Any product or service that requires storage or access on the internet will use the services of a web hosting company to do this. The service they provide is normally chargeable, for obvious reasons but it is possible for personal websites to be hosted for free. 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.
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. When the need for more space and security is required then a dedicated server at extra cost can be used. However, all this is academic if you haven’t registered a domain name that you can use in conjunction with the web hosting and to send your files to. All companies will allocate a certain amount of space for your website and any other files required to be stored there (photos and MP3 tracks, for example) and this can be anything from 500Mb or more, depending on the host and package you are paying for.
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.
If you have your own domain name, this allows for your own email address without another company (Google for example) having their name as part of the address; this is another benefit of paid web hosting. It always looks like the user is more serious about their internet presence if they have their own email and domain name, it increases credibility. The more information that is transferred from your website over the internet, the more bandwidth is used so it is important if you have a great deal of information stored to ensure you have a hosting package that will easily cater for your bandwidth usage.
Your visitors will have trouble visiting your web site or using its facilities if you settle for a small amount of bandwidth. If you have only a small web site this may not matter, except when you add big files, images, video or audio. Then your bandwidth will be used up very quickly. You may decide to become your own web host but with the security issues involved, unless you are up to date and knowledgeable in this area, it is not recommended.
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