Thinking about starting your own website? In that case, you need to think about web hosting. This article provides basic information about web hosting for those who are planning to start their own websites.
The first thing you need to do is to acquire the services of a web hosting company. The typical "package" offered by web hosting companies include: a domain name, several email addresses or mailboxes, and the web hosting service itself. The domain name makes it possible for your visitors to access your site on the Internet (e.g. mydomain.com). It can also be used to personalize your email addresses (e.g. [email protected]).
Of course, different websites have different needs, and in order for you to make the most out of web hosting services, you will need to consider the type of website, hosting technology, and hosting service level that you need.
There are two major types of websites: simple sites and dynamic sites. A simple site creates one or more web pages using software such as DreamWeaver. These pages are then uploaded using FTP software (e.g. FileZilla) to your web host’s server. Whenever you want to modify something on your site, you will need to make the changes on your computer before uploading them again. The website does not really change by itself; hence, simple sites are also known as "static" sites.
Dynamic sites, on the other hand, require you to install web application software on your server. This software makes it possible for you to add and modify web content directly online, without having to use other tools on your computer. It also allows visitors to post comments on your website. Blogs and forums are examples of dynamic sites, while Joomla and WordPress are examples of web application software.
Basically, there are two different hosting technologies that you can choose ASP hosting, which refers to Microsoft’s technology for web applications. If you are planning to use a web application that is specifically written in ASP, then you will need to utilize this type of hosting technology. Meanwhile, Linux hosting is also known as "Linux Apache MySQL PHP" (or "LAMP," for short). It is the most commonly used hosting technology system used today, as it is faster, more affordable, and more flexible than Windows hosting.
There is a variety of web hosting service levels, but the major ones are as follows: (a) Free hosting, which is generally rather slow and usually overloaded with advertisements; (b) Shared hosting, wherein a large sever hosts several websites all at once; (c) Virtual Private Servers or VPS, which is quite similar to shared hosting except the websites are strongly isolated from one another; and (d) Dedicated Servers, wherein you get your own server that is secure and fast. Obviously, these levels differ in price, speed, comfort, and security.
Generally, the type of web hosting that you should get depends largely on the kind of website, hosting technology, and service level that you need. Once you are able to plan and decide on these matters, then you are ready to start your very own site!
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