Before doing any shopping or comparing of web hosts, it’s important to have a firm understanding of what web hosting actually is. Here’s a shot at a simple definition of web hosting:

A company that sells server space and bandwidth to subscribers wishing to run their own web sites

Any time you site in front of your computer, open Internet Explorer or Firefox and visit a web page, remember that what you are seeing represented on your screen is actually a file or set of files hosted on a server somewhere. It means that the owner of the web page you’re looking at purchased space and bandwidth from a web hosting provider where the web site files could be stored or "hosted." The file (example: mypage.htm) sits on a server that waits for Internet requests to view it.

You can see that anyone who owns a web site requires the services of a web hosting provider. The technology for storing the web site files and delivering them over the Internet can vary widely. Potential web hosting customers will want to investigate what type of server and network technology best suites the needs of their web site.