If you’re launching or rebuilding a site, “hosting,” “domains,” and a maze of tech terms can feel overwhelming. iPoint Technologies cuts through the noise with a plain-English primer. You’ll learn how hosting differs from a domain, the main server options, what bandwidth and uptime really mean, and the security must-haves that protect your brand. Along the way, we’ll demonstrate how managed IT services and networking maintenance save time, reduce risk, and enhance performance.
Table of Contents
- Hosting vs. Domain: Different things that work together.
- Server Types: Shared, VPS, cloud, dedicated—when to choose each.
- Bandwidth & Uptime: The heartbeat of speed and reliability.
- Security: SSL/TLS, DDoS protection, backups, patching, monitoring.
The Difference Between Website Hosting and Website Domain
Think of your website like a store. The domain (yourname.com) is the address people type. Website hosting is the building—servers that store files, databases, and images. You need both: the address points browsers to the building, and the building serves your pages. Miss one, and visitors won’t find you.
Domains are purchased from a registrar, hosting from a provider, and they connect via DNS records (A, CNAME, MX). Clean DNS keeps lookups fast and reduces downtime. Where iPoint’s managed IT services help is in coordinating renewals, DNS changes, SSL installs, and staging environments so launches don’t slip and certificates don’t expire.
Inside your office, networking maintenance matters too. Even if hosting is fine, a misconfigured router or outdated firmware can make the site “seem down.” iPoint aligns hosting, DNS, and local networks so your experience matches what customers see.
Unsure if your domain, DNS, and hosting are aligned? iPoint’s managed IT services can review your setup. Contact us!
Different Server Types (And What They Mean for You)
Shared hosting: Lowest cost and easy to start. Multiple sites share resources, which can slow you down during neighbors’ traffic spikes. Good for simple brochures and early blogs. Pair with managed IT services to harden security and monitor usage.
VPS (Virtual Private Server): Your own virtual slice with dedicated resources and root access. Ideal for growing sites and small commerce. iPoint uses managed IT services to right-size CPU/RAM, set up automated patching, and tune PHP/Node stacks.
Cloud hosting: Scales across clusters and regions, great for spikes and global audiences. Consumption pricing can be efficient—if tuned. Our managed IT services set autoscaling policies, logging, and cost alerts; networking maintenance ensures clean peering, firewall rules, and VPN access for admins.
Dedicated server: One physical server per client for maximum control and performance. Best for heavy workloads or strict compliance. It demands vigilant networking maintenance (firewalls, segmentation, firmware) and disciplined managed IT services (backups, patch windows, disaster recovery).
Not sure which to choose? iPoint benchmarks traffic and growth, then maps a migration path so upgrades don’t break checkout, analytics, or SEO.
Bandwidth and Uptime: Why They Matter
Bandwidth is the amount of data you can deliver. Image-heavy pages, product videos, or seasonal campaigns can exhaust low allocations, causing throttling or fees. We often pair hosting plans with a CDN to push assets closer to visitors and reduce origin load. iPoint’s managed IT services monitor throughput, cache hit ratios, and page weight so you stay fast as you scale.
Uptime is the time your site is reachable—typically shown as 99.9% or better. That last decimal matters: 99.9% ≈ 8.8 hours of annual downtime; 99.99% ≈ 53 minutes. Ask for SLAs, a public status page, and a clear incident history. We layer synthetic checks, real-user monitoring, and alerting so issues are caught quickly.
Sometimes the site is fine, but the office isn’t. With proactive networking maintenance, we eliminate local bottlenecks (Wi-Fi saturation, old switches, DNS timeouts) and validate problems against host metrics. The result: fewer false alarms and faster fixes from iPoint’s managed IT service team.
Want faster pages and stronger uptime? Explore iPoint’s managed IT services and networking maintenance to ensure that your business is always present and active online.
Levels of Security: SSL, DDoS, Backups, and More
SSL/TLS certificates encrypt traffic. Enforce HTTPS, auto-renew certificates, and enable HSTS for strict security. iPoint’s managed IT services handle issuance, renewal, and redirects so customers never hit a warning screen.
DDoS protection filters malicious floods before they reach your origin. We combine network-layer scrubbing, a Web Application Firewall (WAF), rate limiting, and bot controls. Pairing this with networking maintenance—proper firewall rules, VLANs, and VPN—keeps management ports and admin tools locked down.
Backups & recovery: Daily (or hourly for busy stores) with off-site copies and point-in-time restores. We test restores regularly because untested backups aren’t backups. Our managed IT services document RPO/RTO targets and perform recovery drills.
Patching & hardening: Keep OS, CMS, and plugins current. Least-privilege access, MFA, SSH keys, and secret rotation reduce risk. Centralized logging and alerting catch brute-force attempts, defacements, or unusual errors. Tied with networking maintenance, lateral movement is contained, and audit trails are clear.
Security is a layered practice. Hosting features plus iPoint’s managed IT services and disciplined networking maintenance create a defense-in-depth posture built for modern threats.
Make hosting effortless with iPoint
Here’s your quick plan: choose the right tier (shared, VPS, cloud, dedicated), confirm domain/DNS settings, set uptime goals, enable CDN, and enforce SSL, WAF, backups, and patching. iPoint’s managed IT services orchestrate the stack while our networking maintenance keeps your environment healthy end-to-end.
Ready for a right-sized hosting plan and hands-off reliability? Talk to iPoint’s managed IT service team or learn about our networking maintenance programs. Reach out for more information or set up a free consultation with one of our IT experts.