Web hosting is primarily an internet service that helps organizations and individuals create their virtual presence on the Web. It is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post their website or web content on the internet and is often provided as part of a general internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.

Digital files like websites, videos and programs for instance are stored on a web host server sometimes called a data center where they can be retrieved by anyone who wishes to view the slide or video footage for example.

Many types exist, some provide free web hosting but with these types you pay the price of having restricted facilities that usually allow the likes of blogs, email and basic websites to be accessed. Many restrictions exist with free web hosting but that is to be expected and for some it is an ideal situation but for only a few dollars per month, a paid web hosting service is far superior. Affordable web hosting packages vary enormously and do not rely purely on the storage capacity available so the decision should be made relative to your particular needs. Almost everyone starts out with what is termed 'shared hosting' where the server is used by many.

Once you are comfortable with the service level then it might be worth upgrading to a dedicated server. 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 located a specific amount of space for you to store your website, etc. The term 'file' is a generic name for anything that is uploaded (the opposite of downloaded) to your website with the space allocated normally not less than one half of a full gigabyte but these figures are always increasing.

Web hosting also provides the facility to have your own email address unlike those supplied by Google and Yahoo for example, this means, your e-mail address is exclusive to your website. If you have a business presence online you cannot afford to have another company's name at the end of your own e.g. www.yourcompanyname.hostingcompany.com when it should really look like this: www.yourcompanyname.com. Then you have bandwidth, which refers to how much data is being transferred over the internet, this is something that many people overlook simply because they're enamored with the low prices of hosting packages and don't consider how quickly bandwidth is used up.

Insufficient bandwidth will cause problems as visitors will be unable to see your site if it has been used up and you have a few more days before it is re-set for the following month, so you may need to use another web host. Remember, everything that is stored and can be accessed on your site has a bandwidth, even the website itself so if your site contains images, MP3 tracks and video clips for example, your bandwidth allocation will be used up even faster. Some people use their own home computers for web hosting but there can be serious security and reliability issues here so it is best to look for a professional web hosting company to supply this service.

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