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What is Web Hosting?

What Is Web Hosting?A web hosting service allows individuals and businesses to put their web pages to the Internet. There are free hosting services that are supported by third party advertising on your site (not suitable for a business website or professional blogs) and paid hosting plans. A hosting company provides the servers and technologies so users can establish their websites and others can view them on the Internet.

All you need to sign up for a hosting account with a web hosting company is an Internet connection. Dial-up, DSL and broadband (Cable/Fiber) are all types of Internet services that you can purchase from your local cable or telephone company, or in the case of dial-up, national vendors. If you are going to be running a business website, broadband Internet access is strongly recommended.

A web hosting company will offer clients access to a server and a hosting control panel for their account. You may share that server with other clients of the hosting company (shared hosting, VPS hosting) or you may have your own server (dedicated server hosting) all to yourself. You can click on each type to learn more about it.

For the best results, we recommend Hostgator (visit, review). They are simply the best web hosting company out there.

Typically, your first hosting plan will be on a shared server. Even though it is called shared hosting, each of the customers on the server has their own separate accounts. You cannot access the accounts of other people on the server and they cannot access yours. You get your own control panel and unique user ID.

Web hosting enables you to upload your website into your account so others may view it on the Internet. This is great for personal and business websites, because the World Wide Web is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That means visitors can access your site whenever they want from wherever they want. The servers at a web host are running 24/7 as well, so your website can be available to a visitor whenever they type in your web address.

Your website is made up of files, or pages, that are stored on the web host’s servers. A server is just a type of computer that is configured to “serve” information over a network. The server is part of a network of computers that make up the Internet. Personal computer users use web addresses (e.g. http://www.website.com) to navigate the Internet and view different web pages that are stored on various servers all over the world.

These servers are sometimes called “Host” computers. They are configured so that when a URL (Uniform Relay Link – the technical term for web address) is requested in your browser (like Internet Explorer or Firefox) the content at that address (a web page) will be displayed to the requesting browser (on the user’s screen). It’s just like finding a street address – everyone’s street address is unique, and when you arrive at the address, you will see where they live.

Hosting companies require that you buy your web address (called a domain) before you purchase a hosting account. We recommend NameCheap (visit) because they have the best prices and excellent service. Once you get to the domain registrar’s page, hopefully with a domain name in mind, you enter it into the registrar’s search form to make sure it is available.

Once you find and purchase your domain name, you can sign up for a hosting account. Check out NameCheap for domain names and Hostgator for hosting.

 

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