To have your own web site (or web page) on the Internet (and World Wide Web) it is necessary for your web page(s) to be located on a dedicated server (computer) permanently connected to the Internet. Providing this service to end users is called web site hosting.

You will need to have your web site hosted if you would like:

• to put your small business or large enterprise on the Internet to promote your products or services;
• your own domain name e.g. www.yourowndomain.com;
• to save money on your existing web hosting service, particularly if you're currently hosting your site on your own computer with your own dedicated IP address;

The domain name is the "address" of your website - the name that visitors type in to the location window of their browser to get to your homepage.

Domain names are registered for a variety of reasons. Some build a web site right away, or buy a name to build a site later, while others purchase domain names in order to protect a company name or trademark, and some register a domain name so they can have personalized email addresses.

Domain Name System, is an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to 198.105.232.4.

The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.

It is very important to know the difference between shared and dedicated IP addresses when finding a web host. Some websites don't need a dedicated IP address and can function just fine on a shared IP. Many times though a dedicated IP is preferred over shared IP addresses.

Both shared and dedicated IPs can be useful depending on what kind of website you own. The key is to do some research and find out which one is right for you. There are rumors circulating that eventually we will run out of unique IPs under the current system and a new address or IP system will be necessary.

Every domain name that is home to a website has an IP address assigned to it. An IP address is the real address of a website or server. Domain names were developed because it is difficult to remember long IP numbers like 234.123.66.7. Usually, in shared hosting where there are hundreds of websites sharing one server those same sites will share one single IP address.

The downside to shared IP's is that if someone sharing your IP happens to get in trouble for spamming or scamming, your IP can get banned or blacklisted. You may not even know it until your site disappears from the search engines or your email start getting blocked by ISPs. In shared hosting the actions of others sharing the server can affect your site and cause problems.

Most larger websites or ecommerce enabled sites have dedicated IP addresses. This means that your site is the only one on the internet using that unique IP number. For example, if you typed 209.131.36.158 into your web browsers address bar you would see Yahoo!'s website come up. This is their dedicated IP address and no one else. This is their unique address on the web that has been attached to the domain name yahoo.com.

If you have a business oriented website then you probably will need a dedicated IP address for your site. Especially if you have a merchant account and accept credit card payments on your site. You can't even get an SSL certificate for your website until you have a dedicated IP address. You can get around this by using a PayPal shopping cart or something else hosted off your site.

There is also the SEO or search engine optimizations concern to consider. Many people have found that sites with a dedicated IP address do mysteriously better in the search engine results than those utilizing shared IPs. Often times security concerns drive people to upgrade their hosting account to include a dedicated IP address.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the most reliable and fast way to upload or download the files over the Internet. When you upload the files or edit the site or allow users download some materials, you’ll most likely use FTP services. That's why reliable and secure FTP server is most important.

PHP is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP is becoming more and more popular, being very simple, it's very attractive for beginners. At the same time, with many features it offers, PHP remains extremely appealing for professional web developers.

SSL is a Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL uses a cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data − a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Web sites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http.