Web Hosting Explained

When a company or a person decides to have an online presence or other internet based project they will use a service called web hosting. If you want others to see your website you will need one of these and depending on whether it is a commercial site or not will dictate how much you pay but it is possible to have this at no charge (with restrictions). A certain amount of storage space on the server is allocated to each user where they can store their website files and other data for people to access.

People first starting out with free hosting should consider if having a free package is what they need because although these supply almost everything needed to create and host a site, they are not a match for a service that is paid. There are many limitations to free web hosting services and they are not generally regarded as an option for serious web users as the amount of storage space is limited along with many other functions a web user may require. Hosting packages vary enormously and do not rely purely on the storage capacity available so the decision should be made relative to your particular needs.

In the early days you may be quite happy to have your files on a server which is shared by many others while you try their hosting services.Once you are comfortable with the service level then it might be worth upgrading to a dedicated server. Before you can use your web hosting package you will need to register a domain otherwise it will be of no use, then once that is done your website and any other files can be uploaded to the server ready for viewing. Files include web pages, images, audios, and videos, to name a few and normally, you will be provided with storage space of about 1Gb although the limit is continually rising as storage costs lessen.

Web hosting also provides the facility to have your own email address unlike those supplied by Google and Yahoo for example, this means, your e-mail address is exclusive to your website. It always looks like the user is more serious about their internet presence if they have their own email and domain name, it increases credibility. The next thing to consider with your hosting package is how much information will be stored on the server that can be downloaded from your website as it will use a facility called bandwidth; the greater amount of files stored that can be accessed, the greater amount of bandwidth will be required.

Problems will occur in the form of an inaccessible website if the bandwidth is exceeded so if the web host cannot provide the bandwidth you require you will need to use another company. Of course this won't matter if you only have a basic website but as soon as you start adding large images, audio tracks, video footage and other big files, your bandwidth will be used up very quickly. While it is possible to use your own home PC as a web host, this is not advised as the number of security issues involved will make it a risky proposition and it is far easier to pay another company for their web hosting service.

By: Pshyx

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