Web Hosting - The secret of the Pros
To enable a person or company to host a website or other web based product, a web hosting company is required. The service they provide is normally chargeable, for obvious reasons but it is possible for personal websites to be hosted for free. Free web hosting will not work for online photography class because of greater need for bandwidth.
Free hosting deals are great for those who want to ‘dip their toes in the water' for example but the range of services available to them will be limited. When a person realizes they want to host additional sites and store other digital products, they may find that the range of facilities for unpaid web hosting plans is too limited.
Almost everyone starts out with what is termed ‘shared hosting' where the server is used by many. It is usually possible to upgrade to have a dedicated server for your files once you know the service provider is reliable; there is normally an additional charge for this facility. 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.
Web hosting also provides the facility to have your own email address unlike those supplied by Google and Yahoo for example, this means, your e-mail address is exclusive to your website. Many people take you more seriously if you have your own email address and not one supplied free by the myriad of other companies who have an online presence. 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.
This point becomes more important when you have a site that provides large video, audio and image files to its visitors as all of these use up the bandwidth you have been allocated as part of your package. Although it is possible for a person to use their own PC as a host, there are many security dangers associated with this so using a dedicated web hosting company is preferable.