Web Hosting Basics
Web Hosting 101. More about Web Hosting?What is Web Hosting?
Web Hosting is easily described in the following scenario.Imagine that you are going to have a house(website) designed and built for you and your family. These are the basic steps you would take:
1 - You could hire an architect to create a design. In terms of the web, you could have a web designer design and create a website for you.
2 - Next you would need a place to have the house built, for example a plot of land. With websites this is what we call Web Hosting. Web hosting is where you rent or lease a space on a server that is connected to the internet, providing you and the rest of the world access to your website.
3 - At last your home is built, but now you need to tell others where it is or they won't even know it exists. In the real world you would have a street address for your home, but online there are no intersections or mapping services to print out directions with. So every website is located on a server with what is called an IP address. This would look something like http://72.29.84.104/. However that isn't the easiest thing to remember and this is why we have domain names. They are easy to remember and fun to create. So you would next register a domain name that would be pointed to your web hosting account and IP address which will allow others to easily access your new online home.
So here is a quick breakdown...
House or Properties = Website(s)Architect = Web Designer
Land = Web Hosting Space
Address = Domain Names and IP Addresses
Please also see the article "What does it mean to host a domain?"
Now that you understand what web hosting is you will need to decide how much land or disk space you will need for your website. Remember, a little or a lot of extra space never hurts, but too little can be like living in a shoe with too many kids and without a clue!
Next check out these other great articles on web hosting basics and when you are ready to take the next step, pick a plan!
