Website Hosting Introduction:

You have just created your web site. You are now a proud website owner and want to unleash your work of art on the general public.

How do you make your web site available online?

You will need to put your website onto a 'web server', this is a computer that is connected to the internet. When someone wants to see your website your web server will send them the particular page that they have requested. Your webserver should be up and running and connected to the net 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

A single webserver may act as the home to many websites, or a very busy website may reside on multiple servers.

For most web site owners it is cost effective to share a webserver with many other website owners. Let someone else worry about the hardware, the networking, the staff to keep the whole thing running, and just pay a web hosting company a monthly fee.

There are a number of different kinds of web hosting, each with different prices. It is worth knowing what is available to avoid paying for facilities that are not needed.

1. Dedicated web hosting

You have exclusive use of a single webserver, and is therefore an expensive type of web hosting.

2. Shared web hosting

Your website will share a webserver with many other web sites. Could be affected by what happens on the other websites, there is a temptation for the hosting company to overload a shared server.

3. Free web hosting

No charge to you - but remember that the provider still has to pay for the servers, the staff to keep it running, the network connections.... Somehow this cost will have to be met. So expect overloaded servers, slow connections, no support, downtime... Often the service is paid for by advertising being displayed on your website. If money is tight - or if it is a personal website - or you are just experimenting - free web hosting is great, but if you want a online business you must go for at least the shared hosting.

When chosing a web host you may also wish to consider the following questions:

Who will register your domain names?

How many websites (domains) will you want to have?

How easy will it be to move to another hosting company if you wish to move?

How much space will you need? How much space will you have?

How much bandwidth will you need?