Web Hosting defined for beginners

Welcome to the web world – domain names, web hosting, dedicated servers, dedicated IP address, ssl certificates. These words may be quite confusing to you if you are new to getting a website running. What are the main ingredients a web site absolutely needs to be up and running. Two items exist that are essential for any web site to be up and running – domain name registration and web site hosting. Your name would be something like msn.com and your files would be hosted online for people to see.

Domain names are just an easy way for visitors to remember your site and type it into their browser. What about the web hosting side of things? When you buy web hosting, what are you actually purchasing? Let’s explain. Your web site files need to be stored in a public place, a container, that will display your files. These files may include Code files (HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP) or Visual Files (Images, Flash, Video). Your site needs a server for web hosting, which is basically a computer designed to display your web site pages. Basically a web hosting package is a service provided by a Company that will make your web site live so people all around the world can view it at any time.

Now that we understand what web hosting actually is, when you look to buy web hosting what do all these features mean? For beginner sites, two main features will be of interest – disk space and bandwidth. Disk space is the size of files you can store on the web hosting server. The latter indicates how much data your server is allowed to transfer to your web site visitors in a given time. When your web site grows and needs more advanced features like a Content Management System, your next steps are to check into features for language support and database support. The programming language the site was coded in will help you choose the language support required, while the storage container for your web data is placed in a database.

In conclusion, web site hosting is a server that displays your code and visual files to users of your site. Depending on the nature of your site, you will then need to consider package features such as disk space, bandwidth, language support and database support.