A definition of hosting
As its name hints, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting web content. There are different varieties and kinds of web hosting, depending on the mission and on the functions. Yet, they all are related to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the Web. A host is actually a web server that is connected to the Web and has its own personal IP address, which permits people to get access to it via the Web. The hosting server's architecture and its system resources depend on the kind of hosting solution it will be utilized for.
What are the various types of hosting?
Based on the purpose, the business website hosting service may be:
File Hosting - this type of hosting allows the users to host their files on a specific web server. With the customary file web hosting solution, the files that are stored may only be accessed by the person that's availing of the service. This hosting solution traditionally applies to backups of computers , documents, personal files and even other web hosting servers. This solution may also impose given limits in terms of the server storage space and the root access. There may also be web traffic limits, but that is dependent on the particular hosting service provider.
Warez Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is resembling the previous web hosting service form. Yet, unlike the file hosting solution, the warez hosting solution is utilized for disseminating proprietary work without the approval of the patent keeper. In short - it is associated with the prohibited dissemination of files and docs. There are multiple methods for this to be carried out, but the two chief ways are - via simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first one involves either a given web page, or, most typically, just a directory on a web server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download copyrighted files free of charge. The second approach involves a P2P connection, availing of the so-called Torrent web servers, through which people share files between each other. There are just a few web page hosting vendors that allow such type of hosting on their servers, mostly owing to all the legal entanglements that it entails. Usually such web portals are hosted on private dedicated servers that are registered by third-party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.
Mail Hosting - this solution is used with both shared site hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, depending on the client's desire. If you desire to launch your very own personal SMTP electronic mail server, then you will need either a virtual private hosting server or a dedicated web hosting server that provides the access level needed to accomplish such a procedure. For common e-mail hosting purposes, however, you can create a normal shared website hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain name. This is not a solution that's widely used, since the web page hosting and the e-mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate web servers, often belonging to different hosting providers.
Site Hosting - the most widespread and vastly utilized hosting service as of today. It's utilized for hosting website files, whose type is determined by the OS the web server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files require concrete hosting server OSs, or else they won't be exhibited correctly on the Web. This kind of hosting may impose web space and traffic quota limits, root access and CPU usage limits.
Based on the mission and on the usage, the customer should select the sort of server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the hosting vendor that's going to provide it. There are different types of web hosting servers, based on the specs and the site hosting solutions that they provide. These are:
Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared site hosting server provides a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small and medium web sites, which do not require immense amounts of disk storage space and traffic.
Semi-Dedicated Servers - they are based on the very same principle as the shared website hosting servers. Nevertheless, there are much fewer customers accommodated on the same web hosting server. For that reason, each of them will obtain a larger share of the web server's resources like RAM, server storage, web traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting enormous web portals that do not require full server root access.
Virtual Servers - the VPS web hosting servers are perfect for medium size websites, which do require root access to the hosting server's config files. Generally, there are several VPS web hosting accounts situated on the same physical server. Still, each of them is insulated from the other ones and runs its own OS.
Dedicated Servers - a completely dedicated physical server configured and accessed by you and only you. It ensures an immense amount of resources. It also provides full root privileges, which makes it an ideal solution for any sort of online portal that requires a site hosting solution.
The only question that's left is:
Which web hosting distributor should I pick?
As mentioned, there are just a few hosting companies offering warez web hosting services because of legal predicaments. Such providers are being closed down practically every month. Because of that, if you would like to establish such a service, you should do it on your own computer. The shared webspace hosting solution is the most popular type of hosting service. For that reason, every website hosting vendor offers it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as virtual web hosting servers, semi-dedicated hosting servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the smaller site hosting corporations do not have the means needed for maintaining those services. For that reason it's always best to choose a larger hosting company that can supply its clients with all the solutions that they want. You can quickly recognize such web hosting companies by the sorts of services that they are offering and by the manner in which they present them to the clients. For instance, some web hosts permit you to kick off with a low-end site hosting package and afterwards upgrade to a more powerful one, if you deem it compulsory to do so. This is extremely suitable, because you do not need to migrate web pages between hosting servers and there is no danger of suffering network downtime because of all the complications that may show up. Web hosting providers like Cheap website hosting and domain names by Cheaper Hosting are offering all sorts of solutions and possess the required server resources and staff to ensure that their clients will not experience any complications when swapping services, which is what a top hosting provider is actually all about.