Adam Toro Studios Design and Hosting

Web Hosting FAQ

We have put together this list of questions and answers to help you gain a better understanding of web hosting. As always, you can contact us anytime if you still have any questions.

What is Web Hosting?

How do I purchase a Web Hosting Plan?

What is Virtual Hosting?

What is a Domain Name?

How do I register a Domain Name?

I already have a registered Domain Name, do I have to change my domain if I want you to host my site?

What exactly is space and bandwidth/data transfer?

What is uptime?

What are PHP, ASP, perl, etc?

What is MySQL?

Why would I need a dedicated IP address?

What is SSL?

Can I upgrade my hosting plan at anytime?




Q. What is Web Hosting?
A. Web hosting allows your Web site to be connected to the Internet at high speed via a Web server so its information can be viewed online through a browser. Metaphorically speaking, renting space on a server is comparable to renting an apartment. For a monthly fee, you reside in that apartment and all maintenance is the responsibility of the property. More importantly, a web hosting company houses your Web site on its own secure servers, enabling you to affordably leverage the power of a high-speed network, 24/7 expert monitoring and support, and state-of-the-art technology.

Q. How do I purchase a Web Hosting Plan?
A. To purchase a web hosting plan simply contact us or call 305-775-4507. For your convenience, we also accept payments online via PayPal. On the Work and Services page you will see our two basic hosting plans along with a button title "Buy Now". Clicking on the Buy Now button will take you to PayPal where you can securely and conveniently purchase one of our hosting plans with a Credit Card or your very own PayPal account.

Q. What is Virtual Hosting?
A. Also known as shared hosting, this form of web hosting should suffice for most everyone. Virtual hosting simple refers to the fact that your site is on one server, and that this server hosts mulitple sites. You are virtually shared - your site will not be the only one on this specific server. Very few sites would actually need the power of a dedicated server, so this option provides to be a reliable and cheap solution.

Q. What is a Domain Name?
A. A domain name is a word along with a TLD that uniquely identifies your website. Please visit our domains page for more information.

Q. How do I register a Domain Name?
A. Registering a domain name is very easy. First you will have to make sure that the domain you want is available - using something called a WHOIS lookup at sites like GoDaddy.com you can make sure the domain you want is available for registration. Afterwards, you simply need to visit a registration site such as GoDaddy.com to purchase your domain name.

Q. I already have a registered Domain Name, do I have to change my domain if I want you to host my site?
A. No. Provided that the domain is registered in your name (as it should be), you can simply update your nameservers (from where you manage your domain names) to that of our nameservers.

Q. What exactly is space and bandwidth/data transfer?
A. Diskspace is the size your website can be. Every single letter on your website has to be stored somewhere on the web server. Each letter is one byte, and a megabyte is roughly one million bytes. HTML pages are usually very small, but it is the extra images, scripts, and even databases that can take up large amounts of disk space.

Bandwidth/Transfer is the amount of data the server will allow your site to send in a month. Transfer is usually measured in gigabytes - billions of bytes.

Q. What is uptime?
A. Uptime is literally what it means - it is the amount of time your site is online throughout the entire month. We strive for 100%, but because things can break, we offer 99.9% uptime guarantees. This means that if your site is not accessible for more than 43 minutes in a single month, we will reimburse you, according to our terms of service.

Q. What are PHP, ASP, perl, etc?
A. These are all programming languages which are often used to develop dynamic websites. These languages are usually referred to by their acronyms.

PHP - PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
ASP - Active Server Pages
Perl - not an acronym

Each programming language has its own benefits and uses. It is best that you research on your own to find one that best fits your needs.

Q. What is MySQL?
A. A simple, yet powerful, Open Source Software relational database management system which uses a subset of ANSI SQL (Structured Query Language). For more details, see mysql.com.

Q. Why would I need a dedicated IP address?
A. For most people, a dedicated IP is not required. But for people that want to provide anonymous FTP or a website using SSL, a dedicated IP is required.

Q. What is SSL?
A. Secured Sockets Layer is a protocol that transmits your communications over the Internet in an encrypted form. SSL ensures that the information is sent, unchanged, only to the server you intended to send it to. Online shopping sites frequently use SSL technology to safeguard your credit card information.

Q. Can I upgrade my hosting plan at anytime?
A. All our hosting accounts are upgradeable and extra bandwidth and space can be assigned if needed. The fee for extra bandwidth is $5 per gigabyte per month. The fee for extra Data Storage is $5 per 100mb per month.