Shared Hosting Definition

If you have decided to make your own site, but are not quite certain about what a website is and are not familiar with the expression "shared hosting", this article is devoted to clarifying these concepts in simple words.

What exactly is a website?

A website is a collection of webpages gathered in a systematic fashion. It has a unique web address, also known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). A site may consist of just one webpage and sometimes may even contain as many as one thousand pages.

What is a hosting server?

A hosting server enables you to upload your web site onto it. In some cases, there might be even 1000's of sites on one single hosting server. The hosting server essentially is a computer with specific hardware, which is located in a data center facility with special cooling systems, whose purpose is to ensure the seamless functioning of the machine and all the web sites located on it.

In short, a hosting server will be really a launching pad when the time arrives for you to launch your web site. It could be any sort of site - a business site having a huge number of webpages, or a website, which is comprised of only several pages and which you have set up just for your buddies and relatives.

You've made a decision about what your web site will be, now what?

As soon as you have decided what kind of site you wish to develop, the next move is to find out what sort of web hosting service you have to choose for your Internet venture. Basically, there are two types of web hosting services - charge-free website hosting services and paid website hosting services. The free-of-cost website hosting solution is usually utilized by persons that do not have a business-related site.

Positive and negative aspects of the free hosting solution

You will not obtain a lot of options with a free-of-cost website hosting plan. Features such as web traffic, memory and server disk drive storage space are limited and inadequate for a complex e-store or a business-related site, or even for a web site with a lot of artwork. Besides, there are lots of banner commercials incorporated in your site by the web hosting plans provider. These ads take up lots of space on your site and are quite embarrassing.

Shared hosting

The professional paid shared hosting services are more stable and offer lots of sophisticated features beside the high-power server that will host your site and its files. Yet, it is essential to find out which features your web site demands prior to choosing your web hosting plan. You should not rush and wind up buying something that your website does not demand.

Choose your web hosting services provider

It is not hard to find a web hosting supplier. You need to simply carry out an online survey in order to find a web hosting vendor that meets your website's demands. Before you make your actual decision, explore the parameters of the plans furnished by the web hosting service providers that have attracted your interest. We, for example, are among the premier web hosting companies on the marketplace now. The wide range of hosting solutions and our prices are what renders us an enticing choice. Still, you must verify what type of hosting service you require and if the price corresponds to your budget. Moreover, you must always remember to go through the hosting distributor's TOS prior to subscribing to make sure that your site is not abusing them.

Signing up for a website hosting account

As soon as you have found out what features are most important for your website, the next move is to sign up for an account with the web hosting accounts provider of your choosing. You will obtain all the necessary tools for administering your web site files and databases. With us, for example, you will obtain a Control Panel, which has domain name, web site, database and e-mail account management sections. You log in the Control Panel using your unique username and password, which gives you safe access to the part of the server where your website will be located.

Uploading your website

You can either upload your files through an FTP client or, as is with most web hosting distributors, through an online tool that is integrated within the hosting Control Panel. With us, the File Manager is rather easy to use and offers features similar to those observed in Windows Explorer, which makes file management extremely easy. We offer also a website builder and a PHP-powered script installer, which you can use to create your website if you have no programming experience and are making your very first steps in web design. The online site builder, whose name is SiteStudio, will also save you the time and effort of making a web site on your PC and then uploading it through an FTP client or the File Manager tool.