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Quick Tip: What Exactly is Web Hosting?
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Quick Tip: What Exactly is Web Hosting?

on May 19th 2012 with 36 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Subject: Web Hosting
  • Format: Video

Tired of the “techie” trying to explain to you what web hosting is all about from his bedroom-recorded Skype video? Ever get confused with all the funny terms they drop, like “Shared Hosting” and “Dedicated Servers”? We’ve all been there at one point or another! Well, the guys over at InMotion Hosting created a quick, visual guide that will get you up and running with the jargon in no time!

Conclusion

If you’re still new to this world, and have questions about the hosting world, leave a comment below, and one of us will do our best to help!

 
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I'm the editor of Nettuts+, and love making the process of building for the web as easy as possible. Also, I'm finishing up my latest book on Laravel Testing! If you want be friends, say hi on Twitter.  

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  • http://cansurmeli.com C@N

    Nice piece of work. Thanks for sharing. :)

  • http://claudiobonifazi.com Claudio

    meh²
    while i’m usually in favor of simplifying the more complex concepts with metaphors to help who is just starting out, i find this too much childish.

    • http://InkWorks.nl Arjen

      Agreed, this doesn’t provide much help in choosing between the options mentioned.
      Nor does is give you the understanding to talk about the subject. Too much detail is lost in this rather childish “metaphor”.

    • Vytas

      i somewhat agree

    • Tim

      Yea, how dare they try to simplify an idea for people who know nothing about web hosting. It’s almost as if this wasn’t designed for people who already know what web hosting is….

      • Branden

        Why would you watch a video labeled “What is Web Hosting?”, if you already know what web hosting is? Of course it wasn’t designed for them.

  • Ivanhoe

    InMotion should better work on the quality of their service than creating such videos.

    Half a year ago they had a huge security issue and most of their servers were compromised and hacked. It took them 3 days to resolve the issue.

    It’s worth mentioning that for that time most of the sites were down.

  • http://nathanrjones.com Nathan Jones

    The problem with this video is it does nothing to answer the question: “What do I need?”

  • http://wouterj.nl Wouter J

    Nice video, Jeffrey should make video’s like this ;-)

  • http://mrxxiv.com Terrence Campbell

    Nice video! I believe nowadays that Cloud hosting is now the way to go. Because Shared, VPS, and Dedicated are all single servers, Cloud & Load Balancing will definitely save us, best alternative basically! :D

  • http://www.jeffjonesnetwork.com Jeff Jones

    Awesome way to describe different types of web hosting. Good production and quality. Hope to see more topics explained this way in the future, keep it up!

    Jeff Jones

  • Svecc

    Where’s cloud hosting?

  • http://www.poly.edu.vn Tan Nguyen

    Nice tutorial. I’ll use this to explain to my friends :-)

  • Sergey

    :)
    Reminds me a quote by Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself”

    • James

      I don’t think this is entirely true! Jeffrey understands a lot, but because he talks with such eloquence I think he too would struggle explaining it to a 6-year-old ;)

      • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
        Author

        That’s my secret sause. :) Find a way to explain really complicated concepts in a way that anyone can understand.

  • http://ilmusetitik.blogspot.com Nanang Gunawan

    Nice Video about web hosting, clear explanation.

  • http://shinewap.mobi samsher

    nice video, got a lot of information through this short video about hostings, keep up the good work.

  • Raahul

    nice info.. also the way you give presentation is very nice and creative..

    very inspirational!

  • Jordan

    Nice video and excellent production, but… am I the only one that thought the sound effects got in the way? I thought they were funny and all, but they overlapped/overshadowed the narrator quite a bit.

    • Smapper

      I agree. There needed to be way more focus on what the narrator was saying. I watched this twice and both times I found myself losing focus on the substance of the video because the sounds affects were sporadic and way too loud.

  • theoldfellow

    Total waste of time.
    Analogy is a very bad paradigm for explaining IT concepts. Precision is key.
    Not he Way to go.

    • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      First – that’s not nice to the folks who created the video. Second, I think it works quite well. This is meant for folks who have no clue what the difference is.

    • Scott Munday

      Not sure how many clients you’ve discussed IT concerns with, but analogy IS key to this communication. IT is complex stuff and even when it isn’t, it is sometimes difficult for people outside of IT to understand. By explaining through analogy, you are using a vital tool in bridging that gap in misunderstanding.

      For example, explain to the layman the Internet as a series of interconnected, intertwined and encapsulated networks across the world and through the air and a lot of cables, managed and directed by a series of routers, servers, and a lot of computing power.

      That is precise, but isn’t as strong of an example. The layman may be left confused or (worse) misunderstanding. That example demands more explanation which most likely will lead to confusing the layman more. I then can explain the same concept as a series of road ways and traffic cops. Instantly, anyone has a picture in their head of traffic cops directing a series of roads. It IS the Internet. Sure it lacks the precision in the explanation, but clients aren’t looking for explanation. They want understanding.

      I believe this is the purpose of this video. It’s to explain what those interested in using a hosting provider need to know about why they may need these services. These laymen don’t want precision. They want understanding and analogy is a marvelous approach to this need.

  • http://community-auth.com Brian Temecula

    The video was OK. Not great, but OK.

    It’s a long story, but I felt like I had enough evidence to prove that Inmotion Hosting was trying to rip me off, so I left. They contacted me one day, telling me that my website was causing the server to have performance issues. They sandboxed my site, and were suggesting that I upgrade to a better hosting account, which was ridiculous considering the type of website that I was running. (basically just a few static pages). So I told them I was going to leave, and instantly they changed their tune. They said everything seemed “back to normal” and not to worry about it. I left anyways.

  • http://www.cgvector.com cgvector

    nice tips..

  • Stan Bordeaux

    Hey guys tough lot of love out there!

    For my sins I teach web development and one of the units I cover is Selecting a Web Hosting Service. The students who take this class are, typically, so green the seed is still in the ground!!

    I showed them this video just the other day by way of introduction to the topic and it was generally well received. Yes, it is basic, but thats its purpose. I was able in a few short minutes to get some basic concepts across and they all had a simple understanding of the differences. Of course, I will be covering all of this and more over the next few weeks but I for one think this was a fine introduction.

    So guys, lighten up, if you know the stuff goodo, for those who have no idea this could at least give them the beginings of an insight into this area.

    Spread the love :)

  • http://oficial.ag/ Leonel

    It’s good, however, for explaining to your client or boss WHY do you need or don’t need a cartain kind of hosting. As an IT Manager for an Advertising Agency, I’ve been in this situation a looot of times.

  • http://www.uckhandla.com uck

    Nice video and excellent production. I shared this with my clients.

  • http://www.neoweb.co.uk NeoWeb

    Great video. Will be using some of that to explain this to my customers going forward.

  • http://www.daquanwright.com Daquan Wright

    The video isn’t designed to answer all questions. It’s just designed obviously to show differences between the three primary types of hosting. When I was a newbie, I didn’t know what shared or dedicated hosting was. This video basically illustrates the experience of what each host feels like and people need to know that as well (it avoids all the technical stuff).

  • http://www.leachcreative.com Andrew

    Wow, this definitely simplifies things. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to explain this to people but they can’t seem to wrap their heads around it. While it doesn’t answer all the questions that might generally be asked, it certainly simplifies it to a level that I can then go in and say alright now that you know this, here is the rest that you need to know.

  • http://www.pinaysexygoddess.com Pinay Sexy Goddess

    So if I’m using blogspot a.k.a. blogger, I’m in shared hosting? is that right?

  • http://www.digitalpound.net/ Linux Vps

    I am really inspired together with your writing skills and also with the format to your weblog. Is this a paid subject or did you customize it yourself? Either way stay up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one these days..

  • http://techntechie.com Himadri

    This video is just awesome.I also did not know what is web hosting.I was maintaining a blog in blogspot.Later i searched the internet and now i have my blog which is hosted by one company and i have my own custom domain.I write about technology and technology related tips & tips in that blog.

  • Valluru Rajasekhar

    Hi Jeffrey Way,
    Thanks alot for giving the basic idea, can you help in “How to design a website in Dedicated servers”,that means what software’s and Tools are required to develop a website in dedicated server