What is web hosting

Asks alicevida

A. Web hosting is the process of housing, maintaining and serving the files for a website, or a number of websites and providing fast connections to the Internet. A web hosting company will usually host a number of sites on its server.

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Q. What is the difference between hosting and virtual hosting

A. In common usage it means the same thing, but virtual hosting usually refers to the space allocated on a server by a hosting company.

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Q. What are the benefits of having your website hosted

A. It saves a lot of time, effort and money as you don't have to have your own server and the technical know-how on how to run and maintain it; you get very fast Internet connections, usually through a T-Carrier system, the cost of which is shared by a number of companies being hosted on the same server; domain names and email addresses; registration assistance; and file storage.

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Q. Should I choose free or paid-for web hosting and what is the difference

A. The level of service you need for your website to run well should determine your choice of a free or paid-for service. If you pay for your site to be hosted you will be allocated more space which means it can hold a lot more content especially if you want to use graphics, video, music, games etc., visitors to your site will also be connected more quickly than with a free host and your website address is likely to be shorter and therefore easier to remember if you pay for it. Free hosts are usually chosen for small, uncomplicated websites and are available from lots of sources.

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Q. Can you recommend any good free web hosts

A. Your website can either be hosted free of charge by your Internet service provider (ISP) when you register to use it or by a company specialising in free hosting. If you choose to go with your ISP for your site you will be allocated a certain amount of space, usually around 10 to 20MB, with some technical support (which you will usually have to pay for) if you need it. The downside of choosing a free hosting company is that the host will usually put adverts on your site, and the upside is that you'll usually have more space on their server, up to 100MB.

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Most ISPs including AOL, Virgin, and Freeserve in the UK offer free hosting services. Some of the most popular free hosting companies include Geocities (linked with Yahoo), Angelfire and Tripod (linked with Lycos).

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Q. Can you recommend any good paid-for web hosts

A. If you are prepared to pay for your web hosting service you have to decide how much space you'll need for your site and how much traffic (or bandwidth) you think you'll attract to it. These considerations will determine how much you have to pay for your service. You should also choose to have technical support where possible as you'll probably need it at some stage and it will be more expensive as an add-on service later on if you don't pay for it up front.

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Some of the best paid-for web hosting services include those provided by the following:

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Fasthosts: this service provides you with 200Mb of space on its server, with unlimited bandwidth per month and no set up fee all for �70 per year. It also provides free technical support.

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UK hosts: this service provides you with 100Mb of space on its service, unlimited bandwidth per month and no set up fee all for �77 per year.

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One & One: this service provides you with 100Mb of space on its service, 3Gb of bandwidth per month and a set up fee of �11.40 - and it costs �5.86 per month (total of �70.30 a year).

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By Karen Anderson