Understanding the Basics of Web Hosting

Shameless Self Promotion No Responses »
Oct 182010

A hosting service company allows individuals and businesses to make their websites visible and accessible on the World Wide Web.

Comstar is a Hosting Services Provider.  We provides several aspects of hosting including website hosting, email hosting, DNS hosting, and server hosting (which is often called colocation).

Hosting a website means providing space on a server that is connected to a high speed, high bandwidth, internet connection out to the virtual world.  For most website hosting a website shares a computer with several other websites.  For colocation we would put your computer into our data center.  In that case your site has its own computer, but it is still connected to our high bandwidth internet connection.

Websites have to be physically located on a server somewhere on the network in order to be viewed and visited by browsers.  If you have developed a website on your own personal computer, you must then complete the process by uploading, or transferring, your site to a hosting provider. 

Besides hosting websites you can also talk about hosting email.  Often email hosting is provided by the same company that hosts your website.  But email can be hosted by another provider.  While most hosting plans include email hosting too, keep in mind that email and websites are independent functions.  They can go together, but they don’t have to.

Hosting, whether it is a website or email or both, needs to start with a domain name.  A domain name is used in the web address and the email address.  For example, the domain we use for our primary corporate identity is comstar.biz.  So our primary website address is www.comstar.biz and an example email address is myemail@comstar.biz.

When you enter a web address into a browser or send an email to someone, the domain is translated into a numerical IP address by something called DNS or Domain Name System.  The numerical address tells where to go to find the web site or where to send the email.

Again, DNS is an independent function from the web and email hosting.  The DNS could be provided by a company other than your website host or your email host. 

Here at Comstar we can keep everything under one roof giving you one point of contact.  We offer website hosting, email hosting, and DNS hosting.  We manage it all for you so you can keep working, doing what your business does, without having to give the internet technology another thought.

Posted by Bryn Kirk at 12:59 PM Tagged with: , , ,

Protection from Phishing

Internet Safety No Responses »
Aug 252010

One of the ways in which the Internet Black Hats (bad guys) attack unsuspecting victims is through a type of attack called Phishing.

In a typical phishing attack, the victim receives an email message that appears to come from a legitimate source such as their bank, PayPal, Amazon, or Facebook. The message often looks exactly like a real message from one of those sources.  The message mentions some dire circumstance that the victim can clear up simply by clicking on the included link.  The victim thinks they are going to the website of the sender when in fact they are directed to the hacker’s website where their browser/computer is attacked.

Phishing attacks work because when the victim clicks on the link in the mail message, the browser dutifully looks up the domain (web address) with a DNS Query (ref2) and sends the victim to the specified website. 

But what if the DNS Query failed? What if the DNS server that is looking up the web address knew that the hacker’s website was dangerous and refused to let you go there?  That’s what OpenDNS does (read One Million Phishes That Didn’t Happen).  Instead of blindly going where the email pointed, it adds some smart decision making designed to protect your computer, or your personal data, from malicious intent. 

OpenDNS is just one more tool Comstar uses to help protect its customers.  Comstar’s internal systems and internet access customers are protected from these types of attacks automatically. 

OpenDNS can protect you too – at home or at work.  For more information, visit OpenDNS.com.

Posted by Greg Eggold at 9:16 AM Tagged with: ,
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