Web Hosting Provider Selection Can Be Confusing
Without the services provided by web hosting companies, accessing websites, blogs etc. would be considerably harder. Sometimes it is part of the service an internet service provider supplies as part of their package when you sign up with them and can be supplied at no charge. What happens is a hosting company allows another person or company to have (either paid or for free) a certain amount of space on a device called a server where other people can then view whatever you want them to, including a website.
There are a great many services available; you even have free hosting where you won’t have to spend a single dime, this is ideal for absolute beginners. However, if you’re planning to expand you should shift to a paid service as free web hosting only gives you limited space and sub-domains for your site. Hosting packages vary enormously and must be chosen according to the needs of the user and not based on price because certain requirements may not be available in the lower price range.
You may settle for a shared server (where you share your space with other website owners) and it is a good tip is to go for the shared hosting first. However, it is often a good idea to see if the company is reliable before this more costly option of a dedicated server is taken. A web hosting plan is no good unless you have a registered domain to use, then you can use this in conjunction with the storage space to save your files, website etc. The term ‘file’ is a generic name for anything that is uploaded (the opposite of downloaded) to your website with the space allocated normally not less than one half of a full gigabyte but these figures are always increasing.
Web hosting also provides the facility to have your own email address unlike those supplied by Google and Yahoo for example, this means, your e-mail address is exclusive to your website. Having your own email addresses are an important sign that a person or company is serious about their internet presence and provides a sense of credibility which cannot be achieved with the many free service providers available. The next thing to consider with your hosting package is how much information will be stored on the server that can be downloaded from your website as it will use a facility called bandwidth; the greater amount of files stored that can be accessed, the greater amount of bandwidth will be required.
If you have a busy website and you have a low bandwidth allocation then there will be times when potential visitors will be disappointed as they will not be able to access your site until the allocation has been re-set. Of course this won’t matter if you only have a basic website but as soon as you start adding large images, audio tracks, video footage and other big files, your bandwidth will be used up very quickly. You may have your own web host in your PC, but that can be too risky; the best option is to settle for paid web hosting, even if you’re new to the internet.
