Web hosting

Web hosting

Making a Web site available on the Internet. A Web site contains pages of information stored in a Web server, which is a computer running Web server software connected to the Internet (see Web site and Web server).

Countless enterprises host and manage their own Web sites inhouse; however, there are options. Companies can move their servers to a colocation center and avoid having to power and cool their own equipment, or they can have a third-party hosting provider or an Internet service provider (ISP) host the site on their own servers. See colocation.

Small businesses typically use a third party to host their site on one or more dedicated servers or one or more virtual servers; however, sites with minimal traffic can share a single server with other low-traffic customers. In contrast, Web sites for large companies may require dozens, hundreds or even thousands of Web servers. To put the equipment into a physical perspective, up to 100 servers can fit in one rack that takes up four square feet of floor space (see blade server). See server virtualization.

Personal Web Sites
Some ISPs host a personal Web site with a page limit at no additional cost above the monthly fee for Internet access. In such cases, the individual's name is subordinate to the domain name of the ISP; for example, www.friendlyISP.com/john_doe. In order to show a businesslike face to the world, individuals can register a unique domain name and have their site hosted with that name for a monthly fee; for example, www.john_doe.com (see how to register a domain name).

People try, but not everyone can host a Web site on a home computer with only a personal Internet access account. An ISP may block Web server traffic to a non-business subscriber (see DDNS relay). See cloud computing.