Web hosting is basically a way for individuals and companies to store digital media (websites etc.) on the Internet for others to access. Simply put, and for the majority of people and companies, this means allowing their website to be seen by others around the world; some of these services are actually free.
Many types exist, some provide free hosting but with these types you pay the price of having restricted facilities that usually allow the likes of blogs, email and basic websites to be accessed. For more storage space, better email facilities, sub domains and more you really need top look at paid web hosting plans; this is particularly pertinent for business customers and for those websites with social studies online .
In the early days you may be quite happy to have your files on a server which is shared by many others while you try their hosting services. However, it is often a good idea to see if the company is reliable before this more costly option of a dedicated server is taken. However, all this is academic if you haven't registered a domain name that you can use in conjunction with the web hosting and to send your files to.
Another advantage of web hosting and your own domain name is that email addresses will include your own domain name and not that of those free providers such as Google, Yahoo and MSN to name a few of the thousands of providers whose services can be used. Having your own email addresses are an important sign that a person or company is serious about their internet presence and provides a sense of credibility which cannot be achieved with the many free service providers available. The next thing to consider with your hosting package is how much information will be stored on the server that can be downloaded from your website as it will use a facility called bandwidth; the greater amount of files stored that can be accessed, the greater amount of bandwidth will be required.
Remember, everything that is stored and can be accessed on your site has a bandwidth, even the website itself so if your site contains images, MP3 tracks and video clips for example, your bandwidth allocation will be used up even faster. Some people and web hosting companies decide to become their own web host but this is not recommended as the security issues involved are huge unless you are proficient in this area, it is something to be avoided.