Hosting a website

A website is basically a set of files linked among them through a navigation system. More complex sites will have buttons, forms and extended functionality with a database to store emails, requests, products characteristics, etc. but in the end they come down to the same thing: a collection of files. So, hosting a website is the process of making those files available to the Internet users. To make the website available to the Internet users you need:

• A computer connected to the Internet where the files will be stored;
• A software called web server (for example Apache Web Server) that will "serve" the files to the visitors;
• A way to make the visitors find your site.

Why can't you use your own computer to host your website? It has already an Internet connection and that Apache Server shouldn't be so hard to install. Well, it's not that simple. There are a few technical aspects to be considered.