What is Web Hosting?

Submitted by: carolyn

Web Hosting is a service which allocates space for customers to showcase their websites on servers that are connected to the Internet 24/7. These servers are powerful computers that have extremely large hard drives or an array of hard drives. Web Hosting is initially a space that is rented to a person who wants a ‘website presence.’

Web hosting empowers you and anyone with a computer and internet connection to own a piece of cyberspace. Web hosting provides you, at a minimum, storage space on a server and bandwidth, which allows the data (webpages and images) stored on this server to be transferred to anyone viewing the data. The more expensive the web hosting packages the more services that are included in it.

The scope of hosting services varies widely; however whichever hosting service you get you will gain a basic web page and a small scale file hosting in which files can be uploaded via file transfer protocol (FTP) or a web interface.

With most, if not all web hosting companies you will receive the following services:

• Storage space
The physical disk space on a server where your website data (pages, images, scripts, e-mails etc) is stored
• Bandwidth
The Internet traffic and the networking infrastructure needed to deliver the traffic to users of your website
• E-mail accounts
E-mail boxes where you can send and receive e-mail. Often many other e-mail service variations are provided as well
• Technical support
A staff of support technicians to help you with general service usage issues and other problems as they arise
• Scripting support
The ability to run scripts (small programs that perform certain tasks) on the server
• Backup services
A service that makes a copy of your website data in case of accidental deletion or other emergency situation

As well as web hosting packages, which are primarily used by individuals, there are also web hosting packages for professional purposes. These packages offer commercial aspects, which include business tools and point of sale packages as well as credit card processing. This shows that there are more considerations when it comes to web hosting companies than just price. Some hosting services have policies that restrict certain content, scripting languages, functions or uses. One consideration that you should always keep in mind when it comes to web hosting companies is you should always read the privacy policy of any hosting service that you are considering, to see how they will use the personal information you provide to them in setting up your account.

Another aspect that many web hosting companies take into consideration is the fact that many people may need support when it comes to setting up a website. Due to this fact many companies provide access to a help service that is available either within working hours or in some cases 24 hours a day.

If you are currently in need of a web host it is vital that you go with a company who can provide you with all of the services that you require without overcharging you for using them.