Websites 101

Because we build websites all the time, we often forget that there are so many basic nuts and bolts to a site that are very confusing without proper explanation.  It's not because of ignorance, it's the simple fact that this stuff can be tough to comprehend for a good number of people.  If you fall into this category of the unknowing then this article is for you.  What we're going to cover here is the basic workings of a website.  Not the content, not the design, but how a website becomes a universally accessible entity.

Let's dig in

It may help to explain in short what a website actually is when all is stripped away.  A website is a file or group of files and/or directories on a computer that is always online (server) and publicly accessible.  The Internet is not one solid entity, it is composed of millions of publicly accessible computers that are openly sharing files that then become web pages once accessed.  You and I are the Internet.

There are a few major parties involved in the process of making a website come together. 
They are:
Domain Name
Host
Code Base
Web Browser

Domain Name

A domain name is a name by which you call a website.  Shoutitlouder.com, google.com, apple.com (you should go there now) are all domain names.  To understand what a domain name actually is a does it helps to know the underlying structures that exist. 

Phone Numbers
Think of it this way.  You and I have phone numbers, correct?  It's fairly difficult to remember a ton of phone numbers so we save them in our phones.  We could leave those numbers as they are with no name associated with them in a list and scroll through to find the one we want each time we make a call.  This would be a long and tedious task because so many phone numbers look similar and you would often dial the wrong one.  What do we do?  We put a name to the number.  For instance, to call my parents, I find my parents' names in my address book of my phone and hit send.  I don't even worry about ever seeing the number.  Well, it's basically the same idea with websites.  Every computer that is on a network (such as yours if you're reading this right now) has what's called an IP address (Internet Protocol). This is your computer's "phone number."  Most websites can be accessed by "calling" this number directly.  Instead, though, there are services that allow you to associate letters and words to an IP address, making an Internet address book, in sorts.  By typing in "http://64.233.167.99/" into your browser (Firefox, IE) and hitting enter you will see that you are directed to Google.  That is Google's Public IP address, or "phone number".  Also, by typing in google.com, you are actually calling 64.233.167.99, just like a phone number when you choose a name from your phone address book.  Which is easier to remember?  http://64.233.167.99/ or google.com?

Where Do I Get One?
How does the IP address become associate with a domain name?  There are a number of certain companies who have been given authority by the government to administrate domain names in America.  Some of the more popular ones are GoDaddy and Network Solutions.  The name for these types of companies is Domain Registrar.  The process of obtaining a domain name is very simple.  You go to one of the Domain Registrar sites (we typically use godaddy.com) and there will be a search box on the home page with a ".com" extension on the end of it.  Type in the name you wish to use and if it's available you purchase it on a yearly agreement (the more years you buy, the cheaper the name will be per year).  The prices for domain names are very cheap.  If you're spending more than 10 or 15 bucks a year for a domain name (not hosting or email) you're paying too much.  Godaddy offers domain names for $9 a year.

How Do I Make It Work?
Once a domain name is purchased you have to then get the IP Address and Name Servers from whoever is going to host the site (we'll get there in a minute).  Each Domain Registrar has a different interface for doing this but the process is the same.  Once you have the desired information, you enter it at the registrar's site and then they do the work of making sure things work properly.  Once you have entered an IP Address and Name Servers for your site, it takes about 48-72 hours for the whole internet to recognize this change.  Once recognized, you have successfully updated the Internet's Address book to have your name in it.


Host

In short, the host is the physical computer on which your site exists.  As we said before, a website is simply a file or number of files set up to be publicly accessed from a computer.  How do these files become publicly accessible?

Web Server Software
In order for a computer to be declared a web server, it must have web server software installed and running on it.  The most common of this type of software are Apache for Unix Based Computers and IIS (Internet Information Services) for Windows Computers.  This software declares which of the computer's files are publicly accessible and then when a request comes in for one, they send the information back out.  I don't want to go much further than this because this is a rabbit hole way too deep for this article.  Also know that you can host a site on your computer where you are with the proper software and configuration.  There are plenty of articles available about this subject if you're interested.

Answering the call
Remember that phone number we were talking about before?  Well, when your computer calls the number, hopefully someone's going to answer.  The host is whose number you are calling by way of the domain name (read the above section again if you don't understand).  Metaphorically speaking, when the host is called, it picks up the phone, is asked for some information and then gives that information back to the caller.

Code Base

The main way we look at web pages is by using a web browser.  Mozilla Firefox (YAY!) and Internet Explorer (BOOO!!) are the most popular web browsers (By the way, this is obviously biased but worth hearing anyway.... if you don't use Firefox, do yourself a favor and at check it out at http://getfirefox.com).  These browsers take pages built in certain programming and layout languages and turn it into something that makes sense to us.  The primary language that web browsers read is called HTML (hypertext markup language, if you even care) and to most people looks like gibberish, though it's what web browsers read and then turn into understandable layouts.  There are plenty of other languages and technologies that are part of most web pages (CSS, javascript, DHTML, AJAX) but the most widely used is HTML.  If you'd like to know more about HTML, visit http://w3schools.com/html/default.asp.

Web Browsers

Everyone's heard of Internet Explorer but not everyone knows that it is only one of many options to use as a web browser.  Many people aren't even sure what a web browser is so we'll explain it here.  The role of a web browser is to read the html code written by the web developer and interpret that into a layout based upon the code.  Web browsers also run certain plug ins to support many media types.  Web browsers will use video and flash plug ins if the html deems it necessary.  There is also a language called javascript that is widely used to perform certain tasks during a visitor's session at a site.  For instance, when you fill out a form and you missed a field, a small window will pop up and tell you that you missed that field.  That is most likely javascript in action. 


Cross Browser
Web developers have to deal on a daily basis with having to create sites that are "Cross Browser Compatible."  Like I said before, there are an array of choices for web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Opera, Netscape, Mozilla, Camino, Flock, and the dreaded Internet Explorer) but the two primary ones you will find are Internet Explorer and Firefox.  Even between the two we as developers find GREAT differences in how the browsers read code.  A site could look fine in Firefox but as soon as you open Internet Explorer, things are all over the place.  Or some function will work in Firefox but it's broken in Internet Explorer.  To be honest, it's pretty frustrating but it's part of what we have to do.

Wrapping Up

We've gone from pretty surface to pretty geeky in this article.  Overall though, we hope that you have a little better understanding of how this whole thing works.  Now when you see a website, you will know all of the layers that are underneath the surface.  I know it can be a lot to take in and we don't expect you to understand all of it (that's how we stay in business) but we are hoping to help educate people about how it all works together.  Also, hopefully you can see through our greatly covert biases (cough * * * go Apple and Firefox * * * cough) and take away from this article a better understanding of how this whole puzzle comes together.

Plug Away

Now that we're away from our covert biases, now it's time for a covert plug.  ShoutItLouder builds websites.  You can build a site on your own but remember, you get what you pay for.  If you know you need help or if you're in over your head, call us.



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