Web hosting is when HCI Data Ltd provides the web space for your web site.
Every web page needs to reside on a web server accessible to the internet. Many ISPs (eg freeserve) offer free web space. There is nothing fundamentally different between the free webspace provided by ISPs and that provided by HCI Data Ltd. All web space can be accessed via the internet.
The main differences between web hosting by HCI Data Ltd and ISPs are that HCI Data's Web space:
- is backed up at least once a week (ISPs web space is rarely backed up)
- is on servers that are primarily web servers whereas ISPs' primary use is to route web pages from other sites to their dial-in or ADSL users. This will often result in HCI Data's servers delivering web pages twice as fast as a web site hosted by an ISP.
- collects statistical information about accesses to a web site that can be analysed to find the popular (and not so popular) web pages.
- has the facility to run specialised programs so that databases can be integrated into a web site.