What is Shared Hosting?

If you have made a decision to make your own personal web site, but are not very certain about what a web site is and are not aware of the term "shared hosting", this article is dedicated to clarifying these concepts in simple English.

What precisely is a website?

A website is a collection of webpages assembled in a systematic fashion. It has a special website address, also called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). A site may be comprised of just one webpage and sometimes may even include as many as 1000 web pages.

What is a web hosting server?

A hosting server permits you to upload your site onto it. In some instances, there might be even thousands of sites on one single hosting server. The hosting server basically is a computer with special hardware, which is located in a data center facility with special cooling systems, whose mission is to ensure the seamless functioning of the web hosting server and all the websites accommodated on it.

In brief, a web hosting server will be indeed a launching pad when the time comes for you to launch your site. It could be any type of web site - a business web site containing lots of webpages, or a web site, which includes only several web pages and which you have made simply for your acquaintances and family members.

You've reached a decision about what your web site will be, now what?

Once you have made a decision about what type of website you wish to set up, the next step is to discover what sort of web hosting service you must pick for your web venture. Basically, there are two sorts of web hosting services - free-of-charge website hosting services and paid web hosting services. The cost-free website hosting solution is typically used by clients that do not possess a business website.

Strengths and weaknesses of the cost-free website hosting solution

You will not get plenty of features with a cost-free web hosting package. Features like web traffic, RAM memory and web server disk drive space are limited and inadequate for a complex online store or a business-related site, or even for a web site with a lot of artwork. Also, there are a lot of banners incorporated in your site by the web hosting accounts provider. These adverts take up a lot of space on your web site and are rather embarrassing.

Shared hosting

The professional paid shared hosting services are more reliable and include lots of powerful features aside from the high-power server that will host your site and its files. Nevertheless, it is essential to find out which features your site demands before purchasing your web hosting package. You should not rush and wind up purchasing something that your web site does not demand.

Find your web hosting supplier

It is not tough to find a hosting services provider. You need to simply conduct an online search in order to find a web hosting distributor that meets your site's demands. Before you take your actual choice, take a glance at the specifications of the hosting plans provided by the hosting distributors that have grasped your interest. We, for instance, are among the top-notch hosting suppliers on the market at the moment. The vast range of web hosting services and our prices are what makes us an alluring choice. Nonetheless, you must ascertain what sort of hosting service you need and if the price fits your budget. Additionally, you must always remember to take a look at the hosting company's Terms & Conditions before opening an account to ensure that your web site is not violating them.

Opening a hosting account

As soon as you have determined what features are best for your website, the next move is to open an account with the web hosting vendor of your preference. You will obtain all the needed tools for managing your website files and databases. With us, for instance, you will acquire a hosting Control Panel, which contains domain name, web site, database and e-mail management sections. You log into the web hosting Control Panel using your unique user name and password, which grants you safe access to the portion of the hosting server where your site will be located.

Uploading your site

You can either upload your website files via an FTP software application or, as is with the majority of web hosting companies, through an online tool that is included within the web hosting Control Panel. With us, the File Manager is rather intuitive and offers features comparable to those encountered in Windows Explorer, which renders file manipulation extremely easy. We offer also a site builder and a PHP-based script installation tool, which you can use to set up your site if you have no programming capabilities and are making your very first steps in web design. The online web site builder, whose name is SiteStudio, will also spare you the time and effort of creating a web site on your computer and then uploading it via an FTP program or the File Manager interface.