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Your small business has decided to create a website that will not only offer information about products and services, but will allow customers to make purchases online. However, the idea of trying to maintain this website on a company server seems daunting and costly. Why not consider a web hosting provider?
Web Hosting
• Provides continuous monitoring and support of systems that store web pages
• Processes transactions initiated over the Internet
• Maintains servers and manages technology that keeps the website connected
Types of Web Hosting Services
• Shared-The most popular hosting plan is shared hosting. It provides a server (bandwidth, memory, CPU time, etc.) that’s shared by more than one site. Shared hosting has several benefits including price, large bandwidth, multiple programming features such as MySQL and ASP, and is the top choice for small to medium-sized businesses and email domains.
• Free-The most basic hosting plan is free hosting. It’s best used for those who need a host for a hobby site, test platform, or backup for their other sites. The benefits are that it is free, provides high level service, and may provide extra features such as scripting and databases. The downside is that you are forced to show advertisements on your site as a way for the host to re-coup costs. This feature causes visitors to be inundated with pop-ups, flash advertising, and banners when they open your website for viewing.
• Dedicated-If your needs include more bandwidth and storage plus control over the server, then dedicated hosting is the option. The benefits include lease access to a complete server and all its resources, allowing the customer to host one or more websites. This type of hosting is most attractive to companies with high-traffic websites and those that require minimal downtime plus control over the hosting environment.
There are several different types of web hosts available, so choosing the right one will depend on what kind of website you want to offer.
