Shared Web Hosting
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A Newbie’s Guide to Shared Web Hosting
If you aren’t someone who regularly creates websites, web hosting can be confusing. There are a lot of options and various numbers that can mean all sorts of things. Unfortunately for the newbie, not understanding these numbers can end up costing you a lot of money or hassle.
This guide helps explain the different terminology used in the web hosting industry so you can make a more informed decision.
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What Web Hosting Is
Web hosting companies basically use a bunch of highly capable computers called servers to host your website. Just like the files that you store in your computer, a hosting company’s servers host the files of your website. These files could be the template that shows what your website should look like, the database that contains all the information that is on your site, or an application that people can use to perform functions on the web. Users can access these files from the HTTP commands created by either their web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, or a web robot, such as the ones used by Google to determine a site’s contents.
Web hosting company differ in their server management decisions, support, and technical specifications involved. A good web host has multiple connections to the internet should one fail and resides in a highly secured area. They should not overload a server with too many files or traffic, as this makes these sites run sluggishly. Web hosts should also use the latest equipment to ensure they have appropriate space and processing power to run their websites effectively.
What is Shared Web Hosting
Rather than buying a machine for each website, which is called “dedicated hosting”, hosting companies will partition a server to offer “shared hosting”. A systems administrator manages these sites to make sure they are secure and running efficiently. This is called shared hosting because the site’s owner does not have individual access to the root files which ultimately control the server. Most websites run on shared hosting because it is affordable and convenient to use.
How Space is Measured in Shared Hosting
Web hosting companies measure the amount of space offered in factors of bytes. The more bytes you get, the more files you are allowed to host with your hosting company. Most shared hosting is measured in gigabytes, which is over a billion bytes.
Other Measurements Applicable to Web Hosting
Web hosting companies also measure bandwidth, which is a measurement of how much information is being transmitted to how many people. The more traffic a website gets and the bigger the files of that site are, the more bandwidth that website will use in order to function properly. For example, a written blog which gets little traffic would use much less bandwidth than a popular site for hosting video, because less people are accessing it and videos are very large files.
Balance is Key when Choosing Shared Web Hosting
Some shared web hosts offer unlimited bandwidth and hard disk space. Since a server cannot access information quickly or properly handle too many HTTP commands, this can be a case of getting what you pay for. If a web host’s server is overloaded, it can slow down the rate at which users can access your site or crash it entirely.
If you are just starting off, getting shared hosting is a good way to start a website off affordably. If you need more space or run into issues with speed, you can upgrade to a virtual private server or dedicated server.
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