The web world may lead you into terms like domain names, web hosting and secure certificates. Confused yet? If you are new to this you probably are. What do you need and what are the extras they are trying to sell you on. Two items exist that are essential for any web site to be up and running - domain name registration and web hosting. Your name would be something like facebook.com and your files would be hosted online for people to see.

Domain names are just an easy way for visitors to remember your site and type it into their browser. What about the web hosting side of things? Well let’s explain what you are doing when you purchase web hosting. Web Hosting is like a container for your web files. These files may include Code files (HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP) or Visual Files (Images, Flash, Video). Your site requires a server for web hosting, which is basically a computer designed to display your web pages. In essence a web hosting package is a service provided by a Company that will make your web site live so people all around the world can view it at any time.

Now that we understand what web hosting actually is, when you look to buy web hosting what do all these features mean? For starting sites, you will be mainly looking at two main features - disk space and bandwidth. The former translates to the size of files you are allowed to keep on the web hosting server. The latter means the amount of data your server can transfer to your web site visitors in a given time. When your web site grows and needs more advanced features like a Content Management System, your next steps are to check into features for language support and database support. The programming language the site was coded in will help you choose the language support required, while the storage container for your web data is placed in a database.

To summarize, web site hosting is a server that allows visitors of your site to view your web site files. Depending on the nature of your site, you will then need to consider package features such as disk space, bandwidth, language support and database support.