Web Hosting, A Beginner’s Guide

Using the internet for many people is a daily necessity, whether it is for work, leisure, shopping or gaining information. While many people are confident in how to use the internet, and what it can do for them, most have little understanding of how it works or what it takes to establish a website. Every website on the internet starts out by using the services of a web hosting company. Whether it is a one page site of an individual or a huge, multi-page website of an international company, they all use the same underlying principle and technique to present their information. In order for a website to be visible to the millions of internet users it must be available through the web hosting services of a web hosting company.

Web hosting is basically the process of providing a connection service which enables website files to be accessed for interaction by individuals on their personal PC. This can only be done by web hosting service providers as it is only them who have dedicated computers, which are directly connected to the internet. These computers are used to serve up websites onto the internet, lending them their official name as “servers”.  Servers, while providing a place for websites to exist, also are the backbone to the World Wide Web, their connection to the internet provides instant website access to anyone, anywhere in the world. 

Web hosting service providers generally host many thousands of web sites that require high speed computers with large data storage capacity and fast connection to the internet. They have an abundant, but set amount of access to the internet, which they rent out in the form of hosting plans or hosting packages. In addition most web hosting service companies provide additional services, tools and applications necessary for establishing and running a successful web site. In order to have a website on the internet a hosting plan must be purchased from a hosting company. Once you have a plan set up, you can upload your website files to the hosting company server for access VIA the internet.

In order to have your own website you need to do more than just rent space from a web hosting company. For example, you will need to design or create the website, either personally or by hiring the services of a professional web designer. In the case of an online store or ecommerce website you will need to establish additional services to collect payment. If you want to blog or have an open informational forum you will need other specialized services. Whatever form of internet activity you wish to carry out you will have to enlist the services of a web hosting company. Be sure to shop around before signing up for a hosting plan, there are thousands web hosting companies and prices vary from free to costly. One word of caution, hosting services are becoming quite inexpensive, however avoid the free hosting plans that are available. These will only cause you grief, select a quality hosting plan even if it costs three – six bucks more than free.