About web hosting
Every website needs a server host, which is basically a computer that is sending the pages to the people who are visiting the website. Running that server costs money; having your own server costs lots of money, so most servers today are running several hundred websites so that the cost can be split between the various owners of the different websites.
These servers usually perform other functions too, like collecting emails and forwarding emails and setting up encryption channels.
Most websites today are a WordPress website, and this too requires a web server. WordPress software is free, but to have an active WordPress website running isnt. WordPress do offer their own web hosting services, but it is one of the more expensive options. Nearly all web hosting providers are able to host a WordPress website, so its best to shop around for the one that suits you.
Choosing which type of web hosting depends on your requirements, but generally, a cheap host is often very slow and restrictive; an expensive host is usually a faster host, (quicker loading website) and usually offers many other useful features.
If you are creating a small blog site, then a cheap host is often enough, but if you creating a company website that is expecting to grow then should make sure the hosting you buy is reliable, able to grow and scale up. Some of the cheaper hosting plans have a limit on the number of visitors it can handle, and will turn your website off for days if your get too many visitors! (note, Queensland Tech doesn’t do this, all our web hosts have unlimited usage)
So, when your buying web hosting, your basically renting a part of a computer that is running 24 hours a day.
When you first sign in to a new web host, its usually pretty blank, and you’re need to do some amount of setup to get something working. One of steps usually include installing the WordPress software.
Once you’ve gone through the process of installing WordPress, your website will then show a basic template. You’ll then be able to login to your WordPress site and start creating pages.
Types of web Hosting
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the most popular, as its one of the cheapest options. You website will be one of many on that server. A “fair use” policy is often given to you asking you basically not to deliberately overload the server, which would effect other websites being hosted on the same server. But depending on which provider you go with, some servers are already overloaded with too many websites, so pick one that has websites which load really quickly. If your site is slow to load, then you probably need a new host, or a different type of host.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is similar to shared hosting, but other users are less likely to effect the performance of your website. Your host is managed by a computer network, which monitors your website, keeps backups, and may copy to other servers to help keep your website running smoothly. Its more reliable because there’s usually no single point of failure.
Most hosting companies split between a ‘Managed’ and ‘Unmanaged’ type of accounts. With unmanaged, you will have setup and manage the server yourself. Our accounts are kind of both, its your responsibility, but we usually set it up for you.
WordPress Hosting
This is where a server has been setup to be dedicated for WordPress users. It can only run WordPress sites, so your limited only to the WordPress functions and nothing outside of this. The problem is that many providers offering this service are not very cheap, there restrictive, and not very flexible. But sometimes you do get some useful features, like automatic backups, updates, switching between a development site and a live site, and improved content delivery. WordPress themselves offers this service.
VPS Hosting
VPS Hosting is the next step up, you get more resources, but it costs you more too. When you login, you basically see a whole server to yourself, but its a bit of illusion as VPS stands for Virtual Personal Server. Its a computer running within a computer, so there will be many VPS hosts running on a single server, usually 10 to 50 of them, a lot less than the websites running share services though. But the advantage is you can run several types of websites and other services too on a single VPS.
This used to be popular, but most cloud services are now able to do the same job but a lot cheaper.
Dedicated & Colocation Hosting
Dedicated hosting is where you have a full hosted computer server to yourself. You would probably be paying around $1000 a month for it though.
You would be able to put as many different types of websites as you want on it, but its not for beginners. Will you would need to the know the ins and outs of how websites function as have your server working reliably, and you will probably need to setup a firewall too as any computer connected directly to the internet is always under attack.
Colocation, is where you setup your own dedicated server then give it to a hosting provider for them to manage the internet connection and power to it. Hosting providers have connections which are hundreds of times quicker than most normal business connections, and they would have several backup connections, and backup power to ensure that your server stays online 24/7.
If you run your dedicated server at home or a business location, then you need to have a good infrastructure to make sure it stays switched on, stays cool, and stays online.
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Conclusion
To have a website, you need web hosting, and there are pros and cons to each type.
We offer shared hosting to most of our customers, but we include all the features of cloud hosting, and removed nearly all of the restrictions, so that you can run multiple websites with unlimited bandwidth. The hosting also includes a number of features like email, DNS and free SSL certificates All our servers are reliable and fast at a price everyone can afford.
ABN: 58 196 482 040