A description of website hosting

As its name hints, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting online content. There are various varieties and kinds of hosting, based on the mission and on the usage. Nonetheless, they all involve hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the World Wide Web. A web host is actually a web hosting service that is linked to the Web and has its own IP address, which permits users to have access to it through the Web. The hosting server's architecture and its limitations are subject to the kind of hosting solution it will be utilized for.

What are the various types of hosting?

Depending on the goal, the professional web hosting solution may be:

File Web Hosting - this form of hosting permits the clients to accommodate their files on a specific server. With the typical file web hosting service, the files that are saved may only be accessed by the client that's utilizing the service. This web hosting service typically includes backups of PCs , documents, private files and even other web hosting servers. This solution may also involve certain limits when it comes to the data space and the root access. There may also be web traffic quota limitations, but that depends on the particular hosting service provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is resembling the previous hosting service form. However, in contrast with the file web hosting solution, the warez hosting service is utilized for distributing licensed materials without being given the okay to do so by the copyright keeper. In short - it pertains to the illicit dissemination of files and materials. There are many ways for this to be accomplished, but the 2 essential methods are - through plain HTTP downloading and via peer-to-peer connections. The first approach involves either a given website, or, most often, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download patented files free of charge. The second way entails a P2P connection, making use of the so-called Torrent servers, through which users swap files between each other. There are just a few website hosting corporations that allow such type of hosting on their web servers, mainly because of all the judicial problems that it presupposes. Generally such sites are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by third-party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Hosting - this solution is utilized with both shared web hosting and dedicated hosting servers, based on the user's wish. If you would like to establish your very own private SMTP email server, then you will need either a virtual private hosting server or a dedicated hosting server that provides the level of access required to accomplish such a procedure. For routine e-mail hosting purposes, though, you can use a simple shared web site 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 site hosting and the e-mail hosting services are being served by two separate web servers, often owned by separate web hosts.

Web Page Hosting - the most widely spread and frequently utilized hosting service nowadays. It's used for hosting website files, whose sort depends on the OS the hosting server is using - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files demand concrete server Operating Systems, or else they won't be shown appropriately on the Internet. This type of hosting may involve web storage and bandwidth quota limitations, root-level access and central processing unit usage limitations.

Based on the goals and on the usage, the customer should select the kind of server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the web space hosting firm that's going to supply it. There are several kinds of web hosting servers, depending on the specs and the hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared web server offers a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, is manifested in the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small scale and middle sized web portals, which do not need vast quantities of data storage space and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Servers - they work on the very same principle as the shared web page hosting servers. Still, there are much fewer clients sharing the same server. For that reason, each of them will get a bigger quota of the hosting server's resources like RAM, web storage space, bandwidth and CPU. Perfect for hosting popular sites that do not require full root privileges.

Virtual Private Server - the private virtual web hosting servers are excellent for middle size web pages, which do require root-level access to the hosting server's config files. Traditionally, there are a handful of private virtual server accounts placed on the same physical server. In spite of that, each of them is independent from the other ones and has its own OS.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a completely dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and only you. It ensures a big amount of resources. It also offers complete root-level access, which makes it a perfect solution for any type of web portal that needs a website hosting service.

The only question that remains is:

Which hosting supplier should I settle on?

As mentioned above, there are very few providers providing warez web hosting services due to legal problems. Such web hosting companies are being shut down almost every month. That is why, if you wish to provide such a service, you should do it on your very own personal computer. The shared hosting service is the most famous kind of hosting service. Hence, each web site hosting provider offers it. Not all of them, however, provide services such as virtual private web servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the smaller webspace hosting distributors do not have the means demanded for offering those services. Because of that it's always best to opt for a larger hosting company that can supply its clients with all the services that they want. You can effortlessly recognize such web hosts by the sorts of services that they are making available and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clients. For example, some hosts allow you to kick off with a low-end site hosting account and subsequently move to a more powerful one, if you deem it obligatory to do so. This is quite suitable, since you do not have to transmit sites between servers and there is no risk of experiencing service outages due to all the complications that may show up. Providers such as ABD Technology Inc provide all sorts of services and have the needed server resources and personnel to ensure that their customers will not face any problems when swapping services, which is what a top hosting distributor is in fact all about.