A description of web site hosting

As its name implies, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting online content. There are various varieties and kinds of web hosting, depending on the goals and on the objectives. Nonetheless, they all refer to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the World Wide Web. A web host is in fact a server that is linked to the World Wide Web and has its own Internet Protocol address, which allows users to gain access to it via the Web. The hosting server's configuration and its limitations depend on the sort of web hosting service it will be utilized for.

What are the various types of hosting?

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

File Web Hosting - this type of hosting allows the clients to host their files on a specific web hosting server. With the normal file storage web hosting service, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the person that's using the service. This hosting solution traditionally is connected with backups of personal computers , documents, private files and even other hosting servers. This solution may also contain given limitations in relation to the web storage and the root access. There may also be traffic limitations, but that is dependent on the given provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is quite similar to the previous web hosting service type. In spite of that, unlike the file storage web hosting solution, the warez web hosting solution is used for disseminating proprietary materials without the permission of the copyright bearer. To cut a long story short - it is related to the unauthorized dissemination of files and docs. There are a lot of methods for this to be performed, but the 2 main methods are - through plain HTTP downloading and via peer-to-peer connections. The first method involves either some web page, or, most often, simply a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download proprietary materials free of cost. The second method involves a peer-to-peer connection, making use of the so-called Torrent servers, through which users transmit files between each other. There are very few web page hosting firms that allow such form of hosting on their servers, mostly because of all the legal troubles that it involves. Usually such web portals are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Hosting - this service is utilized with both shared site hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, based on the client's wish. If you desire to launch your own personal SMTP email server, then you will need either a private virtual web hosting server or a dedicated web server that provides the level of access required to accomplish such an assignment. For typical mail web hosting purposes, however, you can create an ordinary shared web space hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a service that's very used, because the site hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by two separate servers, often belonging to different hosting providers.

Web Site Hosting - the most widely spread and largely used hosting service these days. It's used for hosting site files, whose kind depends on the OS the hosting server is running - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files require specific web server OSs, otherwise they won't be displayed properly on the World Wide Web. This sort of web hosting may involve web storage space and web traffic restrictions, root-level access and CPU usage limits.

Depending on the goals and on the usage, the customer should pick the sort of web hosting server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the site hosting vendor that's going to supply it. There are different sorts of web servers, depending on the configuration and the site hosting solutions that they provide. 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 cost of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small and middle sized online portals, which do not require big amounts of server storage space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they perform on the very same principle as the shared web servers. Nonetheless, there are much fewer customers sharing the same web server. That is why, each of them will have a bigger quota of the hosting server's resources like RAM, disk storage space, web traffic and CPU. Ideal for hosting bulky web pages that do not require full server root privileges.

Virtual Servers - the virtual servers are perfect for medium sized web pages, which do demand root access to the server's config files. Normally, there are several virtual hosting server accounts situated on the same physical machine. Even so, each of them is autonomous from the others and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers - a completely dedicated web server set up and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a mammoth quantity of system resources. It also gives full server root access, which renders it a perfect solution for any sort of web site that necessitates a hosting service.

The sole question that's left is:

Which site hosting provider should I settle on?

As stated above, there are just a few hosts offering warez hosting services due to judicial troubles. Such hosting providers are being shut down almost every month. That is why, if you desire to launch such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared webspace hosting service is the most widespread kind of web hosting service. That is why, each and every webspace hosting vendor provides it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as Virtual Private Servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small scale website hosting companies do not have the resources needed for offering those solutions. Therefore it's invariably best to settle on a larger company that can furnish its customers with all the solutions that they necessitate. You can effortlessly recognize such hosts by the kinds of services that they are providing and by the manner in which they present them to the customers. For example, certain web hosts permit you to begin with a smaller web site hosting package and afterwards move to a more advanced one, if you consider it mandatory to do so. This is very suitable, because you do not have to move web pages between web servers and there is no chance of experiencing downtime due to all the complications that may appear. Hosting providers like Ascenica offer all types of solutions and have the required web hosting server resources and staff to assure that their customers will not chance upon any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting corporation is in fact all about.