What is Internet Web Hosting?
In a simple explanation, the internet is a global network of computers connected to each other, which allows people to share information. Over a third of the entire global population is now online – with 1 billion internet users in Asia alone!
A Brief History of the Internet
During the 1960’s, there was a massive social revolution, hippies and drugs, the Cold War, and the US Government has a major problem: “If nuclear war ever occurred, how are we going to maintain communications?” Well the solution was simple: Ask the geeks at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
- 1966: ARPA Project Begins
- 1969: First ARPANET message sent
- 1973: First International connection from ARPANET to London and Norway
- 1976: Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
- 1980: Tim Berners Lee writes the program “Enquire Within”, predecessor to the World Wide Web
- 1981: IBM – IBM announces the first personal computer
- 1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh
- 1990: Tim Berners Lee creates the World Wide Web
- 1990: ARPANET ends
- 1993: Mosaic, the web browser credited to popularizing the World Wide Web, is created
- 1994: Amazon.com founded
- 1995: Internet Explorer released, included with Windows 95
- 1995: Yahoo! founded
- 1998: Google founded
- 1999: Napster created, opening the possibilities of Peer-to-Peer file sharing
- 2000: 10 Million domain names registered and 20 million websites on the Internet
- 2000: Baidu founded
- 2000: The Dot Com bubble bursts; many websites burned through their venture capital without ever making a net profit
- 2001: Wikipedia launches
- 2003: WordPress released
- 2004: Facebook launches
- 2004: Mozilla Firefox launches
- 2005: YouTube releases (how did we ever live without this?!!)
- 2006: Twitter launches
- 2012: Google Chrome surpasses Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox to become the most popular web browser
Browsers & Servers
The Internet can be categorized into 2 types of computers
- Browsers: What you use to get access to the internet
- Whenever you go to a website, your browser will send a request to the server
- Servers: Servers are computers that have all the information that you find on the internet
- These servers are computers that have all the information that you find on the internet
- The servers are leased out to people who want to make their websites available online
- ******This is known as web hosting*******
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Types of Web Hosting
Shared Hosting – Advantages
- Cheap
- Easy to use
- Maintained and secured by your hosting provider
- Technical support supplied by your hosting provider
Shared Hosting – Disadvantages
- Shared resources means if one site becomes really busy, it will slow down the other sites on that server
- Less flexibility and options compared to VPS and Dedicated Hosting
Virtual Private Servers – Advantages
- Cost effective compared to dedicated hosting
- Setup times are fast
- Easily upgradable
Virtual Private Servers – Disadvantages
- As with shared hosting, one site can slow down others on the VPS
- Requires technical knowledge compared to shared hosting
- Technical support from your hosting provider may be slower compared to shared hosting
Dedicated Hosting – Advantages
- Large amounts of disk space
- Large amounts of bandwidth
- Entirely flexible to your needs
- Dedicated IP address
- Complete administration access
Dedicated Hosting – Disadvantages
- Expensive when comparing to VPS and shared hosting
- Requires high levels of technical knowledge to manage
8 Tips To Help You Choose Web Hosting
- Location: Choose a host that located in the same country as your website audience. This will give you search engine optimization benefits as well as faster load times.
- Support: Don’t accept anything less than 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days of support.
- Resources: What do you actually need for your website? A personal blog will run fine on any plan. If you’re expecting millions of visitors each month, a dedicated server is the best way to do it.
- Extras: There are many great features that are included now, such as Fantastico that can create a website for you with a few clicks. Look at the features that interest you.
- Control Panel: This is the interface provided that will allow you to manage your hosting and website. Make sure it is easy to use. A popular choice is CPanel.
- Backups: You want a host that will back your data up for your regularly, in case of emergencies.
- Price: Make sure you are not sacrificing stability, support and infrastructure for price. Take into consideration the resources needed.
- Terms and Conditions: Always read this! Make sure you know what you’re getting yourself in to, especially in regards to cancellations.
