Basics of Web Hosting

For a website to be seen by internet users it needs to be hosted and for this web hosting companies are used. With web hosting, web pages are uploaded onto a server. If this is not done then a website cannot be viewed. Web hosting is effectively putting the website onto the internet, allowing the world to see it. There are thousands of hosting companies with million of hosting packages between them.

There is a vast price range for hosting; from free to thousands of pounds a year. Free hosting has many limitations so should only be considered for websites without the need for complex solutions. The majority of these packages also demand that adverts controlled by the hosting company appear on your website, as this is how they make their money. This looks unprofessional (especially if not related to your website) so is not recommended for business sites. Other cheap packages may be adequate for small websites without too many, or too complex pages. Advanced hosting packages, such as colocation and managed hosting, are for large sites or databases.

Hosting can be broken into two main types - shared hosting and dedicated hosting. With shared hosting a hosting company hosts many, or all, of their clients on the same server. This is perfectly adequate for many sites. It is cheaper than dedicated hosting as web space is being shared with other sites. Clients still have their own URL, or website address. Dedicated servers are aimed more at larger sites. Here a host leases an entire server out to one client. It is therefore not shared with others and only contains that one clients' website, or group of websites. This allows for much more choice and control of the hosting of that particular website.

A website needs a domain name (also known as a URL), which would look something like this:

www.mywebsite.com

A domain name is purchased prior to the website being uploaded to the server. It is purchased from a domain registration company, although some web hosts also offer this service. Clients can search as many domain names as they like to see what is available and how much it will cost. Two different websites cannot have the same domain name. Prices vary and are paid at a yearly rate.

As mentioned above there are many web hosting packages with different amounts of bandwidth, web space and support, as well as other variables. Bandwidth is the measurement of data communication and affects the amount of traffic a website can cope with. The more bandwidth that is dedicated to a website, the more traffic it is capable of receiving. If the number of visitors exceeds this at one time then the website may slow down, or break down temporarily. Web space is the amount of space on the server that the site can take up. The more web space that is available, the more pages that can be uploaded. Large files, such as video and audio files take up more space than pages containing only text. Some hosting clients may want 24/7 support in case problems occur. Others may want managed hosting; where the hosting is completely take care of by the hosting company. The amount of support required depends on the knowledge of the client and their needs.

Interoute offers Colocation and Managed Hosting packages.

Copyright Andrew Marshall

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