A Web Host Gives Your Website A Home On The Internet
You need a web host so your website can be published on the Internet and seen by visitors.
A web host is a place where you locate or store the files that make up your website, so your website can be displayed in a visitor’s web browser when he or she visits your website. A web host is a company that will rent you web space to store the various files that make up your website. It also provides the bandwidth (a measurement of data and information sent from your web host’s server to the computers of your website visitors) needed for your website to be accessible to visitors.
The computers of a web host are connected to the Internet all the time. The special computers a web host uses are called servers, and they can be found by all other computers also connected to the Internet. A server is a combination of software and hardware that makes it possible for website web pages to be shown in a browser such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox. You perform what is known as an “upload” of the files that make up your website to place them your web host’s server. A visitor’s browser is also known as a client, so there is a client and server relationship needed for web pages to be shown to website visitors.
Web Hosts Charge Fees For Their Services
A web host will charge you a fee, usually on a monthly or yearly basis, for their services of storing your website files on their server and for making your website available for Internet viewing. The web hosting business field is very competitive and there are many, many web hosts to choose from, a Google search for the term “web host” as I was writing this post brought up 1,050,000,000 results. Each web host usually will offer a number of different hosting plans and features. Chances are very good that you will find a web host with an affordable plan that meets your website needs and budget.
Self-Host Your Website
Your website or blog will have to be hosted somewhere. To have a self-hosted website, you will have to pay a web host for hosting. When you sign up for an account with a web host, then you can upload all of the files that make up your blog or website to the space on the web host’s servers that you have as your space or territory. You will also set up your web hosting account and your domain name registrar, so that your URL or domain name can be used by visitors to find and view your blog or website.
A professional website should be self-hosted and not located at a free-hosting service. If you choose self-hosting, then you gain total control and freedom over your website or blog. A free-hosted website or blog will always have limitations on it based on the particular free hosting service’s terms and regulations.
What Happens When Someone Visits A Website
- A visitor types in a website’s URL in their browser’s URL address input box or uses a previously set bookmark to surf the Internet to this website.
- Through Internet magic (This is an oversimplification.) the visitor’s browser and the web host of the looked-for website communicate with one another.
- The visitor’s browser downloads copies of the website’s files from the website’s hosting server to the visitor’s computer and displays the website in the visitor’s browser, which might be Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, or whatever browser the visitor prefers.
What Is A Web Host: Summary
- A web host is a place on the Internet where you store or locate the various files that make up your website.
- You need a web host so your website’s files can be kept on a server.
- A server is made up of software and hardware that will send your website files to the visitor’s browser when he or she visits your blog/website.
- There are many, many web hosts to choose from and each one often has different levels of hosting plans to choose from.
- You will pay a fee for the web host’s services, but web hosting is usually very affordable.
- There is strong competition among web hosts for your business.
- A professional website or blog should be self-hosted for complete freedom and control.