Shared Hosting Description

If you have decided to set up your own site, but are not quite certain about what a web site is and are not aware of the term "shared hosting", this article is dedicated to clarifying these notions in plain language.

What exactly is a web site?

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

What is a web hosting server?

A hosting server permits you to upload your website onto it. In some instances, there might be even 1000's of sites on a single web hosting server. The web hosting server essentially is a computer with special hardware, which is held in a datacenter with special cooling systems, whose purpose is to ensure the seamless performance of the machine and all the web sites accommodated on it.

In short, a web hosting server will be truly a launching pad when the time arrives for you to launch your site. It could be any type of website - a corporate website containing a lot of webpages, or a site, which is comprised of only a couple of webpages and which you have made just for your friends and family members.

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

As soon as you have decided what kind of web site you would like to create, the next step is to discover what type of web hosting service you must pick for your web project. Basically, there are two types of web hosting services - charge-free website hosting services and professional paid hosting services. The charge-free hosting solution is normally utilized by individuals that do not possess a business-related website.

Strong and weak sides of the free hosting solution

You will not receive many options with a free hosting package. Features like web traffic, RAM memory and web hosting server hard disk space are limited and inadequate for a complex e-commerce website or a business-related site, or even for a website with lots of graphics. Also, there are lots of banner commercials put on your website by the hosting company. These adverts occupy lots of space on your website and are pretty frustrating.

Shared web hosting

The professional paid shared web hosting services are more stable and include plenty of sophisticated features beside the high-power web hosting server that will host your web site and its data. Still, it is important to know which features your web site needs prior to buying your web hosting plan. You should not hurry and wind up purchasing something that your web site does not require.

Select your web hosting services provider

It is not tough to find a hosting supplier. You need to simply conduct an online survey in order to find a web hosting services provider that answers your website's requirements. Before you make your actual decision, check the parameters of the packages provided by the hosting distributors that have attracted your attention. We, for example, are among the premier web hosting service providers on the marketplace at present. The wide array of hosting solutions and our prices are what renders us an alluring option. Nonetheless, you must determine what sort of hosting solution you need and whether the price suits your allowance. Also, you must not forget to examine the service provider's TOS before opening an account to make sure that your site is not violating them.

Opening a website hosting account

Once you have found out what features are most important for your web site, the next move is to open an account with the web hosting plans provider of your choosing. You will be given all the essential tools for managing your website files and databases. With us, for instance, you will get a web hosting Control Panel, which is comprised of domain, website, database and email mailbox management sections. You log in the web hosting Control Panel using your unique username and password, which grants you safe access to the portion of the web hosting server where your site will be located.

Uploading your site

You can either upload your web site via FTP client software or, as is with most web hosting service providers, via an online tool that is integrated within the web 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 very easy. We offer also a site building tool and a PHP script installer, which you can use to set up your website if you possess no programming capabilities and are taking your very first steps in web design. The online web site builder, called SiteStudio, will also save you the time and effort of creating a web site on your personal computer and then uploading it through an FTP software program or the File Manager tool.