registrar will literally register it in a database responsible for .co.uk TLD's. This domain info will then be stored at more than 1 actual nameserver in case of breakdown.

There is a category of TLD that is called ‘Generic Top Level Domains', these are TLD's such as the well known .edu, .gov type

Why change domain name server info?
When you change hosting companies you will be required to change domain name server addresses, these will be the addresses of the servers that your website is hosted on. They have to be changed so that when someone sends an email or tries to access your site that they get directed to the correct location.

Propagation:
This refers to how long it takes for these addresses you changed to become registered throughout the DNS and can generally be anything up to 72 hrs.

ezlegion said:

Starting from today I'm going to start my 'Hosting GuideBook'. It will hopefully answer various questions that need answering from time to time. (They will also help me with my customer service & knowledge lol) ​

As ideas come to me I'll make a post on here to explain it. If you want anything explaining or you need to correct me then add a post here (with proof) so that we can all benefit and learn. ​

Day 1:
Addon, Sub & Parked Domains.

Addon Domain:

• This is a domain (that you have to register with a domain name registrar) that you attach a website to. It is located within the public_html folder of the main domain. Treat an addon domain as 'addondomain.com'
• An addon domain's dns needs to be pointed to same place as the main domain.
• An addon domain needs to be added within cpanel before adding sites files and databases

Subdomain:

• A subdomain points to a folder within the main domain?s public_html folder.
• It can be reached directly by typing its location address into a browser, this is useful for whenever you want a completely different section to your site, like a shop that you might promote differently to the rest of your site.
• Visitors can access it either through your site (if that's what you want) or by typing its address into their browser, something like ?myshop.maindomain.com'

Parked Domain:

• The simplest to explain of the 3, a parked domain points to the main domain, therefore if you typed into your browser ?parkeddomain.com? you would see the site ?maindomain.com?. I can't think of a reason yet why you'd want to do this but hopefully someone can tell us.

Day 2 will be explaining dns

Click to expand...

Great job bud, as long as you provide credit you are welcome to use excerpts from the hostwinds knowledgebase that includes picture guides on how to do various operations in cPanel and with web hosting in general

Thanks spydure,
When I'm a bit more awake (2.35am here lol) I'll shoot on over and have a look.
Very nice of you

spydure said:

Great job bud, as long as you provide credit you are welcome to use excerpts from the hostwinds knowledgebase that includes picture guides on how to do various operations in cPanel and with web hosting in general

Click to expand...

Part 1

There are 2 ways of transferring sites a ‘whole site backup & restore' or what I'll call a ‘manual transfer'

A Whole Site Backup (can be generally be done by you if your host allows it, if they're a decent host they will) & Restore (can only be done by admin of server). This is by far the easiest option, if your current host has the facility to do a ‘whole site backup' (any decent host will) simply ask them if you have to do it or whether they'll do it for you.


If you to do it yourself and have a standard cpanel hit: Backups > Download or Generate a Full Website Backup > Generate Backup. Once it's finished being created, download it. Obviously the size of the whole site backup will effect how long it takes to create & to download. I've done some that take hours to create and even longer to download, never mind restore.

Restoring A Whole Site Backup (this can only be done by the admin of the server, however knowing how it's done can't be a bad thing)

• Using an FTP programme for this seems to be quicker, I use filezilla but there are others, I use filezilla because it was the first one I ever used, it was free at the time, I'm used to it and it's simple.
• You'll need a few details to allow your ftp software to link to the new server/host; ip address, username, password & port.
• Enter those details and hit connect, if you've done everything correctly you'll be connected to your server. You then need to locate the ‘root' folder within your account and transfer your downloaded ‘whole site backup' into there.
• This is a very rough estimate but it can take anywhere between 2-10 times longer to transfer the ‘whole site backup' from your pc to the server than it does to download it from your old host/server to your pc, your internet connection will obviously effect this.

Once the files have been successfully uploaded visit the WHM of the server and hit: Backup > Restore a Full Backup/cpmove file > highlight the file (as this page shows the ‘whole site backups' within the root folder) enter the correct username (that will also be shown actually in the name of the ‘whole site backup' file) > Restore. It will take a while, a long while if it's a big file but once it's finished that should be it, all done



Note: In the past I've come across hosts that will encrypt anything you download and charge you to decrypt it. Obviously this practice is to prevent you from leaving and in my view is poor practice.

Great Thread...Keep it up

Just wanted to add something regarding DNS - if you have a host already and you're just registering a new domain name, GoDaddy allows you to set your nameservers (DNS) when you purchase the domain. This allows for ultra fast propagation.

In some instances, I've had a new domain up on my server within an hour!

ALSO, I've had my own hosting reseller account for years. As an internet marketer, it's so much easier to have one main place to work from and only one set of DNS to remember.

Check out alpha-hosting-services(dot)com for unlimited reseller account.