A description of hosting
As its name implies, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting online content. There are various varieties and kinds of web hosting, based on the aims and on the functions. However, they all pertain to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the World Wide Web. A web host is in fact a web server that is linked to the Web and has its very own Internet Protocol address, which allows people to access it via the Web. The web hosting server's configuration and its limitations are determined by the kind of web hosting service it's going to be utilized for.
What are the different types of hosting?
Based on the objective, the hosting service may be:
File Storage Hosting - this form of web hosting enables the users to lodge their files on a given web hosting server. With the ordinary file storage web hosting service, the files that are stored may only be accessed by the individual that's using the service. This hosting service normally involves backups of PCs , documents, private files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also impose certain limits when it comes to the disk space and the root-level access. There may also be web traffic limitations, but that depends on the actual hosting service provider.
Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is comparable with the previous hosting service form. Yet, in contrast with the file storage hosting solution, the warez web hosting service is utilized for transmitting proprietary content without being given the okay to do so by the copyright owner. To put it briefly - it involves the unauthorized transmission of files and documents. There are a lot of approaches for this to be fulfilled, but the two chief approaches are - through simple HTTP downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first way entails either some site, or, most commonly, simply a directory on a server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download patented documents free of cost. The second method involves a P2P connection, availing of the so-called Torrent web servers, via which users swap files between each other. There are just a few site hosting companies that allow such type of web hosting on their hosting servers, mostly owing to all the judicial predicaments that it entails. Commonly such web sites are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by third-party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.
Email Web Hosting - this solution is used with both shared webspace hosting and dedicated servers, depending on the customer's wish. If you desire to have your own private SMTP electronic mail server, then you will require either a VPS or a dedicated server that offers the access level required to complete such an operation. For normal mail web hosting purposes, though, you can create a regular shared web hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain name. This is not a service that's widely popular, since the website hosting and the email hosting services are being served by 2 different web servers, often owned by different hosts.
Website Hosting - the most widespread and immensely utilized hosting service now. It's used for hosting website files, whose kind is dependent on the Operating System the web hosting server is running - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files demand specific hosting server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be shown appropriately on the Web. This form of web hosting may involve data storage and traffic quota limitations, root access and central processing unit usage limitations.
Based on the purpose and on the objectives, the customer should select the sort of web hosting server that he demands for his project, and, of course, the site hosting supplier that's going to provide it. There are several sorts of web servers, depending on the specs and the hosting solutions that they provide. These are:
Shared Hosting Server - a shared web server provides a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, is manifested in the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small sized and medium scale online portals, which do not demand enormous quantities of data storage and bandwidth.
Semi-Dedicated Servers - they operate on the very same principle as the shared web hosting servers. Even so, there are much less users hosted on the same web server. That is why, each of them will enjoy a bigger share of the hosting server's resources like RAM, storage space, web traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting big sites that do not require root-level access.
VPS - the VPS web hosting servers are perfect for middle scale websites, which do need root access to the hosting server's configuration files. Typically, there are a bunch of virtual server hosting accounts situated on the same physical machine. Nonetheless, each of them is insulated from the others and has its own Operating System.
Dedicated Servers - a completely dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It ensures an immense amount of system resources. It also provides full root privileges, which renders it a perfect platform for any sort of web portal that requires a webspace hosting solution.
The sole question that remains is:
Which site hosting firm should I pick?
As mentioned above, there are just a few web hosting providers offering warez web hosting solutions because of legal problems. Such hosting companies are being shut down virtually every month. That is why, if you want to start such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared web site hosting solution is the most famous kind of hosting service. That is why, each and every website hosting firm offers it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as virtual private web servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small scale web hosting distributors do not have the means demanded for offering those solutions. Because of that it's always best to select a bigger company that can provide its clients with all the solutions that they require. You can quickly identify such web hosting companies by the types of solutions that they are providing and by the way that they introduce them to the customers. For instance, some providers permit you to start with a smaller web site hosting package and then move to a more advanced one, if you deem it obligatory to do so. This is very convenient, because you do not have to move web sites between web servers and there is no possibility of suffering outages due to all the predicaments that may appear. Web hosting companies like CiscoWebServers are offering all types of solutions and have the required hosting server resources and staff to assure that their customers will not suffer any hassles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting firm is in fact all about.