Web hosting is required for anyone who has a website that they want to display live on the internet. But what exactly is a web hosting? Many beginners online often confuse web hosting with a domain name, but these are far from being the same thing. A domain name is simply the address of your website. For example, if your name is Kathy and you are a party planner, you may choose www.kathypartyplanner.com as a domain name for your website. Once you choose this domain name, you will need to purchase web or internet hosting so that kathypartyplanner.com can go live on the net for all to see.
So now that we know what a domain name is, let us further discuss internet hosting. Internet hosting and web hosting are the same. When you purchase hosting for a new website after obtaining your domain name, you are simply renting space on a web server.
What Is A Web Server?
A web server is simply a computer with a special program running on it. This program has multiple functions, but its main function is to serve you, the website owner. The web server gets a request from you to display your files over the Internet for everyone to see.
When you pay for web or internet hosting, you are requesting for the hosting company to use their web server to display all of the files that make up your website. These files can be words, videos, pictures or any other content that you have on your website for display. Your hosting company serves you by displaying the files that make up your website each time someone types your domain name into the web address bar.
The monthly fee for web hosting is typically very reasonably priced. The money that you are paying goes to the hosting company each month and is used to maintain the web server, and upgrade the server as needed. Your monthly fee also helps to keep your website secure and to keep it up and running for 24 hours each day. There are various types of web hosting available. Let us review the most popular types of internet hosting used by most people to host their websites.
Shared Hosting
Web servers can handle requests from thousands of websites at one time. Shared hosting servers are very powerful, because they have the capability of effectively maintaining a large number of requests from websites while protecting the security of each. The majority of websites online use a shared hosting plan.
When you use shared hosting, you are simply sharing the server that is used to keep your website actively running online. Shared hosting plans are typically very inexpensive. This is because so many people are splitting the cost of maintaining one web server. Many website owners are happy with using shared hosting because of the service that they receive at such a low cost.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is for websites that get such a large number of visitors that they need a web server all to themselves. Websites that would fall into this category would be Google, Yahoo and MSN. These websites get millions of hits every few hours. If they did not use dedicated hosting, these websites would crash every few minutes. A shared server would not be able to handle the amount of server requests that large websites such as these require.
Dedicated hosting can be used for one powerhouse website, such as Google, or they can be split between 2 to 5 websites that have a large amount of traffic, but not so much that they need their own web server. Dedicated hosting, of course, is more expensive than shared hosting. The larger the number of website owners sharing a server, the cheaper the cost of internet hosting.
Free Hosting
There are many websites that allow you to host with them for free in exchange for the ability to place advertisements on your web space. This is not a very popular method of obtaining hosting, but is used by those who do not want to pay any monthly fees to maintain their website online. This is an option with most hosting companies, and the best way to get your website up and running for free if you are strapped for cash.
Obtaining Internet hosting is a fairly easy and straightforward process, and there are very reputable companies online that offer hosting for cheap. Now that you know the difference between domain names and web hosting, dedicated and shared hosting and the function of the web server, you can begin the process of finding a hosting company that will get your website live on the internet for all to see.