Hosting

 

Hosting refers to having your domain, containing your web site pages, 'hosted' on a server (computer running a network). The server connects to the Internet; your hosted website is opne to the Internet public!

 

There are quite a few different types of hosting accounts; the more visitors you get to your site, the more 'bandwidth' you need; the bigger your site,the more space on the server's hard drive you need. Clearly this will determine the cost.

 

Most accounts will also provide email addresses (reflecting your domain name, e.g. myname@mycompany.co.uk), server-side scripting (which will allow feedback from clients to be captured and processed) and more.

 

If your website includes 'active pages', then the hosting servers will needs to be running something like PHP. If your website is going to be used for e-commerce, for example an online store where you expect people to leave credit card details, then you will need a secure server. If you have a lot of products to display, then having a database makes for easier maintenance; this will necessitate using a SQL server.

 

Fishscape Web Design will be more than happy to advise you on any of the above. We can provide hosting ourselves or are more than happy to use your preferred hosting company.