To enable a person or company to host a website or other web based product, a web hosting company is required. Simply put, and for the majority of people and companies, this means allowing their website to be seen by others around the world; some of these services are actually free.

People first starting out with free hosting should consider if having a free package is what they need because although these supply almost everything needed to create and host a site, they are not a match for a service that is paid. Free web hosting will not allow a huge mount of storage space so for those people that require sub-domains, upgraded email facilities and increased storage that a paid service is needed.

In the early days you may be quite happy to have your files on a server which is shared by many others while you try their hosting services. However, it is often a good idea to see if the company is reliable before this more costly option of a dedicated server is taken. Websites require a domain name (not necessarily supplied by the web hosting company)otherwise no-one will be able to find you; once this has been done your domain will be allocated a specific amount of space for you to store your website, etc.

The good thing about having your own web hosting package and domain means that all your email addresses will contain your domain name in them and not that of the free service provider you may have been using previously. Many people take you more seriously if you have your own email address and not one supplied free by the myriad of other companies who have an online presence. The amount of data that is viewed on your site each time someone accesses it is called bandwidth; it is an extremely important aspect to consider and the main reason why buying the cheapest hosting package is not always best.

 Of course this won't matter if you only have a basic website but as soon as you start adding large images, audio tracks, video footage and other big files, your bandwidth will be used up very quickly. You may have your own web host in your PC, but that can be too risky; the best option is to settle for paid web hosting, even if you're new to the internet.