What is Web Hosting?

What is Web Hosting?

You have purchased a domain name, and you have built your website, and now you need to put your pages online. You need web hosting. Consider hosting similar to this: have a book, and you want to put the book on a shelf, but you need to pay for space on that shelf to allow others to read that book. Hosting is the space you will pay for to have your site on the Internet, so others can see and use your web pages.

What type of hosting should you consider? You want a hosting provider that is always ‘up’. The meaning of always ‘up’ is that any time your web site name is typed in, a reader should find your pages, and not a message stating the website is unavailable. A hosting provider that does not provide accessibility 24 hours a day and every day of the year is not a hosting provider you should consider.

Hosting is completed using servers, which are additional computers, networked to the Internet, holding millions of pages allowing people from around the world to view those pages. The hosting servers must be fast, continually working, and should be backed up by other computers to allow that constant ability to provide pages on demand. The permanent Internet connection allows anyone to type in your pages, to see your website when demanded.

Additional services are provided by hosting companies, such as email, special pricing, the ability to create pages from templates and more to lure customers, such as you, to their site. Read the fine print, know how much you will pay per month or per year, and compare these prices to the services you need for your web site.