Web hosting is the art of placing a private website on the Internet and making it publicly viewable. There are companies known as web hosting companies that specialize in this service. They are able to connect what is known as a Web server directly to the Internet backbone computers, and when you upload your website into their server, it is then broadcast to the Internet directly, giving any Internet user the ability to search out and find your website by typing in the URL, or universal resource locator tag.
The reason that web hosting costs money is because the data that flows through the Web servers is not free to move. The companies that own Web servers are charged a certain amount for data usage, and they pass that cost on to the customer. However, most professional web hosting companies will also provide maintenance and upgrades to your web hosting experience so that you do not have to worry about any of the technical aspects of hosting a website on the Internet. After all, the physical hosting server is not in your possession. If they did not take care of the maintenance, there would be no one to fix your website if something happened to the physical server or the data within it.
If you have the proper expertise, you can actually purchase your own Web server and host your own websites. The only criteria for having a website is that you have a server that is capable of connecting to the Internet backbone. Barring this, you will most likely want to invest in a Web server with the appropriate amount of webspace and the proper expertise in hosting a website efficiently.
You should look for a web hosting service that is familiar with all types of files. You should invest only in a web hosting service that is able to translate your website onto all different sorts of mediums, including desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets. You should also invest in a hosting service that guarantees your “uptime,” or the amount of time that your website will be online out of the time that it has its data on the server. Ideally, your uptime should be 100%, and web hosts can ensure that this happens by what is known as a “redundant server.”