Definition of Website Hosting
If you want to setup your own website or Internet business, the first step is to research the many different website hosts and the hosting packages that they offer. Having a good, reliable website host is an extremely important foundation for anyone serious about website development. A good host will keep your website up and running and provide you support on installing the features that you want to see working on your site.
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About
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In order to have a website on the Internet, a web designer must first have a web host. Website hosting is provided by a company or individual who has set up a computer server capable of storing website files and responding to outside requests made by Internet traffic to view these files. The website designer will create and send the website files or install website scripts on the host's server. The host will be responsible for keeping the server running, monitoring server functions, memory, hard disk space and CPU usage and often making backups of your data for safekeeping.
Functions
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Different web hosts provide different types of hosting packages. Some packages will provide more features than others, depending on their cost. Many provide features that help to create your website, such as free templates or site building tools. Other popular features include support for running scripts such as CGI, Perl, Python, Front Page, Ruby on Rails, PHP and MySQL databases. Depending on the host, you may receive your choice of a free domain name with the package and the ability to make more add-on domains at a later time. Most paid hosts also provide a certain number of email accounts that use your domain name.
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Types
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You will first need to choose between a host that provides free website hosting, which often has some disadvantages, or paid website hosting. Paid website hosts usually offer a number of different types of hosting packages at different prices. The basic accounts are generally shared web hosting, which means that your websites will be sharing one server with a number of other users and their websites. Some hosts may also provide more expensive packages that include reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated server hosting.
Free Hosting vs. Paid Hosting
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While it is nice to have the benefit of hosting a website on a free host, this often comes with disadvantages. Free web hosts are usually not completely free. They will often place advertisement banners on your webpage in order to supplement the costs of hosting your site on their server. These banners or ads generally cannot be removed and may interfere with the overall design of your website, as well as any ads you might want to place on the site for earning your own ad revenue. Free hosting customer support also may or may not be available when you need it. Free servers may not support all the features for the scripts that you may need and may have more down-time than a paid website host. Overall, paid website hosting is more reliable, offers more features and tends to have better customer service.
How to Choose Website Hosting
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Once you have an idea of the scope of your website, visit other websites that offer an overview of the different hosts and their plans. Sites like CNET's Hosting Plans reviews or Web Hosting Reviews can give you the pros and cons of a particular hosting company as well as an overview of their packages, features and prices. By reading what other users say about their experiences with hosting companies you can get an idea of customer satisfaction, service and server up-time. When in doubt, visit a website host's webpage and ask their customer support any questions you have.
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References
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