So you're web site is done. It's been through all the processes, meetings and iterations and is now ready for launch. So how do you get it online? Well, you need to get it hosted. One of the most overlooked section of the web site production process is hosting, and if you the term confusing, this is the article for you.

For a web site to be made available on the Internet, it has to be hosted on a web server, which primarily acts as a large storage computer which is connected to the Internet. This is where web hosting comes in. Web hosting is a service that provides individuals, organizations and users with these online systems for storing information, images, videos, or any content accessible via the Web. There are plenty of companies (called Web Hosts) that provide Web hosting and they range from Free hosting to Dedicated Hosting. Web hosting means that your website is available to it's visitors 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Bandwidth is another term associated with web hosting, which has to do with the amount of visitors you recieve and how they interact with your website. When you buy a webspace from a hosting company, you also buy a select amount of bandwidth per month. Bandwidth is basically the amount of data that can be sent and recieved on your website. For example, a one page website with just some pictures will not use as much bandwidth as a streaming-video website such as YouTube.

Another term you may come across is DNS, which stands for Domain Name Server. Each website has a unique identifying ID on the web host's server, but it's domain name (e.g. www.mysite.com) is registered on a separate machine called the Domain Name Server. When a website is typed in to your browser's address bar, the DNS which has this registered redirects you to the matching site. Easy peasy.

If you have any questions about our web hosting services, let us know!