Answers to Questions

Hosting Your Site

You think up a suitable domain name and (if it is still available) you get it registered. (We can check availability and do the actual registering.)
You organise hosting. (See Why do I need a Web host? below.)
You design and write Web pages (or have this done for you).
You upload your pages to your Web host's server.

What's a domain name?: Computers on the Internet find each other and communicate with each other using Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. These are sets of four numbers, like 66.98.208.65. Computers find these number useful; human beings would find them a nightmare. So we use names instead (like ‘webcostablanca.com’) and get the computers to translate them into the numbers they prefer to work with.; A second advantage of domain names is that they can contain information about the nature of a site (‘.com’ for a commercial site, for example, or ‘.org’' for a non-profit organisation) or about where the owners operate (‘.es’ for Spain, ‘.uk’ for the UK, and so on).; Clearly, it is vital that these names are unique—which is why they have to be registered.

Why do I need my own domain name?: Your Internet Service Provider may offer you ‘free Web pages’. Or you may be tempted to sign up for space on a big catch-all site. (To be fair, lots of us started this way.); Right now, this is not a good idea. Your pages may be disfigured by ads that have nothing to do with you, you are likely to look like an amateur—and you will get very few visitors. (Not that you will know how many you get, since you will have no access to visitor analytics.) What is more, you will not have your own branded e-mail address.; In order to project a professional image, in order to use e-mail addresses which have an obvious link to your Web pages, in order to attract visitors, and in order to find out where they come from and which pages interest them, you need your own domain name and a site you can truly call your own. (If you started like lots of us did, now may be the time to change!); If you are trying to decide whether you need a Web site at all, have a look at our webmaster's article “Small Business Heaven”.

How can I check if a domain name is available?: There are many sites on the Web that will do the checking for you, including Web Costa Blanca. If you want a .com, .net, or .co.uk site, you can use Web Costa Blanca's domain name availability check, right now.

Why do I need a Web host?: So that anyone with access to the Internet can visit your site.; For this to happen, your site needs to be uploaded to a server—a computer which can respond to requests for your pages. Commercial servers are connected to the Internet all the time; the best of them are very large and very fast (like ours). You pay for space on such a server through a Web host (who will set up and manage your site for you).

If your question isn't answered here, and you would like to see it on this Web Costa Blanca page, please .