As of this publishing, there are over 2 billion people using the internet. As you’re reading this, can you confidently answer the question “What is Internet Web Hosting?” Or can you answer the question of what is the Internet and how does the internet work?

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

1. 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.
2. Support: Don’t accept anything less than 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days of support.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Backups: You want a host that will back your data up for your regularly, in case of emergencies.
7. Price: Make sure you are not sacrificing stability, support and infrastructure for price. Take into consideration the resources needed.
8. Terms and Conditions: Always read this! Make sure you know what you’re getting yourself in to, especially in regards to cancellations.