For
people to see your site, it will have to live on a
web server, which is a type of computer that "serves"
your site to the Internet. Servers that provide space
for other people's webpages are called "hosts" or "web
hosts", and what
they do is called hosting.
Some
people like to run their own web servers. But since
this tutorial is about the simple and cheap method,
and
running your own web server properly is neither, we'll
skip that approach for now.
Since
you're going to use the Internet to connect to your
host, your hosting service can be located anywhere.
However, the speed between you and the host counts,
so make sure that you can connect to them quickly.
There are a number of terms you should know and options you should
be familiar with when it comes to finding a host for your site. Educate yourself
here.
Uptime is the amount of time that your server is actually making your site available to visitors. A 99% uptime guarantee sounds good, doesn't it? Get out the calculator.
100%
- 99% = 1%
24 hrs x 30 days = 720 hours
720 hrs x 1% = 7.2 hrs downtime a month
Those
hours don't even have to be consecutive for a 99% guarantee
to hold true. Your site could be down for 5 minutes
here, 20 minutes there and so on. Look for a 99.9% uptime
guarantee or better.
Paid
hosting can be found for around the cost of a paid ISP.
As with ISPs, using a paid service will give you access
to telephone technical support. Generally speaking,
it will also provide a more stable environment for your
site than free hosting services, who tend to overload
their servers.
Paid
hosting allows you to choose the operating system of
the server that your site will be hosted on. Some
people
find various Microsoft Windows servers to be more user-friendly.
On the other hand, uNIX servers generally have better
uptime.
Other
benefits of paid hosting include access to your server
logs or a log analysis program. This tells you
things
about the visitors to your site, like how many there
wereand the ability to create more complex and interactive
webpages
than
free
hosts generally allow for.
Search
these databases to find a host. If you need to find
a host outside of the US, typing in a country name where
you see 'Keyword' may help. Just make sure to research
the host before you make your choice.
You'll probably feel a little lost looking at all the choices
and will have questions. Click here
for a great place to see what others are saying and to ask for help.
Free
hosting usually requires that you display an ad on each
of your pages or uses ads that pop up when someone comes
to your site. However, there are exceptions. Most free
web space is for personal use, but you can also find
free space for businesses and nonprofit organizations,
as well as for specific interests.
