A description of hosting
As its name hints, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting online content. There are various forms and kinds of hosting, depending on the goals and on the functions. Nonetheless, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the Web. A web host is actually a hosting server that is connected to the World Wide Web and has its own Internet Protocol address, which allows people to access it via the Web. The web hosting server's architecture and its system resources are subject to the kind of hosting service it's going to be used for.
What are the various types of web hosting?
Based on the function, the hosting solution may be:
File Web Hosting - this form of hosting allows the customers to store their files on a given web server. With the average file storage web hosting service, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the person that's utilizing the service. This hosting solution typically pertains to backups of computers , docs, private files and even other servers. This solution may also impose given limitations in relation to the disk storage and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic limits, but that depends on the given provider.
Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is quite similar to the previous web hosting service form. Yet, in contrast with the file hosting service, the warez web hosting service is utilized for circulating licensed work without being given the go-ahead by the copyright proprietor. In brief - it entails the unauthorized distribution of files and docs. There are lots of ways for this to be completed, but the two principal ways are - via plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through P2P connections. The first approach entails either a specific website, or, most commonly, just a directory on a server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thus download proprietary materials free of cost. The second approach involves a peer-to-peer connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent servers, via which users transmit files between each other. There are just a few hosting companies that allow such form of hosting on their web servers, mostly because of all the judicial entanglements that it entails. Usually such 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 relevant with both shared web space hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, depending on the customer's intention. If you want to have your very own private SMTP electronic mail server, then you will need either a VPS web server or a dedicated server that provides the access level required to accomplish such a task. For conventional mail web hosting ends, though, you can utilize a normal shared web space 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 web hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by 2 different servers, often belonging to different web hosting providers.
Site Hosting - the most widely spread and extensively used hosting service as of now. It's utilized for hosting web site files, whose kind is determined by the OS the server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different types of files require specific hosting server Operating Systems, or else they won't be displayed accurately on the Web. This form of hosting may impose server storage space and traffic restrictions, root access and CPU usage limits.
Depending on the purpose and on the usage, the user should choose the sort of web hosting server that he demands for his project, and, of course, the webspace hosting vendor that's going to provide it. There are different kinds of servers, based on the configuration and the webspace hosting services that they offer. These are:
Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared web server includes a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, reflects on the cost of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small sized and middle sized sites, which do not need big quotas of data storage space and traffic.
Semi-Dedicated Servers - they work on the same principle as the shared website hosting servers. In spite of that, there are much less customers accommodated on the same hosting server. Hence, each of them will receive a greater share of the server's resources like RAM, data storage, bandwidth and CPU. Perfect for hosting heavy websites that do not require complete server root access.
Virtual Servers - the VPSs are perfect for medium size web pages, which do require root-level access to the hosting server's configuration files. Traditionally, there are several Virtual Private Server web hosting accounts located on the same physical machine. However, each of them is isolated from the other ones and runs its own OS.
Dedicated Server Hosting - a fully dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It ensures a colossal amount of system resources. It also offers full server root privileges, which makes it a perfect platform for any type of web page that needs a hosting service.
The sole question that remains is:
Which web hosting vendor should I select?
As stated above, there are not many companies providing warez web hosting services due to judicial entanglements. Such hosts are being closed down almost every month. Therefore, if you would like to create such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared web hosting service is the most popular type of hosting service. Therefore, every webspace hosting supplier provides it. Not all of them, however, provide services such as VPS web hosting servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small sized hosting providers do not have the resources required for offering those solutions. Hence it's invariably best to choose a bigger web hosting company that can furnish its customers with all the solutions that they want. You can quickly identify such web hosts by the types of services that they are making available and by the manner in which they present them to the clientele. For example, certain web hosting companies allow you to kick off with a low-end web space hosting package and then shift to a more advanced one, if you find it obligatory to do so. This is quite suitable, because you do not have to migrate web sites between hosting servers and there is no possibility of suffering downtime because of all the predicaments that may arise. Web hosting providers like NTC Hosting provide all sorts of services and have the required hosting server resources and staff to ensure that their clients will not run into any predicaments when swapping services, which is what a top hosting firm is actually all about.