A web hosting service allows you to "rent" or "borrow" space on very fast hard drives called servers. Free web hosts allow you to store your files on the servers for no monthly fee. In exchange you may purchase a domain from the host, display a banner on your site, or be expected to submit to an active forum to offset the costs of your 'free' hosting.

You can either share space (shared hosting) or have your own hard drive (dedicated hosting.) These servers are connected via a backbone to a huge communications network called The Internet. Your web site can then be accessed by anyone worldwide through a special address called a URL which contains your unique domain name.

The amount of space your host provides you is called disk space and the number of times your site is accessed by you or users is called bandwidth. Prices vary widely based on what your host is willing to provide.

Since you will have questions each host provides a means of getting help. This is called customer support or tech support and is probably the single most important asset to look for in a web host. Usually tech support is minimal with free services which is a good reason to consider low-cost paid hosting instead. No host can stay online all the time due to hardware maintenance needs, but you should not consider a host who cannot guarantee at least 99% uptime.

Most of these areas are covered in the individual web host reviews you'll find on this website, and will help you as you choose your web hosting service.