Finding the right web hosting platform

First things first, any number of you who are new to the field of web hosting must be thinking ‘what is web hosting in the first place?’ Well then let us begin this article with some very basic facts about web hosting so you know exactly where you stand as regards the subject. Right then, web hosting is when your website is set up on a computer that is linked to the Internet. This computer is not too different than the computer you have at home however the defining difference between the two is that this computer is set up to serve websites to the internet and therefore it is suitably called “a server”. The web host has a very fast connection that can support the exchange of bytes to and fro from the Internet; it is engaged in placing thousands of websites on the Internet. Therefore, a web host quite literally rents out space to you where a server is placed that will place your website on the internet.

Very large companies have huge datacenters where hundreds of computers are kept to upload sites onto the internet, smaller companies do not own datacenters but they rent the space from larger companies. Some small companies can also rent the space from large companies and then rent that space further to other parties. There are hundreds of web hosting companies however knowing your own requirements will help you counter confusion in a huge market where it is easy to be confused with the variety available. Almost all web hosting companies have some features that are similar such as server type software which is the software used by server computers this can be Windows 2000 or Linux etc. The disk space is the space given to your website on the server. The bandwidth is the measure of how much traffic you are receiving, because every time someone visits your site that data is passed over the internet from the server or to the server.

There are different kinds of web hosting; the needs of your website must determine the kind you should opt for. Free web hosting does not require you to pay anything however it includes ads on the top of every page, it does not guarantee customer satisfaction, reliability and expects not to grow. Shared web hosting is the most common kind because it allows you to host the site with a minimal cost. You will pay a monthly charge and probably be one of the hundreds of sites on one server; you can increase the reliability by choosing a slightly more expensive plan. Another kind is dedicated web hosting where you have one server dedicated to your site, this is suitable for large e-commerce sites that get thousands of visitors per day. Collocated hosting is almost similar to dedicated hosting except you own the server and pay maintenance and bandwidth fee only.

Finding the right web hosting platform for you depends a lot upon the size of your website, the expected traffic and how much disk space you really need. Be realistic and careful when you buy a deal there are many deals that offer a lot even at low price but carefully determine exactly what you need and proceed accordingly.

About the author
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.