To enable a person or company to host a website or other web based product, a web hosting company is required. The service they provide is normally chargeable, for obvious reasons but it is possible for personal websites to be hosted for free. Anything uploaded to a web host will be stored on the host’s server which means that other internet users can then access your website for what is essentially a huge digital storage facility.

Many beginners start by using the free hosting services that are provided by many internet service companies; while they will have access to email facilities, basic websites and blogs, they will have to pay for a full service provider. Free web hosting will not allow a huge mount of storage space so for those people that require sub-domains, upgraded email facilities and increased storage that a paid service is needed. Hosting packages vary enormously and do not rely purely on the storage capacity available so the decision should be made relative to your particular needs.

Almost everyone starts out with what is termed ’shared hosting’ where the server is used by many. When the need for more space and security is required then a dedicated server at extra cost can be used. With web hosting you get your own web space, but you do need to have a registered domain before you can use it, then you are allocated with enough storage to keep all your files for online publication. The term ‘file’ is a generic name for anything that is uploaded (the opposite of downloaded) to your website with the space allocated normally not less than one half of a full gigabyte but these figures are always increasing.

Of course when you actually have your own domain name then you are able to have your own email address which uses the name of your domain and no-one else can us it. Such e-mail addresses are very important, especially if you’re truly serious in business as they provide you with a level of credibility that free email addresses never can. Another problem to consider is called bandwidth which is essentially how much digital data is being transferred using your domain name and will affect the cost of the hosting package, this needs to be considered carefully.

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. Remember, everything that is stored and can be accessed on your site has a bandwidth, even the website itself so if your site contains images, MP3 tracks and video clips for example, your bandwidth allocation will be used up even faster. Some people and web hosting companies decide to become their own web host but this is not recommended as the security issues involved are huge unless you are proficient in this area, it is something to be avoided.

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