What is a Web Host
First we have to explain some basic terms.
The Web is a network of computers all over the world.
All the computers in the Web can communicate with each other.
Web servers are computers where web pages are stored and are highly connected with the rest of the internet.
Web clients view the pages with a program called a web browser such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox
The collection of all your web pages is called your web site.
To let others view your work, you must publish your web site.
To publish your work, you must copy your site to a web server.
Once you have organized your web site, your next step is to have somewhere to place it so it could be seen on the internet. You need a place to have your site hosted.
A web host is a company that provides you with server space for your web site. This includes all of the files associated with your web site. When your web address is typed into a browser, the web host displays your pages. Web hosts provide servers, computers that have high connectivity with the rest of the internet community and where your web files are stored. Web hosting providers also offer all kinds of internet services such as domain registration, email accounts, web site design, server side programing scripts and other. You can use your own PC as a web server but remember that web hosting requires time and overall internet technology knowledge. Using a server from a web hosting company has some crucial advantages:
Most web hosting providers have very fast connections to the Internet
Service providers often have many powerful web servers
Internet Service Providers are specialists on web hosting which results in high security and stability
Companies which are specialized in providing web hosting services have advanced technology and equipment which allows them to meet more sophisticated internet needs. They have the experience and know-how. For all these reasons we don’t recommend hosting your site on your own PC unless you’re willing to invest considerable amount of time and money in hardware, software and education.
Choosing a Web Host. What are the options?
While looking for a web host for your needs, you can choose either free web hosting or paid web hosting, Free web hosting refers to the numbers of websites placing on same physical server, and in this kind of hosting all the user share same disk space, bandwidth and operating system.
There are number of web hosting companies in market to serve you, so its upon you to chose best host for you needs, some mostly recommended website hosting companies are, Michigan website hosting, Brisbane website hosting and Christian website hosting, these companies provide cheap and inexpensive quality web hosting, there are number or packages available for your business web hosting and also if you need personal web hosting.
How to choose a web host?
Your Budget
How much can you afford to spend for your hosting account? As it is with buying anything else, you get what you pay for. That $1.95-a-month host may offer a really great value, but will they be there for you when you need them? Many of the ultra-low-priced website hosts are not turning a profit, and have not been in business very long - and probably won’t be for much longer. To check and see how long your host has been around, enter their domain name here: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jhtml. The Registration Date field shows when the domain name was registered, so you can tell how long they’ve been around.
That’s not to say that every low-priced host lacks. HostGator and Site5 both have many happy clients and offer prices around the $6.95-a-month price point. And you can find good website hosts that offer service for $3.95-a-month or $4.95-a-month. But I don’t recommend going any lower than that. Judging by posts on online communities such as WebHostingTalk, going with a cheap host just does not pay.
Reliability
Another important thing to find out is the uptime of any of the hosts you’re looking at. Many hosts have an uptime guarantee that is usually around 99.9%. One thing you need to be aware of, however, is that this uptime guarantee does not apply to attacks such as Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks, or to acts of God. What these uptime guarantees do cover are things like hardware failure and server-operating system crashes. If you can’t find specific uptime information on a host’s website, call them or email them and see if they’ll share this information with you - if they do not, move on to someone else.
