Server Hosting Options

Hopefully this is the right place to post this. I just started working on a project and I’m trying to clear up some questions early while I’m planning everything out. Hopefully you guys can help.

I just graduated college and I’m decided on building a pokerstars type app to help build up my resume. While planning everything out tonight, I was curious how to go about hosting the server for the app. When I was in college we worked on applications that had a client program and server program, but everything was typically run on the same computer so we never really learned what went into deploying something on a larger scale like that.

I already have a bunch of friends that are interested in testing it out with my when I get a working version up and running, but I don’t want the server to run on my computer. Ideally I would want it to run on some providers server so they can play it whether my computer is running or not.

I’m hoping this is a very basic question and someone out there can give me a brief overview of what I am going to need to do when the time comes. What goes into getting a server hosted by some service provider, and what things should I be looking for when picking my provider?

Thanks!