What is Web Hosting?

If you want to put a website on the Net you’ll need the services of a web hosting company. A web hosting company runs a cluster of computers, which are referred to as “servers”. Those computers are connected to the Net on a permanent basis. What you need to note is that by “permanent”, web hosting services actually aim for 99%-99.9% uptime.

A cut-price web host may not maintain such high rates of uptime.

Perhaps you don’t think it matters, but what you should realize is that 1% downtime means 3-4 days in a year when your website is offline - in other words, three or four days out of a year when you make no money.

The moral of the story is that if you try to economize by hosting your website with the cheapest possible web host you might find yourself stuck with a higher rate of downtime, and have your site unavailable for as much as two weeks per year. Obviously, if you are serious about your Internet business you will appreciate that choosing the cheapest offer could turn out to be a false economy. So, think about what you want to do with your website and choose the service that best matches your needs. Do not simply choose the cheapest service you can find.

You might wonder whether it is actually necessary to use a web hosting service at all. Actually, it is possible for you to set up your own server and hook up to the Net without renting space from a web hosting company. However, the investment and expertise required to do that, as well as the time required for maintenance means that it is not really a desirable choice for most people.

In other words, if you want to run a website without too much hassle, it is far better to host it with a good quality web host than try and host it yourself.

Most people make their websites on their computers either by means of website editing software or manually, using something as simple as a series of notepad files and basic HTML code. Once they are satisfied with the result, the website is uploaded to the web hosting provider’s servers.

You can up-load your files from your computer via an FTP client (like the free FileZilla FTP client), or directly through your web host. Once you have successfully up-loaded your web files it will be viewable by anyone surfing the Internet.

As your website develops and it will take up more space on the web host’s servers. Disk space is measured in Megabytes or Gigabytes. A Gigabyte equals 1000 megabytes. A web hosting contract will tell you how many Megabytes or Gigabytes of web space you can use to store your website.

As more and more people visit your website, the volume of data being transferred across the network will increase. This is called “network transfer” (commonly referred to as bandwidth) and is also calculated in Megabytes or Gigabytes.

So, when you look for a web host, you will need to consider how large your website is likely to become and how much traffic you are hoping to attract to it.

Now you know what the basics of web hosting involve, you will be better equipped to find the best service for your needs.

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