A description of website hosting

As its name signifies, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting web content. There are various varieties and kinds of hosting, depending on the aims and on the functions. Nonetheless, they all pertain to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available throughout the World Wide Web. A web host is actually a web hosting service that is linked to the Internet and has its very own IP address, which enables people to have access to it via the Web. The server's configuration and its limitations are dependent on the form of web hosting service it's going to be utilized for.

What are the various types of web hosting?

Based on the purpose, the professional web hosting solution may be:

File Hosting - this type of hosting allows the users to deposit their files on a given server. With the standard file web hosting service, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the individual that's using the service. This web hosting service mainly is related to backups of PCs , documents, private files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also have given limits in terms of the data storage and the root-level access. There may also be bandwidth limits, but that is dependent on the actual hosting provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is comparable with the previous hosting service form. Nonetheless, in contrast with the file web hosting solution, the warez web hosting service is used for circulating proprietary content without the blessing of the patent proprietor. To cut a long story short - it is associated with the unlawful propagation of files and documents. There are many approaches for this to be executed, but the 2 essential ways are - through simple HTTP downloading and via P2P connections. The first method involves either a certain web site, or, most often, simply a directory on a web server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download copyrighted materials free of charge. The second way involves a peer-to-peer connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent web servers, via which people share files between each other. There are just a few hosting firms that permit that form of web hosting on their servers, mostly because of all the judicial problems that it presupposes. Generally such web sites are hosted on private dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party enterprises either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Web Hosting - this solution is used with both shared website hosting and dedicated web servers, depending on the client's desire. If you would like to set up your very own personal SMTP email server, then you will need either a VPS web server or a dedicated hosting server that offers the level of access required to execute such an assignment. For customary e-mail hosting purposes, however, you can avail of an ordinary shared web hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a solution that's very popular, since the website hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate servers, usually belonging to different web hosting providers.

Web Site Hosting - the most widespread and universally used hosting service these days. It's utilized for hosting web site files, whose type depends on the Operating System the web hosting server is running - Linux or Windows. Different types of files need concrete server Operating Systems, or else they won't be exhibited correctly on the World Wide Web. This kind of hosting may have web space and bandwidth quota limitations, root access and CPU usage limitations.

Based on the goals and on the functions, the customer should choose the sort of web server that he requires for his work, and, of course, the hosting vendor that's going to provide it. There are different types of hosting servers, based on the configuration and the website hosting services that they provide. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared web site hosting server provides a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small size and medium size web portals, which do not demand vast quotas of web storage space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated Servers - they are based on the same principle as the shared web page hosting servers. Nonetheless, there are much fewer customers accommodated on the same web hosting server. For that reason, each of them will obtain a greater share of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, disk storage, bandwidth and CPU. Ideal for hosting huge online portals that do not demand complete root access.

VPS - the virtual private web hosting servers are excellent for medium websites, which do demand root-level access to the web hosting server's configuration files. Normally, there are a number of virtual hosting server accounts placed on the same server. Even so, each of them is isolated from the rest and runs its own Operating System.

Dedicated Server - a fully dedicated web hosting server set up and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a mammoth amount of resources. It also provides root-level access, which makes it a perfect environment for any sort of website that necessitates a webspace hosting solution.

The sole question that remains is:

Which web site hosting firm should I select?

As stated above, there are just a few companies offering warez web hosting solutions because of legal problems. Such web hosts are being closed down almost every month. Because of that, if you wish to offer such a service, you should do it on your own computer. The shared website hosting service is the most famous type of hosting service. Therefore, each web hosting distributor offers it. Not all of them, however, provide solutions such as virtual private web hosting servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small sized web hosting vendors do not have the resources required for offering those services. For that reason it's always best to settle on a bigger web hosting company that can furnish its clients with all the solutions that they seek. You can quickly identify such web hosts by the sorts of services that they are providing and by the way that they introduce them to the customers. For example, certain web hosting companies permit you to commence with a small scale web hosting package and subsequently upgrade to a bigger one, if you consider it obligatory to do so. This is very convenient, because you do not have to transfer web sites between servers and there is no risk of experiencing service interruptions because of all the predicaments that may crop up. Web hosts like My hosting company provide all sorts of solutions and have the adequate web hosting server resources and staff to ensure that their clients will not experience any troubles when changing services, which is what a top hosting company is in fact all about.