Most web hosting companies do not own a datacenter, but rent web hosting space in a datacenter.
A web host is a service provider that places your web site on a computer which is connected to the internet. This then gives people who surf the internet a way to access your website. The computer that the web hosting company uses is typically just like the computer you have at home, the only difference being that it is set up to serve up web sites and is therefore called a "server".
A web host will typically have a fast connection to the Internet and they may host thousands of web sites on many servers. The web host essentially rents out space to you so that you can get your website up on the world wide web.
Some large web hosts own their own datacenter (collection of servers), some rent a server from a larger web hosting company and then resell the space under their own company name. In this case the web host will manage your account on the server, but they will be renting the actual web space from another much larger company.
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This is a picture of a datacenter. Which contains many PC's all connected to the Internet It is very expensive to own and operate a datacenter. Datacenters have reliable and fast connections to the Internet and also have backup power and high security. Most web hosting companies do not own a datacenter, but rent web hosting space in a datacenter. |
There are literally thousands of web hosting companies available in the market, all with different types of plans and at different prices. It can be hard to wade through all the options, especially if you are completely new to web hosting and just want to get your website up on the web. All web hosting plans have some basic common features.
| Server Type | This is the type of server software that is running on the server. Windows 2000 server, Linux and Unix are common server types. If you have a basic website then the server type does not matter. If you have a more complex website that has database functions and serves up dynamic pages, then the server type will be more important |
| Disk Space | This is the amount of actual space available to you for storing your website on the web server harddrive |
| Bandwidth / Month | This is a measure of how much website traffic is available to you. Every time somebody looks at your website, data has to be passed over the Internet from the web server where your site is hosted to the browser of the person looking at your site. Bandwidth is a measure of how much transfer is available. High traffic sites like Yahoo for example have very high bandwidth requirements, but the average site does not |
| Email Accounts | How many email accounts you can have with the web hosting account. |