The very first question that should pop in our mind is ‘what is web hosting?’.
Web Hosting is referred to as an IT service that allows the users and enterprises to store and distribute information, videos, images and content on their websites via the internet. It is also an activity through which one can access various websites.
When was the first website hosted?
The history of website hosting goes back to the end of 1993 when the World Wide Web (WWW) was implemented on a graphical web browser in particular for Windows and Mac computers. Before it, the Internet was a prime data-sharing medium amongst researchers and scientists around the world.
What’s the difference between the Internet and WWW?
Internet first came into being in the late 1960s as a ‘first workable prototype’ called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) funded by the U.S Department of Defense. Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider is considered to be the founder of the Internet as he was the amongst the first to put forth the idea of the internet as ‘Intergalactic Network’.
Tim Berners-Lee was the inventor of WWW who expanded the internet by adding various data points. Just to be clear, website or www is a mean of accessing data and the Internet is the platform where this data is. Therefore, we can say that Berners-Lee popularized the internet for the public by inventing www in the 1990s.
How to Host a Website? A Complete Beginner’s Guide
5 Steps to Host a website with a provider
Step 1: Comparing Hosting Providers
With advanced improvements in the IT infrastructure every day, the users have plentiful reliable resources on the internet that can help build perfect websites. The first step of hosting a website is to compare hosting rates from providers and select the one that suits your needs the most. Here are the elements that you should focus on while comparing providers:
- Hosting – Hosting as many types and not every provider offers every one of it. Therefore, it is best to go with the provider who provides flexible hosting packages with easy migration and up-gradation.
- Help & Support – Websites require 24/7 support and the majority of the providers fail to provide so. Therefore, choose a provider that provides you dedicated support team with a response time of 1-hour or less.
- Features – Web hosting is not just limited to web content. You can get online backup & recovery plans, DDoS protection and other perks & benefits. Choose the provider that has a high feature-rich score.
- Up Time – Wouldn’t it be annoying if your website is down for like a minute? Web & Server uptime, speed and responsiveness are essential. Affiliate with the provider who ensures 100% uptime without interruption.
- Pricing – Be very careful before making any payment. Not every ‘cheap’ or ‘affordable’ provider offers the best of it. Choose the provider that offers affordable web hosting plans without adding any extra, hidden or additional cost.
- Domain – It’s good to have domain registration along with web hosting. But not all the companies out there offer it. Therefore, it’s better to go with a provider who either offers a free domain name or have the lowest of the prices.
Step 2: Select a Web Hosting Company
Once you have compared every available provider based on the aforementioned elements. Its time you finalize your provider. This step is not that hard but proposes quite a challenge for the IT geeks. For instance, there are web hosting providers who are best or at least above satisfactory in every category. But the overall internet ranking also matters the most. Maybe a provider with 5-star features is ranked low on the internet and there has to be a reason for that.
Therefore, do a thorough (not in-depth) research of your own. Google providers, read its reviews, compare features and then decide. Also, do not forget to review the providers with the best hosting type. It is possible that Provider A offers the best WordPress hosting then Provider B who offers excellent Static web hosting (HTML).
The operating system that provider uses to host website should have adequate specifications that could maintain 99.99% uptime.
Step 3: Select a Suitable Website Hosting Plan
Not to be confused with web hosting types, web hosting plans are more like kinds of website hosting that allow users to work along with the requirements. For better understanding, take a brief look at the following chart:
| Hosting Kind | Pros | Cons |
| Shared Hosting | * Cost-effective * user-Friendly * Accessibility * Customization | * Limited Resources * Vulnerable Security * Limited Software Support * Excessive Data Slows web |
| Cloud Hosting | * Low-Cost Power Computing * Multiple Servers Deployment * Unlimited Storage * Reliability & Flexibility | * Lack of Control * Dependent Internet * Increased Security Risks * Higher Disk Latency |
| Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting | * Less Expensive * Customizable Features * Partitioned System * Plentiful Resources | * Expensive than Shared * Software Maintenance * System UpgradationLess * Hardware Access |
| Dedicated Hosting | * Ultimate Flexibility * Dedicated Processing* Scalability * Dedicated Support | * Very Expensive * Limited Bandwidth * Do-it-Yourself Setup * Not User-Friendly |
Step 4: Domain Name Registration
Internet is very vast, and you need others to find your website. For that, you need to have an address called ‘Domain Name’. It is the internet address through which users will visit your website. It looks something like this ‘www.valuehosted.com’. Now the value hosted is the name selected by the company. You can do the same, but make sure you select a name that is unique, catchy and most importantly available.
This step is very easy if you already have a hosting account with the provider.
Also, you can select the type of domain whether you want .com, .net, .org, or co whatever suits your you the best. Selecting an appropriate domain is necessary because it will tell Google how or from where to show your domain around the world. So, grab the host offers that provide you control panel, assured online presence, synchronised email addresses,
Step 5: Launching Your Website
Here comes the best step – launching your website (small business etc.). Once you’ve selected and acquired services from the provider, its time for you to upload content. Now, as we discussed in our previous blogs, you can have two types of websites: Static, which is the HTML/CSS based website and Dynamic, which uses Content Management System (CMS) or other website building tools such as WordPress. For starters, it’s better to select reliable website builders.