When a website visitor enters your domain name into a browser, it initiates a series of events:

• the domain name is translated into your server IP address
• the server sends that user your site files
• their browser represents these file as a typical web page

Without each of these 3 elements, you won’t really have a web-site.

Domain Names

Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses but usually it points to one IP address of web server.

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. For example:

• com – commercial business
• net – Network organizations
• org – Organizations (nonprofit)
• gov – Government agencies
• edu – Educational institutions
• us – USA
• ca – Canada
• pk -Pakistan

The Internet is based on IP addresses and not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain names into IP addresses.

Web Server

Web servers are computers that deliver (serves up) Web pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the URL http://www.zemdesigns.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the Web server whose domain name is zemdesigns.com. The server then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser.

Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting the machine to the Internet. Linux is most popular operating system for a web server.

Web Site

A site (location) on the World Wide Web. Each Web site contains a home page, which is the first document users see when they enter the site. The website might also contain additional documents and files. Each website is owned and managed by an individual, company or organization.