A description of hosting

As its name suggests, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting web content. There are various forms and kinds of web hosting, based on the mission and on the usage. Yet, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available throughout the Web. A host is in fact a web server that is linked to the Web and has its own IP address, which enables users to access it via the World Wide Web. The hosting server's architecture and its system resources are dependent on the form of hosting solution it's going to be used for.

What are the different types of hosting?

Based on the goal, the web hosting service may be:

File Storage Hosting - this form of hosting enables the customers to host their files on a specific server. With the average file hosting service, the files that are stored may only be accessed by the person that's using the service. This web hosting solution traditionally applies to backups of PCs , documents, private files and even other web servers. This service may also have given restrictions with regard to the web space and the root access. There may also be web traffic limits, but that is dependent on the particular hosting provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is very similar to the previous web hosting service type. Yet, unlike the file hosting solution, the warez hosting solution is utilized for circulating copyrighted content without the authorization of the license owner. To put it briefly - it is connected with the unlawful circulation of files and materials. There are multiple ways for this to be completed, but the 2 principal approaches are - through simple HTTP downloading and via peer-to-peer connections. The first way involves either a certain web page, or, most often, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thus download copyrighted docs free of cost. The second method involves a P2P connection, using the so-called Torrent servers, through which people swap files between each other. There are very few web page hosting firms that allow that form of hosting on their web hosting servers, mainly owing to all the legal troubles that it presupposes. Usually such web pages are hosted on personal dedicated web servers that are registered by 3rd party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Web Hosting - this solution is relevant with both shared web page hosting and dedicated servers, depending on the user's wish. If you want to build your very own private SMTP mail server, then you will require either a VPS web server or a dedicated server that provides the access level required to perform such an assignment. For traditional mail hosting ends, however, you can create a conventional shared webspace hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain name. This is not a solution that's widely famous, because the web page hosting and the e-mail hosting services are being served by two separate web servers, usually belonging to different firms.

Web Page Hosting - the most widely spread and universally used hosting service today. It's used for hosting web site files, whose kind is determined by the Operating System the web hosting server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files demand concrete hosting server OSs, otherwise they won't be shown accurately on the Web. This kind of hosting may involve disk space and traffic quota limitations, root-level access and central processing unit usage limits.

Depending on the goals and on the functions, the customer should select the sort of hosting server that he demands for his work, and, of course, the web space hosting vendor that's going to supply it. There are several kinds of web hosting servers, based on the specifications and the webspace hosting services that they offer. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared hosting server offers a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, is reflected on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small size and middle size online portals, which do not need considerable quotas of server storage and web traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Servers - they are based on the very same principle as the shared website hosting servers. Yet, there are much less users sharing the same server. That is why, each of them will obtain a larger quota of the hosting server's resources like RAM, disk space, bandwidth and CPU. Excellent for hosting enormous online portals that do not require full root access.

VPS hosting - the private virtual web hosting servers are excellent for medium sites, which do need root-level access to the server's config files. Generally, there are several virtual private hosting server accounts hosted on the same machine. Nonetheless, each of them is independent from the others and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers Hosting - a fully dedicated web hosting server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees an enormous amount of resources. It also provides complete root-level access, which renders it the optimal platform for any kind of web portal that necessitates a web hosting solution.

The sole question that remains is:

Which hosting firm should I settle on?

As mentioned, there are not many providers providing warez hosting solutions because of legal complications. Such web hosts are being closed down practically every month. Therefore, if you desire to offer such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared webspace hosting service is the most widespread kind of web hosting service. Hence, each and every hosting supplier provides it. Not all of them, though, offer services such as virtual web servers, semi-dedicated hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the smaller hosting corporations do not have the resources required for maintaining those services. That's why it's invariably best to select a bigger hosting company that can supply its clients with all the services that they necessitate. You can effortlessly ID such hosts by the types of solutions that they are making available and by the way that they introduce them to the clients. For example, some web hosts permit you to begin with a small scale web site hosting plan and then upgrade to a more powerful one, if you deem it obligatory to do so. This is quite suitable, since you do not need to migrate web portals between web hosting servers and there is no risk of facing service interruptions due to all the problems that may arise. Providers like CPanel offer all kinds of services and possess the needed web hosting server resources and personnel to assure that their clients will not stumble upon any predicaments when changing services, which is what a top hosting company is in fact all about.