Web Hosting FAQ

New to the world of web hosting? e-CBD has put together a brief web hosting FAQ to answer a few of the questions we get asked most...

Why do I need web hosting?

For your site to be visible to the world via the Internet it needs to be stored on a super fast computer (called a server) which can deliver all the files and pages from your site to somebody else's computer. Hosting your website on a server is like giving a bunch of documents to the world's fastest postman and asking him to deliver exact copies of the documents to anybody who asks to see them.

How do I publish my site to the web?

When you sign up for an account e-CBD will give you a user name and a password to access your allocated space on our server. To get the files from your computer to our server you need an FTP program, or a web publishing program such as FrontPage which can talk to our server and upload the files. An example of a good free FTP program is FTP Explorer.

What is FTP?

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a method used to copy files from your computer to our server. Most FTP programs will ask for the server name, user name, and password. e-CBD also supports anonymous ftp (if you ask us to) which to allow people without a username and password to access certain sections of your site

What is a domain name server?

A domain name such as "e-cbd.com" is easy for people to remember so they can find your website without thinking too hard, but it is does not actually help another computer find your site. Computers use what's called an IP address to locate your web site. For example, when an internet user types in "www.e-cbd.com" it has an IP address of 210.8.51.40. A Domain Name Server is a computer that converts the easy to remember name (e-cbd.com) to the address (210.8.51.40) that the computer needs to find your site on the web and display it in your browser

What are mail servers?

Mail servers are groups of powerful computers that store and manage the transmission of electronic mail between computers. When someone send you mail it is sent to your mail server first and then when you check your e-mail you are asking your mail server to send you all the mail that people have sent to your address. This is usually done with the help of a mail program like Outlook or Eudora.