Website Hosting

You need a server to put a web site on the internet. Sometimes, owning and maintaining a web server can cost money and it requires someone who knows what they are doing to maintain the server and the web-site.

A website hosting provider can do this for you. They will provide equipment and other technical programs that are required to build a web-site. These hosting companies store your web site and allowing your web site to be seen on the internet. Within that, it allows web-site visitor traffic to flow through their servers so people can view your site on the internet.

The physical web server does not reside at the consumers home or business which means that the web host services are designated as outsourced services. This means that the hosting organization that you choose has the responsibility to maintain your site structure, files and web pages.

Many web hosts provide excellent services that really assist individuals and business owners. All the weight of maintaining the host servers and application fall on the hosting company and not the individual and as a business owner, this is great because there are so many technical routines that you have to do daily to maintain a server.

You can self publish your site and use the web host to handle the technical aspects of server management. The host that you choose will give you the capability to load your own site to the server for updates and revisions to your web page. Web hosting doesn’t include developing your site (unless they have a special development program) or the development of certain customized programs. You can develop the programs (web-site or server side code) or have someone do it for you.

Web hosting is offered in multiple formats based on cost and infrastructure.

Choosing a hosting provider

How do you choose a hosting provider when there are thousands of hosting companies available online? Important factors in selecting a web hosting company include the percentage of server uptime. 98 to 99% uptime is the dream standard for server uptime, 65% is unacceptable.

The higher the downtime of a server, the lower the potential for traffic at your web site. Another consideration is how much space is provided for the files that will make up your web site. How much bandwidth is in your package? Monthly bandwidth is the amount of data transfer allowed for visitors to view and use your web site.

With today’s changing trends in web hosting services, it is important to get as much server space and bandwidth as you can. This will allow for necessary updates and increased traffic to your site as it becomes more popular.

You have a couple of choices when it comes to web hosting – you can get it for free or you can spend for it. Naturally, it would be lovely if web hosting would be free for all of us but understand that all the needs of your company website must be met by the free web hosting plan if you want your future to look promising.

Free Hosting Providers

Free web hosting is the most basic web hosting service that you can obtain and there are many free hosting companies that are available on the internet. Free hosting services are usually financed by advertisements on web sites that are hosted.

The type of web domain that you receive when you get a free web hosting is a sub-domain with the name that you pick (yourname.webhost.com) or a name in a directory, but if you have already purchased a domain name you will be able to use it by pointing to your host name by changing the DNS (domain name servers) at the place your domain is registered.

If you are a novice, this is the type of account that you would probably want to get but there are some shortcomings to free web hosting if you are looking for more options on the account.

First, many free hosting accounts do not support database management or what you would call in simple terms, putting data structures on the free web host side of their server. Databases are usually used for online data retrieval routines. Many of these free web hosting sites do not support a common package called mySQL which allows you to program queries into your web sites.

They also don’t support multiple e-mail accounts. Most free web hosting service only gives you one email account and it’s usually a web based internet account. The host does not include modules for Flash Programming, PHP and Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (DHMTL).

Free web hosting is for novices who want an easy hosting option without many bells and whistles.

Paid Hosting Providers

With the growth in the number of online businesses, the number of web hosting providers have also increased. In fact, web hosting has become a business on its own. New web hosting companies keep emerging on the internet every month. Each of these web hosting companies provides web space with different features and tools included. Prices of each web hosting service also vary.

Since the type of website required for each business is different, the tools required for maintaining the website will also be different. Hence, you must choose the web hosting service which provides enough web space at decent prices along with the tools that you require for operating it.

Paid web hosting providers give you a lot of additional options. Apart from hardware and software support, they provide tools for you to for tasks like integration with payment gateways, installation of SSL certificates, autoresponders and RSS feeds, etc.

The type of web hosting provider that you choose depends on the type of online business you want to set up. For instance, free web hosting may be sufficient to put your hobby into practice or set up a personal home page for yourself. It does not provide the liberty to run major applications. If it is your intention to do something on a professional basis, you would like to have your own web server for this purpose. In that case, go for a paid web hosting service.