Introduction to web hosting
Every website needs to be hosted somewhere that is accessible by the internet. But what, exactly, is a web host? What is a server? How do you know what features you need? How do you find a good hosting company? What is FTP and bandwidth and all the rest that you keep hearing about? That's what our hosting overview will explain to you.
What is a hosting company & hosting account?
When you set up your website, it needs to be placed on a computer that runs the files for your site, holds your databases and thier data, and be accessible by the internet so that you sites visitors can view it. Web hosting companies are business that own and control special computers known as servers that hold website files for many websites, and these servers are connected to the internet through special equipment. Once your website is set up with a web host, visitors viewing your site are actually accessing the files for your site on these servers. Although you could set up your own server to host your own web site, there are many factors including cost, equipment and technical issues that can be prohibitive, so it is generally best to use a hosting company.
Hosting companies offer hosting accounts to web site owners so that they have a place to set up their files. Hosting accounts may vary from host to host, but generally they offer you a certain amount of storage space for your files, an allotment of bandwidth, database set up and access, email accounts and many other features to help you set up your website. Different packages are usually available, offering more features for a slightly higher cost. Hosts generally provide these features for a monthly or yearly fee. Hosting companies will often help you register a domain name as well.
What is a web server?
We mentioned web servers a moment ago. Servers are special computers designed to allow access to its stored files by many people, and create the web environment needed for programming languages to work properly. Servers can hold many different web sites at once, and your hosting package will often allow you to use only a certain amount of storage space and CPU usage, although many hosting companies are now offering packages with unlimited storage for your site. Because of security concerns, if your site holds personal information about your users, you may want to check with your web developer or hosting company to see what precautions you should take.
When setting up your hosting account, there are usually 3 types of servers you can use; shared, dedicated and virtual dedicated. Shared hosting means that your site will reside with several other sites on the same server. Dedicated hosting means that your site will be the only site on a server, which is more secure and has better performance but comes at a much higher price. Virtual dedicated hosting is a method of partitioning a server into multiple servers so that each has the capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. For many smaller sites, shared hosting is the most practical set up to use.
Servers are often stored in special rooms to ensure they are maintained properly, kept clean, and kept at a certain operating temperature. Good hosting companies will have emergency power supplies to keep your site running during a power loss. Many will mention these areas when you are looking into their hosting information, especially when they mention their uptime guarantees.