Website Hosting and Domain Name Registration
Among other products and services, PagePoint offers Website Hosting and Domain Name Registration. You may be using one or both of these services.
Website Hosting
For any website to be available to the world, the website material (i.e., data) must exist on a computer somewhere, and that computer must be connected to the Internet. PagePoint uses hosting services from Rackspace, HostGator and MediaTemple for our clients. (These companies have computers/servers in large data centers located around the country.) When you pay PagePoint for hosting services, you are covering our costs for leasing computer (“server”) space with these companies. We have placed your website materials (i.e., files, and — in some cases — databases) on one of these servers, which are connected 24/7 to the Internet. When you visit www.example.com, your web browser sends out a request through your service provider (e.g., Comcast, Sonic, Warner, SBCGlobal, etc.) and that request, in a matter of seconds, makes its way to the server that hosts your website. The response from the web server then makes its way back to your service provider and then back to your browser/computer.
Domain Name Registration
Web browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox) and webservers (i.e., computers that store and serve website materials) communicate by using numbers, called IP addresses, to contact each other, much like you use a phone number to dial a specific person’s phone. Prior to the invention of domain names, IP addresses were the only way to connect browsers and computers on the Internet. Domain names permit plain-English names (like www.joespizza.com) to be used instead of numbers, like 192.168.1.15. However, a method is required to associate www.joespizza.com with an IP address, like 192.168.1.15, and that is where domain registrars fit in. Your domain name is registered with a registrar like GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, Melbourne IT, etc., and the registrar associates your domain name with the IP address of the webserver that hosts your website. You or PagePoint may be the registrant of your domain name. If PagePoint is the registrant, then the registrar bills us each year to renew the registration, and we pass that cost, plus a handling fee, on to you, under the label of “Domain Name Registration/Renewal Services.”