Your Public Internet Presence
Introduction
While every company has a Public Internet Presence, we have found over the years that most business owners or managers think little about it, since everything tends to work most of the time. But, sometimes this can lead to inefficiencies if you end up paying for services you don't need. Also, when your IT services provider (such as J.D. Fox Micro) recommends a change, you can better assess the proposal if you more fully understand the components of your Public Internet Presence and how they work together.
In that vein, this article discusses the technical aspects of your domain name, your website, and your e-mail systems. Social media, if you use it, is definitely a part of your Public Internet Presence, but this will be addressed in a later article.
Overview of the Components
Your Public Internet Presence is comprised of the following:
Domain Name Registration—This proves you own and control your domain name, such as jdfoxmicro.com.
DNS Server Hosting—This is the system that allows the public to find your web and e-mail servers, using your domain name. Your DNS server provides the IP addresses for your servers, which contains routing information required for people's computers to communicate with your servers to access your web site or send you e-mail. Your DNS server has to be accessible on the Internet at all times, and your hosting provider handles this for you; this means the DNS information resides on a server owned by your host at your host's facility. Here is an example of information found on your DNS servers (domain name portion highlighed in red):
| Address Type | Address | IP Address |
|---|---|---|
| Website | https://www.jdfoxmicro.com | 174.127.84.186 | contact@jdfoxmicro.com | 100.32.12.22 |
Website and E-mail Hosting—These are the servers where your website actually resides, and where your e-mail is delivered and stored for you to retrieve. That is, the IP addresses in the table above point to your web and e-mail servers. Like DNS, since these must be available at all times, you will generally have your servers hosted by a web and/or mail hosting provider.
All of the above can be provided for you by the same company, or handled by different companies for maximized performance and flexibility. There are many technical and administrative considerations in deciding which provider should handle which services (or whether you might even run DNS or host your website or e-mail on your own servers). As always, J.D. Fox Micro can help you decide.
Read on to learn more about domain name registration, DNS hosting, and web/e-mail hosting.
Your Public Internet Presence
Table of Contents
- Introduction and Overview
- Component Details
- Planning and Management