Website hosting refers to the renting of web server space to store the contents
of a website.
The hosting company has web servers which has lot of space. The company divides
the space into small units.
Each unit may be in MB or GB based on the plans.
It means you are using the hard disk space on their server.
The charges are generally paid for a year and has to be renewed every year.
Since the website is present on another company's server machine, your website
and web based email function from their server. It is important to know the
various facilities available.
There are the various factors involved in selecting a hosting plan:
a.The space required is estimated by the contents to be present on the
website. The content that is owned by the website owner and the
content that can be contributed by website visitors along with the database
content are to be considered.
Simple text based websites need less space. Multimedia content needs more space.
Database driven websites may need more space.
b. Programming language to be used is generally decided by the website
developers. Based on this the types of
databases compatible are also decided.
c. Database selection depends on the type of databases provided by the
hosting company along with the plan.
The type of database depends on the size of estimated data and also the
estimated traffic to the website.
d. Bandwidth means the amount of data that is passed to and fro between
the website and the visitors.
Bandwidth required is estimated by the content and the estimated traffic to the
website.
Almost all hosting companies have a monthly limit on the bandwidth used.
e. Windows or Linux option depends on the above factors and the budget
of the website owner.