Top 10 Web Hosting – What exactly Hosting Terms Mean!

So, you’ve just decided to take your small business online, or maybe start up a personal blog and are looking for how to do that. The first steps are to purchase a domain name and some server space. When you are carrying out the process, you’ll come across some terms that you’ve never even heard of.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most common terms in the web hosting industry. So, let’s dive straight into the content:

Web Server – What is a web server? Its a computer where you host your entire website, all the files, images, code, etc. All these can be accessed anytime, from anywhere. Since the website needs to be online 24/7, you need a computer that is on 24/7 and an impeccable Internet connection. This is why most of us rent web servers.

Storage Space – The amount of data, i.e. images, files, information, etc that you’re allowed to store on your server. This is measured in bytes, and these days you typically get hundreds of gigabytes as storage space. Many times, you’ll see web hosts advertise unlimited storage which is not really true. There has to be an upper cap, depending on the server specs. Since the average webmaster won’t ever hit the upper cap, many hosting companies advertise unlimited hosting.

Bandwidth – Perhaps the most important aspect of it all, bandwidth is the data that flows from your server, in and out both. For instance, if your website’s homepage is 50kb, each time a visitor comes to your website, they are accessing 50kb of bandwidth. Usually, there is a cap on bandwidth as well.

Control Panel – Control panel is, for the lack of a better word, your admin dashboard. This is where you control your server from. Anytime you want to make any change, or get any important information about your server, cPanel is where you need to look. There are quite a few software for the backend, namely cPanel, Plesk, etc.

Uptime – Uptime is generally reflected by a %. It tells you the approximate time your website is supposed to be up for, i.e. accessible to the general crowd. So, if your web host says 99.99% uptime, it means that your website will be up for near 719 hours in a month. It is down at times due to server issues or regular maintenance.

These are all the terms that will be useful when you’re purchasing hosting. Hope the content above helps you find the perfect host for your needs. If you would like more info on top 10 web hosting and compare different web hosts, just go to top 10 web hosting.

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