What Is Web Hosting And Why Do I Need It?

Web hosting is essentially the process of renting space on the Internet, so that you can set up a website. The "landlord" in the world of hosting is known as a web hosting provider. You know how someone like Donald Trump might spent millions of dollars to set up an apartment complex or commercial motel suite? Likewise, a web hosting provider spends an egregious sum of money to construct huge data centers that contain hundreds of computers known as servers.

Servers are regular PCs, just like you have at home. The difference is that servers aren't bred for use at home. They contain extremely expensive and high-quality components, allowing them to process boatloads of data at extremely fast speeds. In addition, because of their ridiculously high overhead, they require a tremendous deal of maintenance, which is why they must be stored at data centers managed by professional engineers.

Money. You need lots of money. Technically, you could just "pimp out" your home computer and turn it into a server, but that's risky business. if your home suffers a power outage, for instance, your server and the website or websites on it will go down until you get your power back. The other option is to set up a server and then rent space at a data center.The problem is that this would cost you a minimum $1,000 a month, if not more, which is why you need a hosting provider.

Every hosting provider offers unique hosting services and plans, depending on the provider's particular setup. For instance, Host Gator serves shared, VPS and dedicated clients, while WebHostPad only caters to those seeking shared hosting. That said, a large part of finding a suitable web hosting provider lies in your capability to determine your exact needs. Do you need a cheap provider for a personal blog, or are you looking to create a humongous website like Amazon?

Before you ever sign up for a web hosting plan with a hosting provider, conduct some serious research. Call the provider's support line and ask tough questions. Read every user review you can get your hands on. Compare its rates, plans and reviews with other providers. And make certain you check whether the provider has a record with the Better Business Bureau. Never, under any circumstances, associate with a provider that isn't registered with the BBB.

With shared hosting, your website share a single server with dozens or hundreds of other websites. The key benefit is that the server's expenses are spread out among all clients, meaning you get to pay a cheap rate. The drawback, however, is that you must share the server's processor, memory, hard drive and network connection. This increases the likelihood of server congestion, or those moments when usage rates are so high everything slows down to a snail's pace.

With VPS hosting, you're still on a shared server. The difference is that a certain portion of the processor, memory, storage space and bandwidth are allocated to a private virtual block that you control. So if you sign up for a 1.2 GHz plan and the provider tosses you on a server with four 3.2 GHz processors, 1.2 GHz of the total processing power will be directed solely to your website, meaning nobody else can access it. It's yours to use as you so please.

With dedicated hosting, there is no sharing of any kind. An entire server is set up for just you. You get your own processor, your own memory chips, your own hard drives and your own network connections. This means you have the power at your hands to host an extraordinarily huge site that garners millions of hits per day, if not per hour. The drawback is that dedicated hosting is extremely expensive, with prices ranging between $100 to $500 per month.

The control panel is an administrative interface that allows you to easily manage your site by just clicking buttons. Available in several forms, such as cPanel and Plesk, the control panel can be accessed through a Web browser, and it allows you to set up your site, configure FTP/email accounts, manipulate the database/databases and add custom programming scripts. It basically lets you manage everything without having to deal with any of the related complexities.

Fantastico is a control panel tool that automates the process of installing third-party applications, such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, PHP-Nuke, Siteframe PerlDesk, osTicket, CubeCart, PHPWiki, Open-Reality, WebCalendar and Coppermine Photo Gallery, to name a few. Instead of having to manually upload and configure complicated programming scripts, you just select what you want from a list and then click the "Install" button. It's that simple.

WordPress is an extremely popular and easy-to-use web content management system, or WCMS, that allows even the most inexperienced Web developers to quickly piece together a professional-looking site within just a matter of days. Compare this to spending weeks upon weeks manufacturing large chunks of confusing code in HTML, PHP or ASP.NET that must then be retested over and over again to confirm everything works as it should.

Perhaps the most important aspect of web development is the MySQL database. It is within it that all the core details concerning your site -- page titles, page content, page URLs, image names and more -- are stored. If you ever need to move your site to another hosting provider, you would without a doubt have to move the database as well. Keep in mind that, though MySQL is the primary database used by providers, another one you may encounter is Oracle.