How Does Web Hosting Function?

If you have decided to establish your own web site, but are not very certain about what a website is and are not familiar with the expression "web hosting", this article is devoted to clarifying these notions in plain English.

What exactly is a web site?

A website is a combination of web pages gathered in a systematic fashion. It has a unique website address, also referred to as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). A web site may be comprised of only one single web page and sometimes may even have as many as a thousand webpages.

What is a hosting server?

A hosting server enables you to upload your site onto it. In some instances, there might be even thousands of websites on one single web hosting server. The web hosting server essentially is a computer with special hardware, which is kept in a data center facility with special cooling systems, whose mission is to safeguard the seamless operation of the hosting server and all the websites hosted on it.

To sum up, a web hosting server will be indeed a launching pad when the time comes for you to launch your website. It could be any sort of site - a corporate site containing a huge number of web pages, or a site, which contains just a couple of pages and which you have developed just for your chums and family members.

You've decided what your site will be, now what?

Once you have decided what sort of site you want to launch, the next move is to discover what type of web hosting service you must select for your web project. Basically, there are two types of hosting services - free web hosting services and professional paid hosting services. The free-of-charge hosting solution is usually used by customers that do not own a business-related website.

Upsides and downsides of the cost-free website hosting solution

You will not get a lot of options with a cost-free web hosting package. Features such as traffic, memory and server hard disk space are limited and insufficient for an elaborate ecommerce site or a business-related website, or even for a website with lots of graphics. Moreover, there are lots of advertisements placed on your web site by the hosting company. These advertisements take up lots of space on your website and are extremely frustrating.

Shared web hosting

The paid shared web hosting services are more dependable and offer numerous advanced features in addition to the high-end hosting server that will host your web site and its content. In spite of that, it is essential to know which features your website needs prior to purchasing your web hosting plan. You should not rush and wind up spending cash on something that your site does not require.

Pick your hosting provider

It is easy to find a hosting services provider. You have to simply conduct an online survey in order to find a web hosting supplier that answers your website's needs. Before you take your actual choice, go through the parameters of the plans supplied by the hosting distributors that have grasped your interest. We, for example, are among the premier web hosting distributors on the marketplace today. The wide selection of web hosting solutions and our prices are what renders us an appealing option. Nevertheless, you must confirm what kind of hosting service you need and whether the price matches your budget. Also, you must not forget to read the hosting vendor's Terms & Conditions before registering to make sure that your site is not violating them.

Signing up for a website hosting account

As soon as you have found out what features are best for your website, the next step is to sign up for an account with the hosting plans provider of your choice. You will get all the necessary tools for handling your web site files and databases. With us, for instance, you will get a web hosting Control Panel, which comprises domain name, website, database and e-mail box administration areas. You log into the Control Panel using your unique user name and password, which grants you secure access to the part of the server where your web site will be located.

Uploading your site

You can either upload your site via FTP or, as is with the majority of web hosting service providers, through a web-based tool that is integrated within the web hosting Control Panel. With us, the File Manager is rather intuitive and offers features similar to those found in Windows Explorer, which makes file management very easy. We offer also a web site building tool and a PHP script installer, which you can use to develop your web site if you possess no programming expertise and are making your very first steps in web design. The web-based web site builder, dubbed SiteStudio, will also spare you the time and effort of creating a website on your personal computer and then uploading it using FTP client software or the File Manager interface.