In this article I will attempt to take the mystery out of how your hosting package interacts with your .ca domain name, how the .ca domain registry works, and what your web geek should be helping you with.
There is so much hype, so much information and so many players in the domain name registration and hosting services market that its overwhelming. In this article I will attempt to take the mystery out of how your hosting package interacts with your .ca domain name, how the .ca domain registry works, and what your web geek should be helping you with.
Lets start with the .ca domain registrations. The .ca domain is a top-level (like .com, .org or .net) internet domain that is accessible from everywhere on the planet. The .ca suffix on your domain name means that the owner of that domain is Canadian. A person or an organization must meet Canadian residency requirements in order to buy a .ca domain name and this is enforced by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). The CIRA is a non-profit organization that is mandated by the Government of Canada to operate the .ca domain registry. CIRA does not actually sell the domain names to people, they just operate the central registry.
In order to buy a .ca domain name, you must go to a CIRA certified domain registrar (called the registrar for the remainder of this article) and buy your domain through them. The registrar is responsible for verifying that you meet the Canadian residency requirements (available at www.cira.ca) before allowing your registration to go through. Once you have satisfied the registrar and paid them, your request goes to the CIRA. The CIRA then requires you to verify some information with them and then allows your registrar to get on with the business of activating your domain.
Now what? Youve got an active domain. Wonderful. Well, until you have a hosting package from a hosting service provider you have nowhere to point your domain. At this point in time, anyone typing your domain name into their browser will get nowhere. Part of the service you should expect from your registrar is free domain parking. Domain parking means that until such time as you have a hosting package (and presumably a website) up and running, your new .ca address will bring people to some kind of under construction page located at your registrar.
OK, youre halfway there. Youve paid your registrar, youve satisfied the CIRA and when you type your new domain name into your browser you get a nice, spiffy coming soon! page from your registrar. Whew...now take a breath and well talk about how your host comes into the picture.
Your hosting service provider (called your host for the remainder of this article) is the company that sells you web space. Depending on your needs, you can spend a little or a lot on your hosting package. You should be aware that your host can provide much more than web space. Your host is responsible for providing anything you want to happen at your domain. For example, if you want email addresses under your own domain or an ftp site, you have to ensure those features are present in your package. If you want to run an e-commerce site you need to make sure that your host includes some scripting languages, databases and security certificates with your package. This is the single biggest decision you will make for a while and you need to make sure that you have a good idea of what you want your web site to do now, and in the future. Buying a cheaper hosting package now and hoping that you can upgrade later could cost you money and downtime.
Unless you are a seasoned web developer, I recommend enlisting the help of your web geek before buying your hosting package. She or he can turn your "I want to run a subscription newsletter and sell widgets with credit cards online" into "you need to ensure your hosting package includes mailing lists, a scripting engine, SSL and databases". Dont expect your geek to guess what you need, but if you tell him or her what you want to do in detail, your geek should be able to find a hosting package that will let you do it.
Once you have made your decisions and bought your hosting packge, you will probably want to build your own customized coming soon page. Go ahead and do it, and place it on your site. The last step is to go to your registrar and tell them to point your domain to your new host. This change usually takes about 24 hours within North America and as long as 72 hours to propagate through the rest of the world.
Now hand the whole thing over to your web geek and take the rest of the day off!
Happy Building!
About the Author
Jon Watson is a computer information systems professional with over seven years experience in the web development field. Jon is a professional web developer, world traveller and all around nice guy.
What Can You Expect From Your Web Developer OR "What your geek will do for you!"Jon WatsonGetting your company on the web will be faster, easier and less error prone if both parties involved understand what the expectation is.
Sometimes its hard to figure out what you can expect from your web developer due to the large learning curve involved in operating on the internet. Getting your company on the web will be faster, easier and less error prone if both parties involved understand what is expected of them and each other.
Your web developer (affectionally referred to as "your geek" for the remainder of this article) is simply that - a web developer. You can reasonably expect your geek to provide the following for you: Help in choosing a hosting package and a hosting company Help in registering and choosing a domain name Figuring out how your ideas are going to become a technical reality without constraining you Creating the actual site Getting the site on the web (uploading) Testing your website, your hosting company and your domain name pointing Accurate, timely billing Providing a "hard copy" (usually a CD) of the completed site Being available to you for questions and problems during and after the site creation Providing a large array of information on many internet subjects gained through experience (limited by the list below)
We tend to hold our geeks in high regard (and with good reason!), but you cant expect your geek to be all things to you. Some things that your geek is probably not: A lawyer: Your geek probably doesnt know the intricacies of cyber-law, copyright law or trademark law. Relying on your geek for this type of information may prove troublesome in the future A marketer: Your geek obviously has enough marketing savvy to gain you as a client, but that doesnt mean s/he is a professional marketer. Most geeks will offer search engine submission after your site is built to ensure that (sooner or later) your website will show up on search engines, but thats about all you should reasonably expect unless you have made specific arrangements A print media guru: The largest leap for most new web clients to make is that leap from print media mind set to web media mind set. When you take your media to the web, you do so at a cost. Two of those costs are variable colours and absolute control over the layout. Each web surfer will see your site as their browser renders it which may or may not be exactly how you intended. Dont expect your geek to be able to lay out pages that will print perfectly, or have exact colour matching all the time. Like you, your geek is at the mercy of the technology Available all the time: Many geeks are individual consultants and work out of their home. As such, you probably have your geeks home phone number and may be tempted to call him or her every time an idea pops into your head. While many geeks are OK with that, you should keep in mind that your geek has a personal life just as you do. Ask your geek what his or her working hours are and try to stick to them A network technician: Surfing the web involves more parties that making a long distance phone call to China from Canada on a cell phone. The process of getting a web page from a server to your desktop computer involves at least 3 (and usually more like 30+) parties. Your ISP has to be up and running, the host of the site you are trying to get has to be up and running and at the very, very least you have to have one connection between the two up and running. If you go to check your website and get the old 404 Error - Page Not Found right off the bat, you should let your geek know, but also be aware that it may well be out his or her control to fix
Each geek will offer their own array of services. You may find that your geek is able to offer you the services in the second list and not able or willing to offer the services I have indicated in the first list. In my seven years of experience in the web development field, the items above have proven to be the most troublesome. It pays huge dividends in productivity and speed to have an understanding of exactly what parts of the project your geek will take care of and what parts you will have to take care of. This breeds a good working relationship and a happy website.
Happy building!
About the Author
Jon Watson is a computer information systems professional with over seven years experience in the web development field. Jon is a professional web developer, world traveller and all around nice guy.