How to Find the Web Hosting That is Right for You

Contributed by B w Hughes

What the Heck Is Web Hosting?

A web hosting service is an Internet-based business that provides space on one of its computers for you to store all of the files that make up your website. Essentially, you "rent" space and other services from this company on computers that offer always-on, high-speed connections to the Internet. Web hosting allows you to store and maintain all of your website files where everyone in the world can see them at all times.

Why Would You Need Web Hosting?

Why not just connect your own computer to the Internet and host your own website? In a word, traffic. Web traffic consists of all the "requests" that are sent to your domain name, or URL address, to view your website. If you have a popular website, thousands of people (or more) could be sending requests from their computers to yours at any given moment. Your computer's processor would need to be able to handle this amount of traffic and would need to function 24 hours a day.

Most individuals cannot provide this kind of access to the entire Internet, or keep their personal computers constantly maintained to do so. Therefore, web hosting businesses have sprung up to handle all of the technical details and support that Internet users want and expect, not just storage space for the files.

More Web Hosting Options Than You Can Shake a Stick at!

Websites are hosted on computers designated as "servers," or computers that provide services to other computers. There are two types of web server available to most customers: shared servers/hosting and dedicated servers/hosting.

Shared hosting is the most cost-effective form of hosting, and is probably the best choice for the great majority of websites. Shared hosting provides space to several customers on one server. With shared hosting, you have complete control over your own website's files, but you have no control over the server itself. For example, you can't install new software on a shared server. You also may have to access your files through the host's own web-based management interface, or control panel.

However, most competitive web hosting service providers are now offering hosting packages that include an impressive list of functions and capabilities. While there are still limitations to the flexibility that shared hosting can offer, the cost of this type of hosting is within reach of most small businesses and even most individuals.

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