What Web Hosting Does
Web hosting is when a company houses files for websites. Web hosting is necessary for the internet to continue to run smoothly. Nearly every website uses a web hosting company to store and maintain their files.
What Are Servers
Web servers are the computers that store the information that websites display. Some web servers are shared between multiple users. The users pay the web hosting company to lease a certain amount of disc space on the server each month. Other servers are private.
What Connections Are Needed
Every server needs a connection in order to send and receive requests and information. These connections have to be extremely fast, and they are very expensive to provide and maintain. Web hosting companies cut down on these expenses by allowing multiple users to share a server. Both parties benefit from this arrangement: the company can pay for the connection, and the customers get web hosting for just a few dollars a month.
Free Web hosting
There are some companies that offer free web hosting, but this hosting is extremely limited. While you can edit it to your liking, you won’t be able to make it look professional without upgrading to a paid plan. Free web hosting does not come with a domain name. You will have to pay for it. The company will offer it to you for a small amount a year, but having a domain name is not the same as having professional hosting services. If you are serious about your website and its information, you need to pay for your hosting.
Virtual Hosting
Virtual hosting can have two meanings. The first meaning is that each website a company hosts has its own domain name. Email addresses for that domain name are usually provided as well. The second meaning refers to virtual servers. Virtual servers are private servers that you lease from a company. You will never see it or touch it, because it still belongs to the company. They will take care of the maintenance, connection and power. You just store information on it. You won’t be sharing your server with anyone else.
Dedicated Hosting
Sometimes a website that gets a lot of traffic needs dedicated hosting. The owners will lease or buy a server that is strictly used for traffic flowing to the website. This is what dedicated hosting means. This can get be expensive. The server will need a place to be stored. It will need to have access to the internet. Co-location will allow several businesses to put their servers in the same room, and share the costs. Co-location is very rare, but some companies still use it.
