Servers and DNS

Once your website is designed, it needs to be stored on the World Wide Web (WWW), so that everyone can access it through the internet (and buy your products!!). This is done by storing it on special disk drive devices (known as 'servers') which are attached to the internet. To buy and maintain a server just to store your website is expensive, so most people simply rent space on an existing server. This typically costs about 5 euros (or 5 dollars) per month; or you can pay yearly.

When someone types your website name in their browser (or clicks on your website name when it pops up from a search engine query), the internet goes to your server space to find your website and display it on the person's browser. As there are a large number of servers out there, the WWW needs to know for every domain name where the corresponding server is. This is done by special equipment known as DNS (Domain Name Servers) which list every domain name in existence, along with the associated server address.

Renting Server Space

Server space is normally provided by specialist companies. For approximately 5 euros/month or 50 euros/year, they will provide you with server space and associated maintenance. The prices vary somewhat depending on the company and the level of service they provide.

There are also a number of companies that offer free server space. If you have a 'hobby' site and do not want to pay for server space, they may be acceptable. In fact, there are a few special cases where the free service is better than the paid service.  However, in general we do not recommend them for business sites (click on free for our reasons).

There are a huge number of companies which rent out server space. To find one, do a Google search on 'website hosting'. We suggest that you choose one in the same country as yourself, which offers free telephone support.

DNS

To be registered at a DNS is free. If you rent server space yourself, the server company should add your website name to the local DNS free of charge. If you are using a design company to create your website, they should set up the DNS for you free of charge (it only takes about 5 minutes and is a standard activity).