Can someone explain how website hosting works?

There is no such thing as 'unlimited', its a sales con..

If you check with the host you will find that they have what they like to call a 'fair usage policy', this is your real limit because as soon as you hit it they will take your website offline and demand payment for the extra bandwidth you are using.

Never go to a host that offers unlimited anything as if it really was unlimited then dont you think massive sites would be using them ? they dont..

There is usually small print associated with the "unlimited" along the lines of "for normal html services" as they can cover these from your annual hosting fee. If you are running a video chat site and are gobbling up 7 gigabits a second then you will be paying separately for that.

An example:

"What’s not allowed in “Unlimited”?

Basically, sites whose essential purpose is to use disk or bandwidth.

When making a website, you should be thinking about “How can I make an interesting site for my visitors while minimizing my server storage, bandwidth, file system, memory, and cpu impact as much as possible?”

The result will be a better experience for your visitors, your web host, and yourself!

Here are some specific examples of things not allowed:

Copyrighted content to which you do not hold usage or distribution rights.

File upload / sharing / archive / backup / mirroring / distribution sites.

A site created primarily to drive traffic to another site.

Making your account resources available (whether for free or pay) to the general public.

Hey, that doesn’t sound very “Unlimited” to me!

Actually, for you, my dear Legitimate Website Owner, it is unlimited.

This whole page is just to announce to the <.1% of people who want to try and run free porn affiliate sites or anime video trading forums or host pirated rips of The Dark Knight on DreamHost that we’re not having any.

But our pledge to you is to do our best to always keep your website, with the content youcreated, UP… no matter how many times you get Slashdotted, Reddited, or win the DHSOTM!"

You can not get unlimited bandwidth. Your bandwidth at most on a normal broadband line will be 40 Mbps on fibre optic, with 20 Mbps being more standard still. In many case people only get 8 Mbps or less. What you are talking about is unlimited download limit. This is a totally different thing. They are describing the bandwidth as such with their services being thousands of times a normal broadband connection. If you wanted a 1Gbps service to your home you would pay tens of thousands for ONE line.

Hosting a web site is a fairly straightforward procedure, but first-time site builders are often confused by this process. This article provides a simple introduction to web hosting, and explains the various steps required to place your web site on the Internet.

Understanding IP Addresses

Multiple computers connected together at the same location are known as a Local Area Network, or LAN. Multiple LANs connected over remote connections are known as a Wide Area Network, or WAN. In simple terms, the Internet is essentially an expanding collection of interconnected WANs.

As with any network, everything on the Internet needs to have its own unique identity. This is achieved using IP addresses. An IP address comprises of 4 blocks of numbers, each from 1 to 255, separated by periods (i.e. 209.240.146.143). This method provides for around 4.2 billion unique identities.

The cost is related with the type of hosting you choose and also the service.

People are quick to rush in with the constant sayings that that we have all come to know and love such as 'you get what you pay for'.

You can't get the same features from cheap web hosting services that you can get with higher priced hosting services.

You will not have 24 hour technical support with cheap web hosting.

You websites will crash, freeze or have far too much down time with cheap services.

Bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to your website. If some one tries to access your website from the internet, and if you are offered unlimited bandwidth then the accessing speed to your website will be very fast no matter how much traffic or how many users access your website at the same time.