Just like you need hard drive space for storing all of your photos and documents, you need a publicly accessible place for your website. Hosting providers are there to help.
Why can’t I just host my site on my own computer?
You could, it is entirely possible but it isn’t advisable. Here are a few reasons why you wouldn’t want to host your website on your desktop computer:
- You have to leave your computer on all of the time
- Your internet provider limits the speed you can send information to other people, meaning only a few people can view your site at one time.
- Your IP address is probably dynamic, meaning other computers won’t be able to find you when it changes without using special software.
- All of the information on your computer is potentially accessible by hackers
- Anything else you do on your computer will affect the performance of your website
- If the power goes out, your site goes down.
What benefits does a Web Host offer?
A hosting provider handles a lot of the technical aspects for you. A good hosting company has a dedicated server in a secure location. This computer/server does nothing but host websites. Here are some other benefits to going with a hosting company:
- A dedicated IP address is used, making it easier to find your website
- Special software and hardware helps keep your content secure
- Good servers access the main pipeline of the internet, this allows faster speeds and the ability for 1,000’s of people to see your content at one time.
- A backup power supply ensures your website is available even during a power failure
- Hardware redundancy keeps your website chugging along even when a hard drive fails
- Special software makes it easy to manage your e-mail addresses and make other changes to your hosting account.
Yeah, but there’s the money.
Hosting with a dedicated company is a cost savings. Getting the same quality of hosting at home would require spending $2,000 on server hardware, $30+ a month on software and over $100 a month for the speed and bandwidth required to serve the hordes of people viewing your website. Not including a generator and backup power supply incase your power goes out and your time to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Get the added security and peace of mind by choosing a Web Host you can trust.
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