An explanation of hosting
As its name implies, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting online content. There are various varieties and types of web hosting, depending on the aims and on the objectives. Even so, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the Web. A web host is actually a web server that is connected to the Internet and has its very own IP address, which allows users to gain access to it via the Internet. The server's configuration and its system resources depend on the form of web hosting service it will be used for.
What are the various forms of hosting?
Based on the function, the web hosting service may be:
File Hosting - this form of hosting allows the clients to host their files on a specific web server. With the typical file web hosting solution, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the user that's availing of the service. This hosting service typically is connected with backups of personal computers , docs, private files and even other web servers. This solution may also have given limitations in terms of the server storage space and the root access. There may also be web traffic restrictions, but that is dependent on the actual web hosting provider.
Warez Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is comparable with the previous web hosting service form. Yet, unlike the file storage web hosting service, the warez web hosting service is utilized for spreading copyrighted work without being given the okay to do so by the copyright bearer. To put it briefly - it appertains to the illegitimate distribution of files and docs. There are multiple ways for this to be performed, but the two main methods are - via simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first one involves either a given web portal, or, most often, simply a directory on a server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download proprietary documents for free. The second approach entails a P2P connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent web servers, through which users transfer files between each other. There are just a few webspace hosting distributors that permit such form of hosting on their servers, chiefly due to all the legal complications that it involves. Generally such web sites are hosted on private dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.
E-mail Hosting - this solution is relevant with both shared web site hosting and dedicated web servers, depending on the customer's wish. If you would like to run your very own personal SMTP email server, then you will need either a private virtual web server or a dedicated server that offers the access level required to perform such a procedure. For customary electronic mail web hosting purposes, though, you can open a plain shared web page hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a service that's widely used, because the web hosting and the e-mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate web servers, usually owned by different hosts.
Web Site Hosting - the most famous and commonly utilized hosting service today. It's used for hosting site files, whose sort is determined by the Operating System the web hosting server is using - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files necessitate different web hosting server OSs, otherwise they won't be displayed appropriately on the World Wide Web. This form of web hosting may contain web space and traffic quota limitations, root-level access and central processing unit usage limits.
Based on the purpose and on the usage, the user should pick the kind of web hosting server that he requires for his work, and, of course, the web space hosting provider that's going to furnish it. There are different types of hosting servers, depending on the specs and the webspace hosting services that they offer. These are:
Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared web hosting server includes a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, is manifested in the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small size and middle scale websites, which do not need vast quantities of disk storage space and traffic.
Semi-Dedicated Servers - they work on the same principle as the shared webspace hosting servers. Still, there are much less users hosted on the same web hosting server. For that reason, each of them will enjoy a larger quota of the server's resources like RAM, server space, web traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting heavy web pages that do not demand full root privileges.
VPS hosting - the virtual hosting servers are ideal for medium sized web portals, which do need root access to the hosting server's configuration files. Commonly, there are a handful of VPS hosting server accounts accommodated on the same physical server. Nevertheless, each of them is autonomous from the other ones and has its own Operating System.
Dedicated Servers - a fully dedicated server configured and accessed by you and solely you. It ensures a mammoth quantity of system resources. It also provides full root access, which makes it a perfect environment for any kind of web site that requires a web site hosting solution.
The sole question that remains is:
Which web site hosting provider should I select?
As mentioned, there are just a few web hosting companies offering warez web hosting services due to legal problems. Such web hosting providers are being shut down almost every month. For that reason, if you desire to establish such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared web page hosting service is the most widespread kind of web hosting service. So, each and every web site hosting company provides it. Not all of them, though, offer solutions such as virtual hosting servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the smaller web space hosting distributors do not have the means demanded for maintaining those solutions. Hence it's invariably best to settle on a larger host that can furnish its customers with all the solutions that they necessitate. You can effortlessly identify such web hosting companies by the kinds of solutions that they are supplying and by the way that they introduce them to the clientele. For example, certain companies permit you to kick off with a smaller web space hosting account and then shift to a more advanced one, if you find it mandatory to do so. This is extremely suitable, because you do not have to move web portals between web servers and there is no chance of suffering outages due to all the predicaments that may take place. Providers like WebHost-ing.com provide all types of services and possess the adequate server resources and personnel to assure that their clients will not run into any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting corporation is in fact all about.