Hosting — The Basics

If you need an overview of the basics and the terminology used in web hosting, this is where to find it.

• What is Web hosting?
  
  For a Web site to be available on the World Wide Web, its files (html pages, images, scripts, etc.) need to be placed on a server — a computer that runs special Web-serving software — and those files need to be placed in a special directory on the server so that they can be accessed by using the site's domain name.
  
  When you sign up for a hosting account with a webhosting company such as Host Gator , you are, in effect, "renting" hosting space on their server. You then place your Web site files into your assigned space on the server, so that they will be available to people surfing the Web.
• What is shared hosting?
  
  Shared (or virtual) hosting is the most common and most affordable type of hosting. Share hosting means that a number of Web sites are stored on the same server. Each site is accessible by its own domain name, and each site's owner can only access his own files, e-mail, and other site settings by using his assigned username and password.
  
  Each site is allocated a particular amount of disk space, bandwidth and other server resources. Careful hosts do not place too many sites on a single server and keep an eye on their resource usage so that any one site cannot bog down or interfere with the functioning of the other sites on the server.
  
  Shared hosting is in contrast to dedicated hosting, in which a single server hosts a single Web site. There is also a "hybrid" option of using a "dedicated private server" (or "dedicated virtual server"), in which a limited number of sites are hosted on the same server but each site runs within a completely isolated space on the server and uses completely separate server processes.
  
  Dedicated servers and virtual dedicated servers are more expensive than shared hosting. These options may be needed when a site uses disk space, bandwidth or server resources that are too great for shared hosting, or requires options or configurations that are not available with shared hosting packages, or when greater security is needed.
• What do disk space and bandwidth refer to?
  
  Disk space is the actual amount of space that is allocated for your files on the server. The same way your computer at home or the office has a hard drive with a certain amount of space on it, your Web site account has a specified amount of space that you may use. Your allocate space includes the space needed for your Web site files (html pages, images, scripts, downloadable files, etc.) plus the space used by your e-mail accounts, databases, and other files associated with your account.
  
  Bandwidth is the amount of data that your site transfers (downloads or uploads).
  
  As an example of the difference, assume that you have a 10-kilobyte file on your site. That file requires 10 kb of disk space. If that file is accessed by 1000 people, it will use 10,000 kb of bandwidth: 10kb x 1000 = 10,000.
  
  If your hosting company uses the cPanel hosting control panel, you can look in the column on the left under "General Account Information." There should be two items that look something like this:
  
  Disk Usage: 57.69 / 100.00 MB
  Bandwidth Usage: 122.71 / 1500 MB
  
  The first number is the amount (in megabytes) of disk usage and bandwidth that your site is currently using, and the second number is the amount your site is allocated. This allows you to keep an eye on your usage so that you can upgrade to a plan with more space or bandwidth if needed.
• How do I know how much space and bandwidth I need?
  
  These needs can vary tremendously based on the content of your Web site and the number of visitors you have. Most Web sites consist primarily of text files (your html pages) and graphics that are optimized for the Web. These files tend to be fairly small: typically in the range of 5k to 20k for text files, and roughly 10k to 50k for graphic files.
  
  For disk space, you can generally add up the amount of space your files require on your home computer, then double or triple that amount to allow for additional files that you'll add later, e-mail, databases, etc., to come up with a rough estimate of the space you'll need.
  
  Bandwidth is harder to estimate, because for a new site you probably have no idea how many visitors you'll get or how frequently they'll visit your site. If your site follows the pattern of most sites, it will probably start off without very many visitors, and your bandwidth usage will grow as your site becomes better known and more popular.
  
  You may need to "guesstimate" the amount of traffic you'll get and order your hosting plan based on that. Then in the first couple of months, keep a close eye on your traffic and your bandwidth usage so that you can upgrade your plan if needed. Keep in mind that your bandwidth includes not only the pages and images that your visitors access, but also the bandwidth you use when you upload your files to the server, as well as your e-mail usage and any other file transfers that you do.
  
  A quality hosting provider such as Host Gator allows you to upgrade (or downgrade) your plan at any time without penalty, so if it turns out that your initial estimate was off, you can simply switch to a more appropriate plan and begin paying the fee for the new plan.