A Quick Introduction to Web Site Hosting
Web hosting companies provide individuals and organizations online systems for storing information, images, video, or any content accessible via the Web.
The scope and quality of hosting services vary widely. The most basic is a simple html web page. The files are uploaded via FTP or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little or no processing. Many ISPs offer these free Home pages as a part of their package. You can also obtain this type of hosting from many of the free hosting providers. Generally "free hosts" place ads on your pages. As cheap as hosting is these days, I suggest you avoid the free hosts altogether unless your money is really tight.
The next step up is shared web hosting that provides database support and scripting languages like PHP, Java, and ASP.NET. This type of host allows the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. This level of hosting normally provides some type of control panel for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Three of the more popular ones are cPanel, Plesk and Helm. By far cPanel seems to be the preferred choice of the majority of users.
A simplified explanation of the basic range of services in the hosting arena would look like this with the
lowest level of service at the top and moving to a higher level of service as you progress down the page.
ISP provided Home page
Free hosting
Basic shared server hosting
Shared server hosting with Addon domains
Reseller account
VPS, virtual private server
Dedicated server