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Internet Basics
To learn more about Internet Basics, select a question below or browse down the page to view them all.
- Where can I learn more about the Internet and the World Wide Web?
- How can my business benefit from a web site?
- What is web hosting and do I need it to have a web site?
- What is the difference between shared and dedicated web hosting?
- Where can I learn more about web hosting?
- How experienced must I be to build a web site?
- Where should I go if I'd like to take some online classes to learn more about building web sites?
- How can I perform a traceroute, and why would I need to?
- How can I perform a ping, and why would I need to?
Where can I learn more about the Internet and the World Wide Web?
There are thousands upon thousands of sites on the Web that will teach you everything and
anything you want to know about the Internet. A few of Tivilon's top picks are:
How can my business benefit from a web site?
There are six key reasons for establishing a web presence:
- Increase Sales - A web site makes it easy for you to showcase your goods and services, generating new leads and greater
sales from existing customers. With secure online payment, a company or organization can complete point-to-point sales transactions
from seller to buyer; eliminating the costly distributor expenses. Moreover, with the advances in shopping cart software,
a fully enabled e-commerce web site has never been easier to set up and maintain. In no time, you can create a virtual
storefront or office that can be open twenty-four hours a day, all year long.
- Enhance Communication - A key advantage of the Web is that is allows for the instant distribution of
information. People from all over the world use the Internet on a daily basis to search for various products and services.
Using web sites to distribute information in a timely manner is a key reason sales organizations are building web sites. Visitors
can easily find the information they are looking for, from product specifications to availability and pricing.
- Expense Reduction - Although a web site shouldn't simply be an online brochure, delivery of similar information
over the Web decreases distribution expenses of related printed material. Automated mailing lists can now send the same e-mail
message to 100 customers for nearly the came cost as sending one. E-mail is cheaper than courier services, postal mail, faxes,
or phone calls - and faster than most. If you have suppliers on the Internet, you may also be able to do your purchasing
cheaper and easier.
- Reduce Service Costs - Moving customer service to your web site can save the costs associated with maintaining
customer service lines, and can save you a bundle. Your web site will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for service
and support. The service area of your web site can be as simple as a dedicated e-mail box and published answers to Frequently
Answered Questions (FAQ); or as sophisticated as an interactive, online chat feature where your qualified service staff respond
directly to customers in real-time discussions. The ability to offer service and product updates on a web site is a value
added service, in addition to providing increased visibility.
- Increase Marketing - A web site creates additional marketing opportunities. There is no greater image builder for a
company than a compelling and informative web site that can be seen all over the world. Your organization will be placed
into dozens of online directories and search facilities, increasing your visibility and creating new markets by opening
additional communication channels.
- Create a Network - A web site allows you to do surveys, qualification cards, and subscriptions. It can be a
cost-effective way to qualify potential customers and get valuable feedback from existing ones. It can also be used to
experiment with ideas by highlighting a product prototype online and sampling visitor opinions.
What is web hosting and do I need it to have a web site?
Web hosting is the business of housing, serving, and maintaining files for one or more web sites.
Unless you familiar with maintaining a web server, e-mail server and DNS, and have a static IP address, yes, you
will need web hosting for your web site. There are all kinds of flavors of web hosting available to customers today,
but Tivilon gives you Windows 2000 server hosting for a low-cost on a reliable system as well as free online
technical support and NO banner ads will be forced to load on your site (like other hosting companies do). You put
on your site exactly what you want (except adult content and WAREZ material). It's all up to the way you
want it to be with Tivilon.
What is the difference between shared and dedicated web hosting?
Shared hosting allows you to lease a particular amount of space on a web server owned by
Tivilon, where many other sites are also leasing space. By configuring our web servers to handle
multiple web sites, we can offer low prices on hosting accounts. To point to each of the web sites
on a web server, there is what is known as a virtual domain (i.e., www.domain.com). The purpose
of obtaining a virtual domain is to give your site a shorter URL for people to remember, as opposed
to the real address of something like: http://nt00000.host.tivilon.com. Shared hosting is best for beginning
web sites that will not take up much disk space or data transfer, for companies that do not
want to spend a lot of money on web hosting, and/or for companies that do not have the technical expertise
necessary to administer their own web server. (This is like renting an apartment in a building).
Dedicated hosting is where you lease an entire web server owned by Tivilon, as well as its connection
to the Internet and physical server rack space in our data facility. This type of hosting allows you to
consolidate multiple shared sites onto one server dedicated to serving only those sites. Tivilon
purchases the machine and performs the operating system setup and machine configuration and installation. Ideal
for resellers or web sites that need a large amount of disk space or data transfer, dedicated hosting can
increase the security of one's web site because you are no longer sharing the same server with other people. (This
is like renting an entire apartment building).
Where can I learn more about web hosting?
If you are simply looking for the web hosting definition, WhatIs.com?
is the place to check out. For more detailed information, see Web
Hosting 101 on HostSearch.
How experienced must I be to build a web site?
If you can create a document in your favorite word editor, then you would be fine
creating a web site in a WYSIWYG software program, like Microsoft® FrontPage™. However, you may not
have the level of expertise necessary to fully understand laying out navigation for a web site, the design of the web site itself
and what interactive features you can add to your site by using scripts. If you do not have this in-depth
advertising or technical experience, you can turn to Tivilon. We leverage years of web site design and development
experience to give you the best possible web site you can have while staying within your budget. If you are
interested in learning more, please call us today at 1-866-TIVILON.
Where should I go if I'd like to take some online classes to learn more about building web sites?
Welcome to the digital age...where everything you can imagine is online. There are many companies
and universities specializing in online learning programs. But, if you are just looking for some basic information and want
a lower-cost alternative to the expensive university online programs, then we've found the place for you. You'll want
to take a look at Barnes & Noble University. They
offer you a free class, for simply buying the course materials (usually one or two books). Look under the Science &
Technology area of their site, for web site classes.
How can I perform a traceroute, and why would I need to?
A traceroute is a utility that records the route through which data travels between your computer
and a specified destination computer on the Internet. As it determines the route, it is also tracking the
amount of time each hop takes. (A hop is the distance between one server along the route and the next). Each
time you go to a different web site on the Internet, the data you request is likely traveling down a different
route due to the various physical locations of servers on the Internet.
Traceroute is a handy tool in determining where problems exist on the Internet at a given
point in time. It is an even better tool when used in conjunction with ping, outlined in the next FAQ.
You can do one of two things to try out a traceroute, if you'd like. If you are using Microsoft
Windows for your computer's OS, you can go to your MS-DOS prompt (found in the Start menu)
and type in the following command, after which pressing Enter. (Please replace www.tivilon.com with the
destination address to which you'd like to run the traceroute from you computer).
tracert www.tivilon.com
Or, you can use a web-based traceroute utility, such as
MAE East
or MAE West's looking glass.
How can I perform a ping, and why would I need to?
Ping is a basic internet program that lets you verify that a particular internet address exists
and can accept requests. Ping is used diagnostically to ensure that a host computer you are trying to reach is actually
operating. If, for example, a user cannot ping a host, then the user will be unable to use the File Transfer
Protocol (FTP) to send files to that host. Ping can also be used with a host that is operating to see how long
it takes to get a response back.
Ping operates by sending a packet to a designated address and waiting for a response. Ping and traceroute
(defined in the last FAQ) work well together when troubleshooting a problem in relation to internet connectivity.
To try out ping, you can do one of two things. If you are using Microsoft Windows for your computer's OS,
you can go to your MS-DOS prompt (found in the Start menu) and type in the following command, after which
pressing Enter. (Please replace www.tivilon.com with the destination address to which you'd like to ping).
ping www.tivilon.com
Or, you can use a web-based ping utility, such as
MAE East
or MAE West's looking glass.
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