For a web site to be made available on the Internet, it has to be hosted on a web server. This is where web hosting comes in. Web hosting is a service that provides users with online storage for information, images, videos, or any content accessible via the Web. Web Hosting files are most often created and edited using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software.

There are two main web hosting platforms - Unix and Windows. There are reasons for and against each but the decision of which hosting platform to use generally comes down to the software or technologies available. A few examples of different software and technologies you might run across when comparing hosting platforms are:

    -PHP / CGI / Perl
    -MySQL
    -CMS / Blog Capability
    -SSL Support
    -ASP.NET 1.1 / 2.0
    -ASP.NET AJAX 1.0
    -Frontpage Extensions
    -MS-SQL

When deciding on a web hosting provider or platform it's best to identify what you want to do with your web site and then find a product that meets your requirements.