Web Hosting Services

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<h1>Web Hosting Services</h1>
<p>You need a hosting service for your website if you want anybody to be able to see it. Basically, a web host or web server is somebody else's fast computer that always has a fast connection to the Internet. You pay for the privilege of being able to store your website files on their computer, so that anybody can view them. A web server uses special software, usually Apache, to answer requests for your files. When someone wants to see your home page, their browser (usually Internet Explorer or Firefox) sends a request to your hosting service, who sends the file back to their computer.</p>
<p>Web hosting services are very fast and very cheap. For less than $10 a month, you can easily get more than you'll ever be able to use, from almost any web host. You need two things to start off with:</p>
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<li><strong>Disk space</strong> - storage for all the files of your website: images, web pages, style sheets, database, audio, video. This is comparable to the size of your hard drive on your computer. Most websites use less than 2 megabytes of disk space, but many web hosting services will give you one hundred times that much. Or one thousand times. You may not want audio and video or databases on your website at first. You don't want so many pictures on one page that it takes forever to download. So when choosing a web host, you should have no trouble finding enough disk space.</li>
<li><strong>Bandwidth</strong> -  the total size of all the files downloaded from your website each month. This is comparable to your water bill, where you're charged for the total of all the water that comes into your house during the month. Except that your bandwidth costs won't change each month. A certain amount of bandwidth, or data transfer, is included with your hosting package, and it's usually very large. For example, suppose all you had on your website was a single 3-megabyte MP3 song. If 100 people downloaded it last month, your website would have used 300 megabytes of bandwidth last month. But a properly-designed home page takes up less than 30 kilobytes of space, including text and images, because you want your home page to download fast. So if your web host gave you 100 gigabyte (GB) of bandwidth each month (that's 100,000 megabytes), that means more than 3,000,300 people could view your 30 kilobyte home page each month, without putting you over your limit. If your website used 2 megabytes of disk space, and every visitor to your website viewed every page and every file (which they don't need to), 100 gigabytes of bandwidth would be enough to handle 50,000 visitors a month. So when choosing a web host, you should have no trouble finding enough bandwidth.</li>
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<p>Besides disk space and bandwidth, you will also want to consider other factors:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Price</strong> - The web hosting industry has become so competitive, and computers have become so cheap, that prices are very low. You shouldn't need to pay more than $10 a month for web hosting. Of course, hosting companies try to sell you on more services to increase their profit margins, such as website creation tools and other enhancements. One of the benefits of working with Stylecascade is that you're in the driver's seat. The website creation tools are free. You may not even need them. You only pay for web design. You can choose any company you want for any other services you need.</li>
<li><strong>Customer service</strong> - If you have a question or a problem with your website, how long does it take for the hosting service to answer your question or fix your problem? What kind of support do they provide? Remember, despite any claims to the contrary, they can't afford to spend much time on the phone with you if you're only spending $9.00 a month. Many web hosts have excellent email and trouble ticket systems, or online knowledge bases to help you answer your own questions. You don't necessarily get what you pay for, because large, expensive companies may not provide better service than a small discount hosting service.</li>
<li><strong>Uptime and speed</strong> - How long does it take for a web page to appear on your computer screen, compared to other web hosts? Most of the delay on the "World Wide Wait" is not caused by hosting companies, but choosing the right one can speed things up.</li></ul>
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