You have your new business all established now and you're ready to take the next step and set up a website to tell the online world that you are here and you have something to offer. You found a catchy domain name to call your own , and now ... What to do? Well, the answer is that you need to find web hosting for the site you are going to build. So what does that mean and how do you know what type of web hosting you need ? First let's start with the basics .
Everything is web hosting anyway?
In simple terms , web hosting is renting space on a web server. A website is not just a domain name , it is a collection of files linked together by HTML code to display text and graphics on a computer. For everyone to see this collection of files you 've created, it must be installed on a computer somewhere that has access to the internet. Not just any computer will do, of course . A web server is configured with a special computer program that allows it to receive requests from the internet for the website files it has stored on it and to send those files over the Internet to the computer applicant can show . It looks much like a waiter in a restaurant taking your order and bringing the food you ask the kitchen , hence the name "server" .
To ensure that your files can be accessed by Internet users worldwide , a web server provides other important services as well . First and foremost is the ability to create email addresses based on your domain name and to send and receive emails with them. The Web server also has different types installed on that allow your website to run software programs , create and manage databases , video display , and many other features that you might find useful . Almost any type of computer can function as a web server, but the software is on it making a server.
When you purchase hosting , the monthly fee you pay goes to the maintenance and continuous upgrading of hardware and server software , the cost of maintaining online 24 hours a day , 7 days a week in a secure data center with a powerful and fast internet connection, and pay for the expertise of the people who do all the work . It is quite possible to transform your own home or office computer into a web server if you really want to do , but in most cases it is much cheaper to pay someone else dedicated to provide this service more reliable way is to try to do it yourself .
What types of web hosting are they?
Shared Hosting - Most websites are not huge affairs with hundreds of pages and thousands of files and graphics, and they are targeted to a specific audience , so they will not get as many visitors as the large general sites like Yahoo! that cater to everyone who uses the Internet . As such , the average website therefore will not require all the resources of an entire web server to run . Web servers are designed to be able to manage dozens or hundreds of sites at once because they are powerful machines .
Shared hosting is simply the concept of hosting more than one website on a particular server. More than 95 % of all websites on the Internet are running in a shared hosting environment. Because server resources can be distributed among the clients hosted on it , so can the costs of operating the server, and the universally shared is cheaper than any other type accommodation. Shared hosting packages are generally designed so that each client is assigned a certain amount of each resource , with different payment levels representing different amounts of resources such as disk space, bandwidth , email addresses , and so on . Shared hosting is also known as virtual hosting.
Dedicated Hosting - If you have a large powerful website that attracts many visitors and tend to monopolize the resources , then you may want to have a web server all to yourself . Some companies also prefer the added security of not having to share the server with anyone else who could do something accidentally or intentionally crashing. Rent use of an entire server is known as dedicated hosting. The web hosting company still owns the machine and the responsibility for maintenance of hardware and software web hosting , but you have more control over the configuration and use of the server. There is also such a thing as semi-dedicated hosting , in which a web server is divided into only a very small number of customers, such as 2-4 , with solid partitions between each to prevent them from interfering with the other. Since the hosting company is still responsible for the maintenance of the server, this type of hosting is also known as managed hosting . For obvious reasons , dedicated hosting always costs more than shared hosting .
Server Co -Location - If you really want complete control over all aspects of your Web server, you might very well choose to buy one and maintain it yourself if you have sufficient knowledge . However , chances are that you do not have the means to keep your server completely safe from power outages, roof leaks , thieves, unwary employees and other risks and keep on Internet broadband fast at any time. You need a data center to provide these services for you. Co -location is the rental of physical security, continuous electrical power and a fast and reliable Internet connection to a server you have. The data center is not responsible for any hardware or software of a collocated server , you are servicing. This can be a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting if you have the expertise and time to turn yourself a necessary alternative web server .
Some hosts offer UNIX hosting and Windows hosting. What is the difference ?
The terms UNIX hosting and Windows hosting refer to the operating system ( OS) running on the server. Of course the operating system is the software that allows the computer to operate and manage all other hardware and software that are installed . Chances are good that you are reading this on a computer running a version of Windows operating system, the world's most popular operating system for personal computers and business . Other operating systems are growing in popularity of Macintosh and various Linux versions . However, the operating system you use on your computer is not relevant to the type of accommodation you choose. Here are some key features of UNIX and Windows :
Unix Hosting
Most Web servers in the world today run on one of the many variants of UNIX . The UNIX operating system was originally developed by universities for servers and networks, and many different versions have been written by programmers around the world under the open- source protocol , which means that the code of the operating system is openly available for programmers to customize and make improvements. Linux and BSD are the most popular forms of UNIX and come in many varieties, such as Red Hat Linux, Debian, SuSE , and FreeBSD. Most of these different versions (and much of the software that runs on them ) can be obtained for free , making UNIX hosting cheaper for a web host that other operating systems and allows them to offer price lower. UNIX platforms hosting are generally considered stable, secure , fast and powerful . Most web programming applications can be performed by software that is available for UNIX platform. "UNIX hosting" has become a generic term for any platform that is derived from the original UNIX.
Windows hosting
Microsoft has developed its own operating system for servers as a special version of its Windows operating system , Windows Server 2003. It is a commercial product that requires the operator to purchase a license , which increases the cost of running the host and usually results in higher hosting prices. Windows is designed to be user friendly , but it is generally considered to be less powerful and secure than UNIX for operating in a network environment. ASP , ASP.NET and ColdFusion are scripting languages that can not be run on a Windows server , as well as programs for Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server databases. These are popular for certain web programming applications , and if you plan to use to build your site , you 'll need to find a Windows host.
What are some of the words I need to know when I choose a web host ?
Disk space or storage - Because your website is a collection of files available on the Internet for viewing, they must be stored somewhere for retrieval and take up space . Each server has a limited amount of memory on the hard drive to divide and provide hosting customers. Typically , this space is divided into different levels of packages so that the more you pay , the more space you are allowed to store images , web pages , videos and any other files that you want on the hard drive the web server. If your site gets larger than the space you have given, you will need to buy more disk space from the host.
Bandwidth or Data Transfer - Whenever you visit a website and view a page , you can transfer a copy of the files that make up this page on the Internet from the web server on your computer. If the page you are viewing consists of an HTML file that is 3KB in size and three pictures of 47KB , 100KB and 250KB , then you just used 400KB of bandwidth or data transfer , because c ' is the total amount of data that you have downloaded from the web server to view this page. Bandwidth is a commodity like disk space that the host has to buy his Internet service provider , so it is too divided and delivered to customers in specific quantities. Amounts of bandwidth are usually measured in gigabytes ( GB) , because if only one copy of your files must be stored on the server, thousands, even millions of copies can be downloaded for consultation. If your site is viewed times the amount of bandwidth you are allowed can manage your site can be disabled until the next billing period starts , or you can simply be billed for the excess amount used , according to the policies your home . You can always buy more bandwidth that increases your site traffic web.
Uptime - In an ideal world, every Web server is operational and offer your web pages in the world 24 hours a day , 7 days a week , forever . However , Web servers are computers, and like any other computer, things happen for them to fail , or they become old and obsolete and require maintenance and repair . When a host gives you an uptime guarantee of 99%, they say that the web server will be operational for 99 % of the billing period. If they fail to meet this guarantee , most hosts will reimburse some of your money depending on the amount of excess downtime they experienced.
Traffic statistics - statistics programs traffic websites trying to track visitors to your website. They can track the number of times your site is visited , how many visitors were unique and how to return more than once , the pages were the most popular , where visitors came to your site from , what search terms they used in search engines , and many other types of information that may be helpful in marketing your website to a target audience . These statistics can be displayed in tables , charts and tables per hour, day , week, month or year. Some statistics programs are better than others and offer more types of data , better displays, easier navigation and other useful features. Most web hosts now offer some sort of traffic statistics software with hosting packages .
CGI Scripts - Many web hosts offer a variety of free CGI scripts with their packages. These are things like gold hit counters , books, and other programs as messaging , message boards that allow your website to perform functions commonly sought . You can use those to your host offers or you can download and run custom CGI scripts written by yourself or someone else to perform various tasks such as driving a customer information for investigation or processing produce an automatic bid prices . Most CGI scripts are written in common programming languages such as Perl , PHP or ASP .
You could spend a lot of time trying to learn everything there is to know about web hosting, but if you 've read this far , then you should be armed with the basic knowledge you need to understand what different web hosts offer . Your next task is to understand what you need and go out and find a host that wants to give it to you at a great price !
