Category: Computers: Web hosting

So you want to put up your own website. You want a way to have your site available to the world without having to watch it 24/7 yourself. You need a web host.

Web hosting refers to the provision of web space for clients. The web hosting company has an advanced connection to the major connections that make up the internet. This connection is linked to computers/severs under the control of the web host. Clients then rent space on the hard drives of the web-hosts servers.

There are many benefits to using a web host rather than hosting a website on your own computer. Such as 24hrs, 7 days a week, 365 days a year uptime, technical support.

There a different types of hosting services available from the different service providers, however 4 common flavours are

shared linux/unix hosting: Here, your website's code resides on a hard drive on a server together with other websites. Each website is thoroughly segregated and there is usually no interaction between the websites. The server's operating system is either linux or unix, and the webserver software usually apache.

shared windows hosting: Here, your website's code resides on a hard drive on a server together with other websites. Each website is thoroughly segregated and there is usually no interaction between the websites. The server's operating system is microsoft windows 2000/2003 server and the webserver software IIS.

dedicated linux/unix or windows hosting: Here you get your very own server running on unix/linux/apache or windows 2000/2003 server . This might become necessary if your site becomes really popular and requires more resources.

When you're choosing a host, you might want to consider various factors. Some universal ones are cost, reliability, reputation, support service, software compatibility. The choice is down to you, have fun.