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Like the files on your computer,
every website on the internet is
stored on a computer, called a
server. Servers are connected to
high speed internet and people
who surf the web can access
these website files. You might
be wondering if you could use
your own computer at home as a
server. The simple answer is:
yes, you can. However, most
people don't have very fast
internet connections at home
compared to Data Centers (where
hundreds of servers are
located), and also there are
many technical issues that need
to be considered (such as
security measures to prevent
unauthorized access, etc).
The picture on the left shows a
typical data center. In each of
these large cases, called
"racks" there are dozens of
servers that are connected to
very fast internet. This allows
websites to load and respond
quickly to visitors. Aside from
having a fast internet, data
centers are carefully monitored
for temperature, humidity and
many other factors to ensure
maximum server performance.
There are several different
types of web hosting you can
purchase, and a clear understand
of them will save you a lot of
money.
Shared Web Hosting
This is the most common web
hosting and it happens to be the
cheapest type too. Basically,
your website is stored on a
server with many other websites.
Usually each server can handle
hundreds of websites at a time
unless it is hosting a website
with extremely large amount of
traffic. Unless you are running
for the presidency or you came
up with a product that will
replace drinking water, we
recommend choosing this type of
web hosting to start with.
VPS
VPS stands for Virtual
Private Servers. These are
slightly more expensive than
Shared Web Hosting plans. The
main difference is, in VPS Web
Hosting one server is split into
multiple virtual servers, and
you get to have one of these
virtual servers all for
yourself. I know that made a lot
of sense. In other words, your
virtual server will look and
behave just like a real server
with its own scripts, processes,
file systems, etc. but you don't
have the "whole" server to
yourself. This is recommended
for websites and businesses with
medium amount of traffic.
Dedicated Servers
Okay, remember VPS? When you
buy a dedicated server web
hosting, you really get one
entire server. You can pretty
much do whatever you want with
it (almost anything, some
companies can be really strict
when it comes to setting your
server on fire). This
recommended for websites with
large amount of traffic or if
you have multiple websites. The
cool thing about this kind of
web hosting is that you can even
"sell" Shared Web Hosting or
VPS to other people as if you
were a web hosting company.
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