A definition of website hosting
As its name hints, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting web content. There are different forms and kinds of hosting, depending on the goals and on the objectives. In spite of that, they all are related to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the Web. A web host is in fact a hosting server that is connected to the Internet and has its own IP address, which permits users to access it via the Internet. The web hosting server's architecture and its system resources are dependent on the form of hosting solution it's going to be utilized for.
What are the various types of hosting?
Depending on the purpose, the professional hosting solution may be:
File Hosting - this type of hosting allows the users to keep their files on a given hosting server. With the common file storage hosting solution, the files that are hosted may only be accessed by the user that's using the service. This web hosting service typically is associated with backups of computers , documents, personal files and even other web servers. This service may also contain given limitations when it comes to the data storage and the root access. There may also be bandwidth quota limits, but that is dependent on the actual web hosting service provider.
Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is quite similar to the previous web hosting service type. Nevertheless, unlike the file web hosting service, the warez web hosting solution is used for circulating copyrighted work without being given the OK to do so by the copyright owner. To put it briefly - it pertains to the illegal transmission of files and materials. There are numerous ways for this to be attained, but the 2 main approaches are - via plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and via P2P connections. The first method entails either a particular web portal, or, most often, simply a directory on a web server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download patented docs free of charge. The second approach involves a P2P connection, making use of the so-called Torrent web servers, through which people exchange files between each other. There are a few web hosting companies that permit that form of web hosting on their web servers, mainly due to all the legal complications that it presupposes. Generally such sites are hosted on personal dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by third-party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.
Email Web Hosting - this service is utilized with both shared site hosting and dedicated web servers, depending on the user's wish. If you want to run your own personal SMTP electronic mail server, then you will require either a private virtual server or a dedicated server that provides the level of access required to perform such an assignment. For regular e-mail hosting purposes, though, you can avail of an average shared site hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a solution that's widely popular, because the web page hosting and the email hosting services are being served by 2 different web servers, usually owned by separate hosts.
Web Site Hosting - the most widely spread and regularly utilized hosting service these days. It's utilized for hosting web site files, whose type is dependent on the Operating System the server is availing of - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files request concrete hosting server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be shown appropriately on the Web. This kind of web hosting may contain server space and traffic limits, root access and CPU usage limits.
Based on the mission and on the objectives, the user should select the kind of hosting server that he needs for his project, and, of course, the website hosting vendor that's going to furnish it. There are different sorts of hosting servers, depending on the specs and the web site hosting services that they provide. These are:
Shared Hosting Server - a shared website hosting server includes a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small size and medium sized sites, which do not demand immense quotas of storage space and traffic.
Semi-Dedicated Servers - they are based on the very same principle as the shared web space hosting servers. In spite of that, there are much less users hosted on the same server. Therefore, each of them will enjoy a larger share of the server's resources like RAM, data space, web traffic and CPU. Perfect for hosting immense online portals that do not demand root privileges.
Virtual Servers - the private virtual servers are perfect for medium size web portals, which do demand root-level access to the web hosting server's config files. Usually, there are a few VPS server hosting accounts hosted on the same physical server. Yet, each of them is insulated from the others and runs its own Operating System.
Dedicated Server - a completely dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It ensures a mammoth quantity of system resources. It also gives complete root-level access, which renders it the optimal environment for any sort of web site that needs a web site hosting service.
The only question that's left is:
Which website hosting firm should I settle on?
As already mentioned, there are very few web hosts providing warez hosting solutions because of judicial troubles. Such hosting providers are being closed down almost every month. For that reason, if you wish to create such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared site hosting service is the most widely spread kind of hosting service. Therefore, each site hosting vendor provides it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as private virtual servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the small sized hosting companies do not have the means demanded for maintaining those services. For that reason it's always best to choose a larger host that can provide its clients with all the solutions that they seek. You can effortlessly recognize such web hosting companies by the kinds of solutions that they are offering and by the way that they present them to the customers. For instance, some web hosts allow you to commence with a smaller web space hosting account and afterwards move to a more advanced one, if you deem it necessary to do so. This is extremely suitable, because you do not have to migrate web portals between web hosting servers and there is no chance of suffering network downtime due to all the predicaments that may take place. Companies such as Exclusive Hosting are offering all sorts of services and possess the needed hosting server resources and staff to ensure that their customers will not run into any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting corporation is in fact all about.