developing.comWebsite Hosting
Website hosting refers to the services you need to make your own website available on the Internet. The hosts are companies that have servers with space where you can place your site. Many of the Internet service provides do allow their customers limited space for hosting their own websites free of charge. This is only for small scale hosting though and does have limited features that you can use.
In all website hosting, you have to upload the files you create and store in a folder on your computer to the Internet using an FTP – File Transfer Protocal. The files need very little processing to be transferred to the web as long as they are written in HTML code. If you want to create a personal web page, single page hosting will give you the space you need. However, if you have a more comprehensive site or you want to do business through your website, you will need hosting that provides database support and application development platforms.
The various types of web hosting you can choose include:
- Free Web Hosting. This type of hosting does not cost you anything to get a basic package, but the host will place ads and banners on the site as a way to generate revenue.
- Shared Web Hosting. Your site is placed on the same service as thousands of others and all the domains share a pool of server resources.
- Reseller Web Hosting. With this type of hosting you can become a seller of hosting services from your own website, depending on your service provider.
- Virtual Dedicated Server. You feel as if you have your own server, but you are actually sharing it with many others.
- Dedicated Hosting Service. You have your own server and have full control over it, but you don’t own the server. You are also responsible for the security and maintenance of your own site.
- Managed Hosting Service. While you do get your own server, you don’t have full control of it so that you cannot make any modifications to it.
- Colocation Web Hosting Service. The hosting service provides the physical space for the server, but you are responsible for managing and maintaining your site on the server.
- Clustered Hosting. Several servers host the same content so that resources are used to their best advantage.
- Grid Hosting. The server acts like a grid and has many different nodes.
- Home Server. A server in a private home to hose one or more websites from a broadband connection.
When you search for a company to provide you with the web hosting you need, you have to look at the price, whether or not this company can supply you with the domain name you need and whether you have your own email associated with the account.