Web Hosting and how to bag the benefits
To enable a person or company to host a website or other web based product, a web hosting company is required. If you want others to see your website you will need one of these and depending on whether it is a commercial site or not will dictate how much you pay but it is possible to have this at no charge (with restrictions). But for online bible study course , this is especially important.
Free hosting deals are great for those who want to ‘dip their toes in the water' for example but the range of services available to them will be limited. For more storage space, better email facilities, sub domains and more you really need top look at paid web hosting plans; this is particularly pertinent for business customers.
Almost everyone starts out with what is termed ‘shared hosting' where the server is used by many. It is usually possible to upgrade to have a dedicated server for your files once you know the service provider is reliable; there is normally an additional charge for this facility. Websites require a domain name (not necessarily supplied by the web hosting company)otherwise no-one will be able to find you; once this has been done your domain will be allocated a specific amount of space for you to store your website, etc.
When you have a paid web hosting package it will allow you to have an email address using your domain name unlike those that are offered free with the likes of Google, Yahoo or MSN for example where their name is at the end of the email address. It always looks like the user is more serious about their internet presence if they have their own email and domain name, it increases credibility. The amount of data that is viewed on your site each time someone accesses it is called bandwidth; it is an extremely important aspect to consider and the main reason why buying the cheapest hosting package is not always best.
If you only have a small site that does not have much on it then this probably won't concern you but as soon as audio, video and hi-resolution images are incorporated, it becomes more of a concern. Although it is possible for a person to use their own PC as a host, there are many security dangers associated with this so using a dedicated web hosting company is preferable.
