Web Hosting Defined

If you have decided to establish your own personal site, but are not very sure about what a website is and are unfamiliar with the term "web hosting", this article is devoted to defining these concepts in plain words.

What exactly is a website?

A website is a collection of web pages brought together in a systematic fashion. It has a unique web site address, also known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). A site may have just one single webpage and sometimes may even be comprised of as many as 1000 web pages.

What is a web hosting server?

A hosting server enables you to upload your website onto it. In some instances, there might be even thousands of websites on a single web hosting server. The web hosting server essentially is a computer with specific hardware, which is placed in a datacenter with special cooling systems, whose mission is to safeguard the smooth operation of the machine and all the web sites located on it.

In brief, a web hosting server will be really a launching pad when the time arrives for you to launch your web site. It could be any type of web site - a business website consisting of numerous pages, or a web site, which includes only several web pages and which you have made simply for your comrades and relatives.

You've reached a decision about what your website will be, now what?

As soon as you have made a decision about what type of web site you desire to establish, the next step is to discover what kind of web hosting service you must pick for your online endeavor. Basically, there are two kinds of hosting services - free web hosting services and professional paid hosting services. The charge-free web hosting solution is usually utilized by individuals that do not possess a business-related site.

Positive and negative aspects of the free web hosting solution

You will not receive a lot of features with a cost-free web hosting package. Features like bandwidth, memory and web hosting storage space are limited and inadequate for an elaborate e-commerce site or a corporate site, or even for a website with a lot of graphics. Moreover, there are a lot of web banners incorporated in your web site by the hosting provider. These adverts take up plenty of space on your website and are quite irritating.

Shared hosting

The professional paid shared hosting services are more reliable and include many powerful features beside the high-power hosting server that will host your site and its files. However, it is essential to find out which features your site needs before purchasing your web hosting plan. You should not hurry and wind up buying something that your website does not require.

Find your web hosting accounts provider

It is not difficult to find a hosting supplier. You need to just carry out an online search in order to find a web hosting solutions provider that fulfills your website's needs. Before you take your actual choice, explore the features of the plans provided by the hosting providers that have grasped your interest. We, for example, are among the top hosting companies on the marketplace now. The broad array of services and our prices are what renders us an attractive option. Nonetheless, you must confirm what sort of web hosting solution you require and if the price fits your budget. In addition, you must not forget to double-check the web hosting distributor's Terms of Use prior to opening an account to confirm that your website is not abusing them.

Signing up for a web hosting account

Once you have determined what features are optimal for your site, the next move is to sign up for an account with the hosting supplier of your choosing. You will acquire all the essential tools for managing your web site files and databases. With us, for instance, you will receive a Control Panel, which consists of domain name, website, database and e-mailbox account administration areas. You log into the hosting Control Panel using your unique user name and password, which gives you secure access to the part of the server where your website will be hosted.

Uploading your website

You can either upload your website via FTP or, as is with most web hosting service providers, through a web-based tool that is included within the web hosting Control Panel. With us, the File Manager is very easy to use and offers features comparable to those found in Windows Explorer, which renders file management very easy. We offer also a web site builder and a PHP-based script installer, which you can utilize to build your web site if you have no programming expertise and are making your very first steps in web design. The web-based website building tool, called SiteStudio, will also spare you the time and effort of making a website on your computer and then uploading it using FTP or the File Manager interface.