What are Hosting Companies?

Hosting companies (also known as Web site hosting companies, Web hosting companies, and Webhosting companies) is the business of housing, serving, and maintaining files for one or more Web sites. More important than the computer space that is provided for Web site files is the fast connection to the Internet. Most hosting companies’ services offer connections on T-carrier system lines. Typically, an individual business hosting companies its own site would require a similar connection and it would be expensive. Using a hosting companies service lets many companies share the cost of a fast Internet connection for serving files.

A number of Internet access providers offer subscribers free space for a small Web site that is hosted by one of their computers.

A number of hosting companies describe their services as virtual hosting. Virtual hosting companies usually imply that their services will be transparent and that each Web site will have its own domain name and set of e-mail addresses. In most usages, hosting companies and virtual hosting are synonyms. Some hosting companies let you have your own virtual server, the appearance that you are controlling a server that is dedicated entirely to your site.

Dedicated hosting companies are the provision of a dedicated server machine that is dedicated to the traffic to your Web site. Only very busy sites require dedicated hosting companies. Many hosting companies purchase their own servers and place them on a site that provides fast access to the Internet. This practice is called colocation.