Distinction between ISP and Web Hosting

ISP and Hosting

An ISP or an Internet Service Provider is a company that provides its subscriber with access to the internet in exchange for a yearly or monthly fee. An ISP provides, dial-up connections, DSL, cable or other types of Internet access. ISP’s are either local or national. A national ISP provides nationwide access to the internet whereas a local ISP serves to subscribers limited to a certain geographical region.

The ISP’s provide their subscribers with e-mail accounts by which the subscribers can communicate with each other by exchanging electronic messages via their respective ISP servers. Some ISP’s may also provide services where users are allowed to store data files.

Hosting better known as web hosting, is a service provided by a company which allocates web space for their customers in order to store their websites on servers which are always connected to the internet. Servers are extremely powerful computers that have large hard drives with massive storage capacity. Few space is rented to the customers who wish have their website present on the internet. Each and every server on the World Wide Web has a unique IP address.

Many of them will be confused as what service does the ISP and a web hosting company provide. They might be wondering if an ISP brings up their website or if a hosting provides them access to the internet. Read on to know the basic difference between an ISP and a web hosting.

Internet Service Providers are companies which provide their customers the access to the internet. The ISP will supply a computer system or a local area network with an internet connection, which means you, will be able to connect to the internet via dial-up access, cable modem or through WiFi. Be it any mode of connection, the internet access is provided by the ISP only. Some examples of ISP’s are AOL, AT&T, NetZero etc.

You need an ISP because you need some medium by which you can actually connect to the internet. A browser is a software application which can send and receives information from the ISP and then displays them as web pages. Some ISP’s have their very own high-speed leased lines in order that they are lesser dependent on the telecommunication providers. AT&T WorldNet, MCI, IBM Global Network is few of the many ISP’s who have their own leased lines.

Talking about a Web hosting company, they are nothing but a company which provides web space on its own server or rent it for use to their customers. The basic function of a web hosting company is to allow you to broadcast your website all over the internet. Web hosting companies may also offer internet connection in some cases; however your web server will be connected to the internet. Some examples of web hosting site are webhostingpad, hostgator, justhost etc. You need a web hosting service in order to broadcast your website online so that people connected to the internet are able to access your website. To host a website, you need to think of a domain name first and then, register it at any web hosting company. For e.g. www.mydomainname.com