{"id":141,"date":"2012-04-23T20:35:30","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T19:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/?p=141"},"modified":"2012-04-23T20:35:30","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T19:35:30","slug":"161-a-christian-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/161-a-christian-website.html","title":{"rendered":"161-a-christian-website"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Christian Website for everyone!<\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve read some of the other posts here you\u2019ll know that I\u2019m pretty keen on Church sites (or Christian websites).\u00a0 I think that they are at least a small part of the way forward for bringing God and the message of salvation to others.\u00a0 Part of the \u201cmarketing mix\u201d if you\u2019re the kind of person that\u2019s into business speak!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A good Christian website can reach a lot of people and so today I\u2019m going to start a series that explains in some detail all the things you should think about when building a Christian website.\u00a0 This is going to be a long series of posts but ultimately I\u2019ll be offering you a good insight into what is required to build a great website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll cover a lot of ground together from design principles to features to include, right through to how the Internet works and how that\u2019ll affect your Church site.\u00a0 Some of it I guess you\u2019ll know and some not.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry since we\u2019ll move at a pretty rapid pace so keep checking back to find out if we\u2019ve moved onto a new section that you might not know so much about.\u00a0 In a while I\u2019ll add a mailing list to the page so you can sign up for new instalments.<\/p>\n

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At the end of all this I\u2019ll pull things together into a PDF book for download.\u00a0 Hopefully you\u2019ll find it useful (whether you\u2019re a Christian or not).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To start things off I wanted to cover how the Internet works and how you can interact successfully within it.\u00a0 I\u2019m starting here because having a basic understanding of the way a church site gets onto the Internet helps you in your understanding of what you are trying to achieve. There are several parts worth thinking about:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Internet<\/li>\n
  2. Servers<\/li>\n
  3. Clients<\/li>\n
  4. Client\/Server relationship<\/li>\n
  5. What is hosting<\/li>\n
  6. What is a domain<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Internet and the Church site<\/h1>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Imagine a lot of computers, millions and millions of them all connected together.\u00a0 Now imagine that they all talk to each other using one language.\u00a0 In simple terms that\u2019s the Internet.\u00a0\u00a0 A global interconnected system of computer networks that are using a standard language or Internet protocol to talk to each other.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Notice I said computer networks not individual computers.\u00a0 So this means simply that there are lots of computers all connected together into networks and those networks are then connected together.\u00a0 A simple diagram will help here:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"internetComputer\"<\/p>\n

    The diagram shows two types of computers connected together.\u00a0 The left most side can talk to the right most side.\u00a0 Not surprisingly this can be significantly more complex.\u00a0 For example a star network connected through a single computer into another group of computers:<\/p>\n

    \"internetComputer2\"<\/p>\n

    You can imagine that you could keep on doing this.\u00a0 Joining groups of computers together over and over and over and \u2026\u00a0 This is the Internet when multiplied lots and lots and lots!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    To enable the computers to talk to each other a language or protocol was created.\u00a0 This means that anyone can reach your Christian website, anyone around the world can reach any church site because all the computers know how to talk to each other.\u00a0 They use something called TCP\/IP.\u00a0 This is what\u2019s know as a network protocol and it works at the lowest levels of the computer system.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like an application such as Word or Excel instead it is about passing a series of numbers between computers to enable them to know things about each other.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I\u2019m sure by now you\u2019ll have heard of an IP address.\u00a0 This is the unique address of your computer and it\u2019s how the Internet finds you and your church site.\u00a0 Every site has a unique address.\u00a0 So imagine each computer in the diagram above has an associated IP address.\u00a0 If one computer wants to \u201ctalk\u201d to another it simply needs to know the IP address.\u00a0 It then passes that IP address to the next computer and so on until it reaches the one it wants to talk to.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I\u2019ve explained this in a very simple manner because the TCP\/IP protocol<\/a> (click the link for a more in depth explanation) can become difficult to understand without knowing a bit of network routing theory and frankly you don\u2019t need to know that to successfully operate and own a Christian website.\u00a0 Instead you just need to know that your website is stored on a computer and it\u2019s \u201caddressed\u201d (found) using the TCP\/IP protocol or in short the IP address.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    You might be wondering though how anyone manages to find your church website since you don\u2019t type in an IP number into your computer instead you type www.websites4christians.com<\/a> or similar.\u00a0 Well the answer lies in something called a routing table.\u00a0 A routing table is a list of all the IP addresses and their corresponding websites.\u00a0 An easy way to imagine it is one column with an IP address and one with the written address of the website:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Network Destination<\/th>\nNetmask<\/th>\nGateway<\/th>\nInterface<\/th>\nMetric<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    0.0.0.0<\/td>\n0.0.0.0<\/td>\n192.168.0.1<\/td>\n192.168.0.100<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    127.0.0.0<\/td>\n255.0.0.0<\/td>\n127.0.0.1<\/td>\n127.0.0.1<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    192.168.0.0<\/td>\n255.255.255.0<\/td>\n192.168.0.100<\/td>\n192.168.0.100<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    192.168.0.100<\/td>\n255.255.255.255<\/td>\n127.0.0.1<\/td>\n127.0.0.1<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    192.168.0.255<\/td>\n255.255.255.255<\/td>\n192.168.0.100<\/td>\n192.168.0.100<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    As easy example is to type in the address of websites4christians.com as an IP address rather than the text.\u00a0 Our IP address is: 109.104.89.243<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Simply type this into the address bar of the browser (where you normally type www.websites4christians.com<\/a>) and you\u2019ll find that our site comes up.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    As with a lot of the Internet when you\u2019re building a church website you\u2019ll find that it\u2019s not really necessary to fully understand this but rather have an awareness of what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 The reason the IP address is important to understand is to get to know the difference between a shared server and a dedicated server.\u00a0 The two are quite different and affect how you are perceived by search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The server for your church on the web<\/h1>\n

     <\/p>\n

    A sever is a computer.\u00a0 I start with this to immediately clear up any misconceptions that you might have about the word server.\u00a0 It is simply a computer running a software program that \u201cserves\u201d web pages\u201d (or other information) to computers on request.\u00a0 So you sit at your computer at home or work and request from a server a church site.\u00a0 Your computer uses the Internet to find the relevant server that is storing the church on the web site and then it requests the information from it.\u00a0 Something like this:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"accessWebsiteOnComputer\"<\/p>\n

    The server is simple a computer with data stored on it that you are able to access certain pages on.\u00a0 Although in theory any computer can act as a server it\u2019s probably fair to say that it\u2019s unlikely that they would be used.\u00a0 Instead specially made computers are used.\u00a0 These will feature more memory and faster processors as well as the ability to communicate effectively and quickly using appliances like switches, routers, gateways and other hardware needed to give a good Internet experience.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Dedicated or virtual servers for a Christian website.<\/h1>\n

     <\/p>\n

    There are two types of server that you might use for your church website:\u00a0 dedicated or virtual.\u00a0 Which to choose depends on lots of factors but before looking at those let\u2019s examine what the difference is and then look at how it might affect your church on the web presence.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    A dedicated server is a server (computer) which only hosts (contains) your website.\u00a0 This means that your website is the only information on that server and so the server only has to deal with requests for pages from your site.\u00a0 Generally speaking this will mean that the server will deliver your information faster and be able to deal with more people at any given time.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Dedicated servers also give you more control over the software that is loaded onto them.\u00a0 An easy way to think of this would be to consider your own home computer.\u00a0 No doubt you have a number of applications loaded onto it.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take the example of an email program.\u00a0 There are lots of possible programs that you might load, I guess in general most people have either Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.\u00a0 It would be unusual if you had both.\u00a0 So you\u2019ve made a choice over the software you want loaded.\u00a0 The same is true for a dedicated server you get to choose the software you want loaded and the specification you want in terms of memory and speed etc.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    This ability to decide what is needed on the computer is perhaps not the most interesting topic if all you want to do is get your church on the web, however it is really important.\u00a0 One program that is often used in web server is a program called PHP. This program comes in many different guises. When we got our current websites4christians server it had version 5.1 installed.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t good enough for the applications that we run so we got it upgraded.\u00a0 This was simple and straightforward because we have a dedicated server.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Virtual servers are quite different for hosting a Christian website.\u00a0 Virtual servers are servers that have been \u201cvirtually\u201d split using software into several \u201cdedicated\u201d servers.\u00a0 This means that the resources in a virtual server are shared with all the other websites that are using it.\u00a0 So the more websites on it the more contention in getting hold of the resources for use.\u00a0 Have a look at the following diagram:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"serverTopology\"<\/p>\n

    In the diagram you can see that the server takes lots of requests from the Internet and then decides which website the requests are for.\u00a0 You can imagine this is much slower than a dedicated server.\u00a0 The queuing and other processing that is required (not shown) is substantial and so this can create a problem.\u00a0 However before you rush off to buy a dedicated server it\u2019s worth thinking about the type of load you are going to put on it.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Virtual servers are fine for sites that are not high volume.\u00a0 This means that if you expect less than a few thousand visitors a day then you\u2019ll have no issue using a virtual server.\u00a0 The technology is sound and works well for many, many Christian websites that put the church on the web.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    It\u2019s worth also remembering that a dedicated server probably costs as much per month as a virtual server costs per year so moving up to a dedicated server is not something to be taken lightly.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    One other thought for you would be the neighbours.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve a virtual server then you can see immediately that there are plenty of other websites hosted on the same server as you.\u00a0 The question for you as a church site owner is whether any of these are sites that you might think a bit \u201cdodgy\u201d.\u00a0 For example a site that shows pornographic images or something that sell \u201clegal\u201d drugs.\u00a0 Although you might not think it, it can affect your status on the web.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Google and other search engines look at the various types of website coming from given IP\u2019s and they do rate them.\u00a0 So if you think back to the IP explanation above you\u2019ll remember that a dedicated server has a dedicated IP and a virtual server generally has shared IP addresses (note this isn\u2019t strictly true but I\u2019ll explain this in a bit).\u00a0 So when Google looks at the IP address it\u2019ll see both you and your neighbours that are on the same web server!\u00a0 Worth considering when you\u2019re getting a Christian website!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Now I said it\u2019s not strictly true about the IP addresses.\u00a0 I\u2019ve explained it this way to help you understand it in a basic sense.\u00a0 In practise it\u2019s a bit different.\u00a0 Practically what happens is you sign up with a virtual hosting company to provide you a website and they put you on their virtual server.\u00a0 This has a shared IP address and so you share with the neighbours.\u00a0 They can also give you a dedicated IP address but in practise you\u2019ll still be sharing with the neighbours since you\u2019re on the same physical machine.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    It can be quite complicated to understand all the complications of this because the reality is it varies a lot depending on how the virtual server is set up.\u00a0 However the simple way to think of it is that if you are in a virtual server environment then Google and others will look at who\u2019s on the same server as you and will grade you to a small extent based on those neighbours.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Clients for the Christian website<\/h1>\n

     <\/p>\n

    When you\u2019re building your church on the web all Christian website owners need to take into account what computer hardware their visitors might be using.\u00a0 This might seem a bit of an odd idea at the start but when you think about it, it makes sense.\u00a0 You have to think about the screen size that visitors have, the power of their computer, the browser that they will be using and so on.\u00a0 All these things matter when you\u2019re building a church site.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The client (visitors computer) is key to their experience of your website.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that you\u2019ve all been to websites perhaps Christian websites where the site doesn\u2019t work properly.\u00a0 I know I have and when I\u2019ve written to the webmasters concerned (the owner of the church site) they\u2019ve been really surprised.\u00a0 I can think of one in particular where they told me how they\u2019d tested the site fully, the only problem was that they hadn\u2019t tested it in Internet explorer and so they didn\u2019t realise that the menus didn\u2019t work in Internet explorer only in Firefox.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Generally the way to deal with the client experience is to work with a website company that really knows what it\u2019s doing.\u00a0 You need someone to guide you through what is a minefield of ever changing browser and hardware features.\u00a0 A word of warning though anyone who starts by telling you that<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \u201cEffective web design & development is a craft\u201d<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Is likely to want to charge a fortune and the result is likely to be pretty poor.\u00a0 You want someone who knows that the problems are and can deal with them. Not a person or company that thinks of website design and development as some kind of higher art form!!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    If you want to go it alone there are a few things that you can consider:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    There are generally three types of screen which are defined by their pixel ration (more pixels better quality of picture)<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n