How hosting and Website interact
Confused about how your hosting, WordPress and CPanel work together?
You may ask:-
- Question:-“Why do I need a CPanel if i have a WordPress admin backend?”
- Answer:- “Because they perform different functions”
Lets use this graphic to help understand the structure of how hosting and website interact.
That is you in the Graphic, sitting at your computer.
The lines show:-
Hosting Server
In the bottom left we have our Hosting company Servers where we rent space.
Its a big directory and home for thousands of Customer Domains.
Ours is one of them.
All the folders,files,software that make up our site live in our address on that server.
These servers control access to these files.
WordPress
Our WordPress software is much like an app. It uses the server as its home and utilizes its stored files and database to manifest our website.
Internet
A visitors uses a web browser, (lets say they googled our site) to find our Domain Name.
Wordpress tells the browsers what files to request from the server to render the site in the visitors browser window.
Site Visitor
In turn visitors view it on their PC or device. They can interact with the site, viewing pages, posts or using apps we make available.
Administrator/you (sitting in the chair at your PC)
Our WordPress website has an Admin backend only we can access to manage our site and add or change content.
We have a secure login to perform these tasks. We are starting to see how hosting and website interact
CPanel
We also have a CPanel (control panel) access to the hosted server space .
Here is where we can interact with our raw files, databases, and options our hosting company provides for us.
CPanel is generally there to control your hosting options for the “webspace you rent”. (not WordPress itself)
Common options may be to request extra services. Set up email routing for our website(s).
You can manipulate or backup Databases. And many more functions.
Only you have access here.
You can get some idea of what is in there by logging in if you already have hosting.
Once you are in, be careful.
- Don’t change anything till you have learned what you can do in here.
- Just have a look around and get familiar with the available options.
- Generally you don’t spend a lot of time in this interface.
- There may be something you need changed.
- If so read up on it first. When you have the required knowledge then carefully enact it in CPanel.
- If you are not confident to do so yourself, contact your hosting company and they will do it for you.
- Its generally part of the service.
Multiple Domains
Most hosting companies can offer you a plan that allows a single domain.
Many can also offer plans where you can have multiple domains.
These can cost only slightly more per month, but check around as there is quite variation on cost among the various hosting companies.
You can have multiple Domains, each with their own files, databases and settings, but all managed from a single Control Panel.
Summary of how hosting and website interact
Hopefully you are a bit less confused as the the need for each of the component services make a website function.
We can see that they are all critical parts of the mechanism required to render a website on the internet.
We have our Domain name.
Without it people could not search for our site.
Picture it as the name above the door of your business
We have our Hosting server.
This is the office building where we rent space for our website to reside. Part of our address
We have WordPress with its Frontend –
our digital showroom for the public
We have the WordPress Admin backend –
the private area where we build our business and strategy.
We have CPanel which is our utility company –
consider it Building maintenance.
All of this goes together to place us on the Internet where people using Web Browsers can find us.
Follow us in the next post where we build on this knowledge
