What is Shared Hosting?

If you have decided to set up your very own personal web site, but are not very certain about what a web site is and are unfamiliar with the expression "shared hosting", this article is dedicated to clarifying these concepts in simple English.

What exactly is a website?

A website is a collection of webpages brought together systematically. It has a special web site address, also called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). A website may consist of only one webpage and sometimes may even include as many as one thousand pages.

What is a web hosting server?

A web hosting server permits you to upload your site onto it. In some cases, there might be even 1000's of websites on one single web hosting server. The hosting server basically is a computer with specific hardware, which is located in a datacenter with special cooling systems, whose mission is to safeguard the seamless functioning of the web hosting server and all the websites accommodated on it.

In brief, a hosting server will be truly a launching pad when the time comes for you to launch your website. It could be any sort of web site - a corporate website consisting of a large number of pages, or a site, which consists of just a couple of pages and which you have developed simply for your friends and family members.

You've decided what your website will be, now what?

Once you have made a decision about what sort of website you want to develop, the next step is to discover what type of web hosting service you have to pick for your online venture. Essentially, there are two types of website hosting services - free website hosting services and professional paid hosting services. The cost-free website hosting solution is usually used by clients that do not have a business web site.

Positive and negative aspects of the free-of-charge website hosting solution

You will not receive lots of features with a cost-free website hosting package. Features like web traffic, RAM memory and web hosting server hard disk storage space are restricted and insufficient for an elaborate e-store or a business website, or even for a website with a lot of artwork. Furthermore, there are a lot of web banners inserted on your web site by the web hosting company. These advertisements occupy plenty of space on your site and are rather annoying.

Shared website hosting

The professional paid shared website hosting services tend to be more dependable and offer plenty of advanced features apart from the high-quality hosting server that will host your site and its files. Still, it is essential to find out which features your web site needs before buying your web hosting package. You should not rush and end up spending cash on something that your site does not need.

Select your web hosting provider

It is not hard to find a hosting solutions provider. You have to simply conduct an online search in order to find a web hosting solutions provider that fulfills your site's demands. Before you make your actual decision, take a peek at the features of the web hosting plans provided by the web hosting suppliers that have caught your attention. We, for instance, are among the premier hosting distributors on the marketplace today. The broad assortment of web hosting services and our prices are what makes us an enthralling choice. However, you must establish what kind of web hosting solution you need and if the price fits your allowance. In addition, you must not forget to check the web hosting service provider's Terms of Service before registering to make sure that your website is not violating them.

Signing up for a website hosting account

Once you have determined what features are most important for your web site, the next step is to open an account with the hosting plans provider of your choice. You will have all the important tools for managing your website files and databases. With us, for example, you will receive a Control Panel, which has domain name, website, database and mailbox administration areas. You log into the hosting Control Panel using your unique user name and password, which gives you secure access to the part of the web hosting server where your site will be located.

Uploading your web site

You can either upload your site via an FTP client or, as is with the majority of hosting distributors, through a web-based tool that is integrated within the hosting Control Panel. With us, the File Manager is quite intuitive and offers features similar to those found in Windows Explorer, which makes file management extremely easy. We offer also a web site building tool and a PHP-based script installer, which you can utilize to build your web site if you possess no programming knowledge and are making your first steps in web design. The web-based website building tool, called SiteStudio, will also spare you the time and effort of making a web site on your personal computer and then uploading it via an FTP software program or the File Manager interface.