Fast and Easy Guide to Web Hosting
A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Raj Rao
What is Web Hosting?
Web Hosting is the process of setting up your content and shop on the Internet for the world to view. Web Hosting is necessary if you wish to have a web presence for yourself.
Web Hosting is a service provided by companies that have several web servers connected to high speed Internet. Such companies are called Web Hosting Service Providers. Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who provide you Internet Access, also provide Web Hosting as a value added service.
There are several levels of Web Hosting. You can have a Personal Page on the Internet or have a Content rich web site or a shop to sell products and services or an interactive service like e-learning. Each of this will require different resources on the Web Server. However, they are all a result of Web Hosting.
Why Do You Need Web Hosting?
Web Hosting creates a Web Presence for you. You can use your Web Presence for several purposes as mentioned earlier. Let us look at them in detail:
a) Personal Pages - This type of web hosting takes the least amount of resources on the Internet. You normally do not need a Domain Name for web hosting your Personal Pages.
b) Content on the Internet - You can put any type of content (as long as it is not illegal) on the Internet. This could be Articles, Poems, Essays, Letters etc. written by you or a full fledged magazine.
c)Shop on the Internet - Shopping on the Internet is very popular and it is called E-commerce (Electronic Commerce). This type of Web Hosting enables you to sell your products and services to the users of the Internet, without having a physical shop.
d) Interactive Website - Apart from web hosting your content on the website, you can also use applications to interact with people on the Internet. You can use the interactivity to Learn, Teach, Collaborate etc with other users of the Internet. This type of Web Hosting requires to maximum amount of resources.
How Do Internet Service Providers (Isps) Do Web Hosting?
Web Hosting Service Providers usually handle all the technical details of Web Hosting. All you have to do is purchase the right Web Hosting Plan.
Web Hosting involves several steps. The first is to register your Domain Name. The second step is to assign an Internet Protocol (IP) address for your website. The third step is to connect the Domain Name with the IP address. The fourth step is to allocate space on a Web Server connected to the Internet for the website. The final step is to connect the Domain Name, IP Address and Web Space to complete the Web Hosting.
Web Hosting Service Providers usually have a large farm of Servers connected to high speed Internet. These Web Servers are shared by several users, especially those who require limited Web Hosting resources like small websites. You can also purchase a full dedicated server if your needs demand.
