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Calling all IT people


Thistle

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Hello,

As you may have seen I want to be an IT Geek :) I have an assessment day on Wednesday for a job with a Web Hosting company and wondered if anybody had any information as to what is involved in web hosting... I know that it a service that allows people to make their website available online, and that this is usually done by providing a space or leasing out a server. I have Google'd it and there is a Lot of information. I am only going for a first line support role and know I don't need to know everything. So I was just wondering if what I already know would probably be enough or if there is something Major I need to know?

Thanks

Amy

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If you want help with it I can help you as I often play around with (web)servers myself, including husky-owners itself. But on the other side I have no clue what a first line support is suppose to know and what not. I doubt it has anything to do with the actual infrastructure of the system? Might be wrong though, no clue here.

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Thanks the actual title of the role I have gone for is Technical Support Advisor, if that means anything to you? The company is a web hosting company I guess like the one you guys must use to register this domain. I have never had to take a test before having an interview before and really don't know what to expect all I have been told is that there is going to be a written technical test, a verbal reasoning test, and then a telephone role play activity. :S

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I guess at the telephone roleplay you could expect someone calling that their website is unavailable and would like information on how to get it online. Could happen when the hosting server is overloaded...

Can't help you though, I only know so much about hosting as I ask bf who works a litlle with them. Good luck though.

I have an interview for a part time job at my University tomorrow too, lol, applying for an IT position but an easier one in general help and assistance to people in a PC room and supervision.

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OK first thing I picked up from what you said before is "What you guys must use to register this domain" which is incorrect and you need to have the correction in your head for the interview.

Domain: This is simply the name. In our case this is husky-owners.com, however this is not the hosting.

Hosting: Hosting is simply space on a server, or a server itself where you can put the files, databases, images etc to host a website. This server has a web server installed on it which interprets the websites files and serves them over the internet via a name server (usually 2 of these which are named versions of an IP address). Your domain name points to these name servers.

So in short you domain is just a name. When you go to that domain (husky-owners.com) the domain host says "Where is this pointing to?" and gets the name servers. The name servers are on the web hosting company, and the files are then served.

Examples of hosting (These will be important in your interview):

Shared hosting:- This where 1 server is shared by sometimes hundreds of websites. This is the cheapest option, but less powerfull option to host a website.

VPS:- Stands for Virtual Private Server. This is where 2-4 websites are hosted on one server, however the server is setup in such a way to make it seem like its 2-4 completely separate machines so the user feels he is running a dedicated machine for his site. Although the resources (memory, disks etc) are shared to some degree, the user has full control over his virtual environment. He gets more performance (because of only a few users) and full control which you would not get on shared hosting.

Dedicated Server:- This is where a website has a server all to itself. This is one of the highest performance options, but also the highest cost. You can get these either managed (where tech support helps you and sorts stuff out for you) or unmanaged (where the user has full control and no help with it. If they brake it they fix it, unless the hardware itself fails).

Cloud Hosting:- This is a relativly new option on the market and what husky owners uses. This is similar to a VPS, however has the performance at, or even sometimes over and above a dedicated server. The reason for this is several servers will be linked together in a "cluster" and act as one massive machine. Virtual servers are then installed on that cluster of machines. The bonus being if one machine goes down, the others within the cluster will take over meaning your site does not go down. There is also the advantage that increasing the power of your server is often "turn up what power your allowed" rather than phisically installing more memory, a faster CPU etc. Meaning no downtime for the site.

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Wow! thanks [MENTION=1]Marc[/MENTION] that makes a lot more sense now, I will write them down in my notes to revise over the next few days :) Could you also clear one thing up for me please...what does DNS stand for? I have done quite a bit of reading online and there are two different variations Domain Name Server and Domain Name System, I believe there is quite a difference in meanings if it is a Server or a System. I might be totally wrong :S Thanks again :)

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DNS stands for Domain Name System and it's what translate hostnames (husky-owners.com) to an IP address (87.106.151.179). This is what the computer needs to connect to the right server. You can see it as a huge phonebook that converts names to addresses for you.

Never heard of a Domain Name Server, I presume that what they meant is a DNS server? With that they would mean the actual server where the DNS runs on.

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Yes DNS Server is just that, a server where generally only a DNS runs. In large corporations they will have a Primary and secondary server for this.

Carrying on from what Marc said, I would expect a web hosting company also provides a full package, and areas like FTP, email and domain name registration would be part of questions thrown at you for first line support.

Doesn't happen to be fasthosts your doing the interview with?

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Ok getting really nervous now as my test is tomorrow morning... I am researching permissions given to anonymous users when online... I know when they visit a website they should only have read/browse permissions, but I am struggling with CGI-bin. I believe CGI is a set of instructions that tellls the web server what to do, but bin isnt things being chucked away or destroyed but is like a filing cabinet where everything (programs etc) the web server needs is stored. So if I am right an anonymous user should still only have read/browse permissions? Or because this is effectivly where the programs sit until they are called upon do anonymous users need read, browse AND execute, or do they need full control?

Thanks

Amy

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CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface: it's a set of standard rules for sending and receiving information to a web page.

'bin' is short for Binary: ie files that have more than just text. Historically, programs that provide data to web pages (instead of simple pages written in html) would be stored in a special directory/folder named CGI-bin. Files in that directory would be given permission to run as programs whereas files on other pages would only be readable.

To work in first line supoort, I'd expect someone to know what the normal services a hosting package would provide. To find that out go to Fasthosts website and delve into what they offer. Basically expect: webserver, ftp server, mail server. Web server provides website pages, ftp allows transfer of files to and form the servr and mail handles email.

In addition the next most common service is probably a database server eg MySQL.

BTW - I currently rent dedicated servers from Fasthosts.

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BTW - I currently rent dedicated servers from Fasthosts.

LOL is that a hint if I get the job to make sure I look after you? :P

Thanks for the help on CGI, I have looked into MySQL and MsSQL and 101 other things which I think might come up :) I just have a few other things I want to look at like Ping, Exchange and Sendmail/PostFix so I may have a few more questions to come.

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