Editing Web hosting service (section)

== History ==
Until 1991, the [[Internet]] was restricted to use only "... for research and education in the sciences and engineering{{Nbsp}}..."<ref>March 16, 1992, memo from Mariam Leder, NSF Assistant General Counsel to Steven Wolff, Division Director, NSF DNCRI (included at page 128 of [http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/recordDetails.jsp?ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED350986&searchtype=keyword&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&accno=ED350986&_nfls=false Management of NSFNET], a transcript of the March 12, 1992, hearing before the Subcommittee on Science of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session, Hon. [[Rick Boucher]], subcommittee chairman, presiding)</ref><ref name="tib1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.tibus.com/blog/the-history-of-web-hosting-how-things-have-changed-since-tibus-started-in-1996/ |title=The history of web hosting|website=www.tibus.com|access-date=2016-12-11}}</ref> and was used for [[email]], [[telnet]], [[FTP]] and [[USENET]] traffic—but only a tiny number of web pages. The World Wide Web protocols had only just been written<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5242252.stm |title=How the web went world wide| first=Mark| last=Ward|work=BBC News| access-date= 24 January 2011|date=3 August 2006}}</ref> and not until the end of 1993 would there be a graphical web browser for Mac or Windows computers.<ref name="Raggett21">{{Cite book|title=HTML 3: Electronic Publishing on the World Wide Web|last=Raggett|first=Dave|author2=Jenny Lam|author3=Ian Alexander|date=1996|publisher=Addison-Wesley|isbn=9780201876932|location=Harlow, England; Reading, Mass|page=21}}</ref> Even after there was some opening up of Internet access, the [[National Science Foundation Network#Commercial ISPs.2C ANS CO.2BRE.2C and the CIX|situation was confused]]{{Clarify|reason=|date=August 2020}} until 1995.<ref name=ConneXions-April1996>[http://www.cbi.umn.edu/hostedpublications/Connexions/ConneXions10_1996/ConneXions10-04_Apr1996.pdf "Retiring the NSFNET Backbone Service: Chronicling the End of an Era"], Susan R. Harris and Elise Gerich, ''ConneXions'', Vol. 10, No. 4, April 1996</ref> 
   
To host a [[website]] on the [[internet]], an individual or company would need their own [[computer]] or [[Server (computing)|server]].<ref name="tib1"/> As not all companies had the budget or expertise to do this, web hosting services began to offer to host users' [[website]]s on their own servers, without the client needing to own the necessary infrastructure required to operate the website. The owners of the websites, also called [[webmaster]]s, would be able to create a website that would be hosted on the web hosting service's server and published to the web by the web hosting service.

As the number of users on the World Wide Web grew, the pressure for companies, both large and small, to have an online presence grew. By 1995, companies such as [[GeoCities]], [[Angelfire]] and [[Tripod.com|Tripod]] were offering free hosting.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.biztechmagazine.com/article/2012/02/history-web-hosting-infographic|title=A History of Web Hosting [Infographic]|date=2012-02-24|newspaper=BizTech|access-date=2016-11-04}}</ref>