So you would like to start publishing your site on the web, but you are not sure
what web hosting is and where to start? This article points out to you the resources
for beginner.
What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is simply the allocation of your website on a web server that is
connected through the internet. In another words, web hosting allows your website
to be connected to the Internet at high speed via a web server so its information
can be viewed globally through a browser. Because the nature of the Internet
allows anyone from anywhere connected through an internet computer to view your
site, your web server must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
How is this possible when owning and maintaining a Web server can be very expensive,
as well as technically intensive? This is where a Web hosting Provider comes
into the picture to provide you with the hardware and software that allow this
to take place at an affordable cost. In order for a web hosting provider to
offer you hosting service, the provider usually needs to house its web servers
in a data center configured on a high speed network infrastructure and connected
to internet backbones. These internet backbones are long-haul backbone fibre
connections capable of transmitting data at extremely high speed.
Web Hosting Service and domain name.
If you want to publish your website on the internet, you need web hosting service.
Alternatively, like some corporations, you can own your web server, line and
networks to start publishing your website. We don't recommend the latter, because
it is very costly to run and maintain. I will explain to you some of the terms
that are essential for you to know before you begin to find a suitable host
for your site.
Data Center.
A data center is a collection of database, servers, computer networks and software
widely used to deploy and support hosting services and computing application
services. Because a data center can be very expensive to maintain and upgrade.
Companies are increasingly looking to outsource these routine operations so
that they can focus on higher priority technology projects like e-commerce and
customer relationship management.
Domain name.
A domain name is a unique alphanumeric name used to identify a particular host
(computer) such as a Web server or Email server on the Internet. In another words,
it is the main part of what is known as your site's Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
on the World Wide Web.
Domain names allow Internet users to type in a name, such as http://www.isp-guide.com/
or http://www.cheapwebhosting.cc/, to identify a numeric address such as 66.33.11.174.
The main purpose of domain names is to allow web users to connect to the Internet
and find websites or send email to addresses with familiar names such as "email.com"
or "eudoramail.com" without having to memorize the IP addresses.
A domain name and a web site, connected together allows you to have a web presence
on the internet and allows you to manage email addressed to your domain. The
capabilities and features of your web site and your email will depend on the
web hosting provider.
Usually, to start hosting, you need to register a domain name first. Domain
name registration cost from US$8.00 to US$35 per depending on the domain registrar.
We recommend that you register your domain names with an ICANN accredited registrar>
