Domain name and web hosting are two must-have elements in building a website. Web hosting makes the website accessible on a 7/24/365 basis. In other words, a web host is like a sweet-sweet “home” for a website.
Basically, the following steps take place. You provide your website files to the web hosting for storage and publication on the Web. The web hosting company provides internet connectivity and space for your website on their server. Any website has a domain name linked to an IP address. When a user enters the domain name into the browser address bar, the IP address is placed and the website is loaded from the web host.
Web Hosting Types
Web hosting services come in two types: free web hosting and paid web hosting. Free web hosting offers limited services. Paid web hosting is offers many types of services and many benefits.
Free web hosting
Free web hosts offers basic features and become a good choice for simple and average websites like for example small blogs, personal sites, diary sites, and sites not focused on a particular purpose like for example money-making, online sales and getting huge traffic. Free web hosts make it possible to setup many popular PHP and MySQL database web applications. You can store the website on a free hosting, but should know that some free hosts use forced ads that appear on your website.
Paid web hosting
Paid web hosts are a better choice for large websites, business sites, e-commerce, and other types of big web projects. Paid web hosts vary depending on pricing and services. Paid web hosting monthly prices depend on the amount of the webspace, bandwidth, CGI access, technical support, domains hosting, security levels and additional web hosting tools and services.
There are also shared web hosts where your website has a shared IP address with other websites located on a certain server; and, dedicated web hosts where your website is the only residing on its server.
To host website, you have to
- Choose a unique domain name
- Find a reliable web hosting provider
- Install FTP software to transfer files to the server
- Upload your files to the server: Open the FTP software (you can use Filezilla for free), enter the required information (domain, username, password), transfer website files to the server
- View your new website by typing website address in the browser
Today there are thousands of web hosting companies and services. To host your website you have to find a reliable web hosting services delivering high quality technical support and no downtime. The web hosting choice depends directly on your website purpose and budget.