Any product or service that requires storage or access on the internet will use the services of a web hosting company to do this. This giant storage facility normally comes at a cost owing to the services it provides but in some instances (normally non-business or commercial), they can be offered free. A certain amount of storage space on the server is allocated to each user where they can store their website files and other data for people to access.

There are a great many services available; you even have free hosting where you won’t have to spend a single dime, this is ideal for absolute beginners. For more storage space, better email facilities, sub domains and more you really need top look at paid web hosting plans; this is particularly pertinent for business customers. There will be a large number of companies offering paid hosting but the prices do vary and this is usually down to how much is actually supplied as part of the package; any confusion is normally quite easy to overcome by using one of the internet comparison sites that are becoming very popular.

Initially, the majority of users decide on paying for a shared server with their hosting company. When the need for more space and security is required then a dedicated server at extra cost can be used. A web hosting plan is no good unless you have a registered domain to use, then you can use this in conjunction with the storage space to save your files, website etc. All companies will allocate a certain amount of space for your website and any other files required to be stored there (photos and MP3 tracks, for example) and this can be anything from 500Mb or more, depending on the host and package you are paying for.

Web hosting also provides the facility to have your own email address unlike those supplied by Google and Yahoo for example, this means, your e-mail address is exclusive to your website. If you have a business presence online you cannot afford to have another company’s name at the end of your own e.g. www.yourcompanyname.hostingcompany.com when it should really look like this: www.yourcompanyname.com. If you have a busy site with lots of visitors, downloads or video etc. then you need to have a hosting package with sufficient bandwidth; this is the amount of data that can be transmitted.

If your package cannot provide this or the company cannot meet your needs then visitors will not always be able to access your site during busy periods so a new package or company may be needed. If you only have a small site that does not have much on it then this probably won’t concern you but as soon as audio, video and hi-resolution images are incorporated, it becomes more of a concern. In almost every case it is a wise decision to use a web hosting company and not consider using your own computer as a host due to the risks, especially for those unfamiliar with internet security.

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