You already know that in order to view a web page, a browser requests a page from a web server. The web server is a special computer that is constantly connected to the Internet.
When you access a page using a domain name, such as http://www.example.com/, something called a name server changes the name into a number. The number (known as an IP address) uniquely identifies a machine on the web and this machine holds your web site.
So when you are ready to put your site out on the Web, you are going to need some space on a web server. Hundreds of companies will allow you to put your web site on their servers and will, of course, charge you for the service. The service is known as web hosting because the company hosts your site for you.
Many ISPs will give you a small amount of web space free when you choose them to access the Internet. There are also other sites that offer free hosting (these are often paid for by the use of pop-up advertisements that appear when your pages load). For a personal site you may need only a small amount of web space and you might be prepared to put up with any pop-up ads that come with the free service. For commercial sites, however, it is better to choose some paid hosting—which can still be very cheap but will not serve advertisements.
