An interpretation of website hosting

As its name suggests, web hosting is a solution, which entails hosting online content. There are different varieties and types of hosting, based on the mission and on the objectives. Nevertheless, they all involve hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the Web. A web host is actually a web server that is linked to the Web and has its very own IP address, which permits people to get access to it via the Web. The web hosting server's configuration and its limitations depend on the type of web hosting service it will be utilized for.

What are the various forms of web hosting?

Depending on the application, the professional hosting service may be:

File Storage Hosting - this type of web hosting enables the clients to host their files on a particular hosting server. With the common file storage web hosting solution, the files that are hosted may only be accessed by the client that's using the service. This hosting solution normally concerns backups of PCs , docs, private files and even other web hosting servers. This solution may also involve certain limits in terms of the server storage and the root privileges. There may also be traffic quota limitations, but that is dependent on the actual host.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is comparable with the previous web hosting service form. However, in contrast with the file web hosting service, the warez hosting service is used for distributing licensed work without the sanction of the licence bearer. To put it briefly - it is connected with the unauthorized circulation of files and materials. There are lots of methods for this to be fulfilled, but the 2 principal ways are - via plain HTTP downloading and through P2P connections. The first way entails either some website, or, most often, simply a directory on a server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download licensed docs for free. The second approach involves a peer-to-peer connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent servers, via which people share files between each other. There are a few hosting firms that permit that form of web hosting on their web hosting servers, mainly owing to all the legal predicaments that it entails. Commonly such websites are hosted on private dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by third-party enterprises either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Web Hosting - this service is relevant with both shared web site hosting and dedicated web servers, based on the customer's wish. If you would like to have your own personal SMTP electronic mail server, then you will require either a private virtual server or a dedicated web hosting server that offers the level of access needed to execute such a procedure. For normal electronic mail web hosting purposes, however, you can use a simple shared webspace hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain name. This is not a service that's very popular, because the website hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by two different web servers, usually owned by separate web hosting providers.

Web Site Hosting - the most popular and immensely utilized hosting service at the moment. It's utilized for hosting web site files, whose sort is dependent on the OS the web hosting server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files need specific server OSs, or else they won't be exhibited accurately on the World Wide Web. This sort of web hosting may contain server space and traffic limitations, root access and central processing unit usage restrictions.

Depending on the mission and on the functions, the user should pick the type of server that he requires for his work, and, of course, the web site hosting firm that's going to supply it. There are several types of web servers, based on the specifications and the webspace hosting services that they provide. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared web server includes a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small scale and middle sized websites, which do not require enormous amounts of disk storage space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated Servers Hosting - they work on the same principle as the shared website hosting servers. In spite of that, there are much less customers sharing the same server. Therefore, each of them will receive a larger share of the server's resources like RAM, web storage, bandwidth and CPU. Perfect for hosting popular sites that do not need server root access.

VPS hosting - the private virtual web servers are excellent for middle scale web sites, which do need root access to the web hosting server's configuration files. Commonly, there are several virtual server hosting accounts accommodated on the same server. Nonetheless, each of them is insulated from the others and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers - a fully dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees an immense quantity of resources. It also includes full root-level access, which makes it an ideal environment for any type of web page that demands a webspace hosting solution.

The only question that's left is:

Which site hosting vendor should I pick?

As mentioned above, there are very few web hosting companies offering warez hosting solutions due to judicial troubles. Such web hosting companies are being closed down practically every month. For that reason, if you desire to offer such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared webspace hosting service is the most widely spread kind of hosting service. That is why, each website hosting company provides it. Not all of them, however, provide solutions such as virtual servers, semi-dedicated hosting servers and dedicated servers. Most of the small sized web hosting companies do not have the means needed for offering those solutions. For that reason it's invariably best to pick a larger web hosting company that can supply its clients with all the solutions that they require. You can quickly identify such web hosts by the kinds of solutions that they are making available and by the way that they introduce them to the customers. For instance, certain hosts allow you to commence with a low-end site hosting account and then upgrade to a more powerful one, if you consider it mandatory to do so. This is quite convenient, because you do not need to move websites between hosting servers and there is no chance of experiencing service disturbances because of all the problems that may occur. Hosting companies like Astrohost are offering all kinds of services and have the required server resources and staff to ensure that their clients will not encounter any complications when swapping services, which is what a top hosting vendor is actually all about.