Anyone can be a web host. If you simply connect your computer to the internet and allow access to files on it, you are "web hosting" . Of course, it's not quite as simple as that, but that is the general idea.

The internet is just made up of many computers connected to the internet, running software that allows them to "serve" pages to users as they are requested. A user enters a web address into a web browser, the browser looks up the address and find's the web site using a service called DNS (Domain Name Service). That service translates the address into an I.P. (Internet Protocol) address and that is the location of the computer on which the files you have requested are located. That computer then "serves" your browser with the files.

Because the internet is available 24 hours a day, you would need to keep your computer on 24 hours a day in order to serve those web pages on demand. You would also need a very powerful computer, to cope with the requests made for the files, and a fast internet connection, not to mention the complex security and firewalls required to protect your computer from unauthorised intrusion.

All this would be very expensive for a single home user or business just to serve a few web pages.

This is where the Web Host comes in. We have several powerful computers or web servers, connected in a secure data center, which is protected by state of the art firewalls and intrusion detection devices. We have fast, multi vendor connections to the internet, back up servers, heating and ventilation, fire supression and uninterruptable power supplies.

All this costs large amounts of money to supply and maintain, but we can host many many web sites, and so the cost to you for the use of this service is a fraction of what it would cost you to do it for your own website.