Introduction to Web Hosting

The Internet, and more specifically, the World Wide Web, consists of millions of web sites. When a company or individual creates a web site that site must be "hosted" on a service provider's high-powered computers (called servers) in order for the site to be visible to the rest of the world. That is, unless the owner of the site happens to have their own server tied in with a link to the Internet. Web hosting providers generally house several servers in a data center with redundant high-speed connections to the Internet.

Web hosting providers "host" several web sites on their servers and then make those servers available and visible to the rest of the world through these Internet connections. When someone types in a web site address, like www.hostania.com, they are then routed to the web hosting provider's specific server in which they are hosting that particular site all within a matter of seconds. There are literally thousands of companies that provide web hosting services all over the world. This promotes healthy competition among providers and affords the site owner many options to choose from.

There are many different categories of web hosting such as shared web hosting, reseller web hosting and more, which further explanation can be found here in the Hostania learning center.