Web Hosting

To enable a person or company to host a website or other web based product, a web hosting company is required. Most people will require their services which may be provided as part of a package which will probably at a charge but could be free. Digital files like websites, videos and programs for instance are stored on a web host server sometimes called a data center where they can be retrieved by anyone who wishes to view the slide or video footage for example.

Many types exist, some provide free hosting but with these types you pay the price of having restricted facilities that usually allow the likes of blogs, email and basic websites to be accessed. However, if you're planning to expand you should shift to a paid service as free web hosting only gives you limited space and sub-domains for your site. There is a huge range of services available and often comparison sites are the best place to search as prices do vary considerably and you must really know in advance what type of service you need.

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. However, it is often a good idea to see if the company is reliable before this more costly option of a dedicated server is taken. A web hosting plan is no good unless you have a registered domain to use, then you can use this in conjunction with the storage space to save your files, website etc. All companies will allocate a certain amount of space for your website and any other files required to be stored there (photos and MP3 tracks, for example) and this can be anything from 500Mb or more, depending on the host and package you are paying for.

The good thing about having your own web hosting package and domain means that all your email addresses will contain your domain name in them and not that of the free service provider you may have been using previously. If you have a business presence online you cannot afford to have another company's name at the end of your own e.g. www.yourcompanyname.hostingcompany.com when it should really look like this: www.yourcompanyname.com. Another problem to consider is called bandwidth which is essentially how much digital data is being transferred using your domain name and will affect the cost of the hosting package, this needs to be considered carefully.

If you have a busy website and you have a low bandwidth allocation then there will be times when potential visitors will be disappointed as they will not be able to access your site until the allocation has been re-set. This point becomes more important when you have a site that provides large video, audio and image files to its visitors as all of these use up the bandwidth you have been allocated as part of your package. You may have your own web host in your PC, but that can be too risky; the best option is to settle for paid web hosting, even if you're new to the internet.