What Is A Web Host?

A web host is a service provider that places your web site on a computer which is connected to the internet. This then gives people who surf the internet a way to access your website. The computer that the web hosting company uses is typically just like the computer you have at home, the only difference being that it is set up to serve up web sites and is therefore called a "server".

A web host will typically have a fast connection to the Internet and they may host thousands of web sites on many servers. The web host essentially rents out space to you so that you can get your website up on the world wide web.

Some large web hosts own their own datacenter (collection of servers), some rent a server from a larger web hosting company and then resell the space under their own company name. In this case the web host will manage your account on the server, but they will be renting the actual web space from another much larger company.

There are a lot of web hosting companies available in the market, all with different types of plans and at different prices. It can be hard to wade through all the options, especially if you are completely new to web hosting and just want to get your website up on the web. All web hosting plans have some basic common features.

• Server Type - This is the type of server software that is running on the server. Windows 2000 server, Linux and Unix are common server types. If you have a basic website then the server type does not matter. If you have a more complex website that has database functions and serves up dynamic pages, then the server type will be more important
• Disk Space - This is the amount of actual space available to you for storing your website on the web server harddrive
• Bandwidth / Month - This is a measure of how much website traffic is available to you. Every time somebody looks at your website, data has to be passed over the Internet from the web server where your site is hosted to the browser of the person looking at your site. Bandwidth is a measure of how much transfer is available. High traffic sites like Yahoo for example have very high bandwidth requirements, but the average site does not
• Email Accounts - How many email accounts you can have with the web hosting account.

Important factors in Web hosting are:

• Uptime - How much of the time is your site running and how often is it down? You've probably tried visiting a site only to find an "error" or that it is "unavailable". This is often because the Web site is hosted somewhere that is not paying attention - or does not have the staff - to make sure the site is running, or that uses substandard equipment. We use only the most advanced IT equipment and runs all servers from a world-class datacenter to make sure your site is constantly running.
• Features - What are you needing the server to do? ASP, ASP 2.0, AJAX, Database(s), PHP. Easy Hosting supports all of these plus many more. We are one of the very few providers that can allow you to run AJAX 2.0 applications.
• Support - Another critical factor is support - how much do you receive and how expert is it? Sadly, many hosting companies fail this test. Because the industry is competitive, there are thousands of Web hosting companies with very low prices but also little support. There are even companies that promise 24x7 support but simply don't have the staff to deliver it - and are just crossing their fingers that nothing goes wrong. We provide true 24x7 support, with a fully-staffed team of experts, round the clock, 365 days a year.
• Pricing - Of course, price is the final key factor. We offer the best value in Web hosting for smaller and mid-sized businesses, meaning that our prices are the lowest of any Web hosting company that offers our level of uptime, support and expertise.