An interpretation of hosting
As its name hints, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting web content. There are various forms and kinds of hosting, based on the mission and on the objectives. Still, they all refer to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the World Wide Web. A host is in fact a server that is connected to the Web and has its own personal IP address, which permits users to have access to it through the Web. The web server's architecture and its system resources are determined by the form of hosting service it will be used for.
What are the different forms of hosting?
Based on the function, the professional hosting service may be:
File Storage Web Hosting - this form of web hosting enables the clients to store their files on a certain server. With the common file storage web hosting service, the files that are kept may only be accessed by the user that's availing of the service. This hosting solution traditionally applies to backups of personal computers , documents, personal files and even other hosting servers. This solution may also have given restrictions with regard to the server storage space and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic quota limits, but that is dependent on the actual web hosting service provider.
Warez Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting solution is quite similar to the previous web hosting service type. Yet, in contrast with the file storage web hosting solution, the warez hosting service is used for distributing proprietary content without the sanction of the license holder. To put it briefly - it entails the unlawful dissemination of files and docs. There are lots of ways for this to be realized, but the two principal approaches are - via simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and via peer-to-peer connections. The first method involves either some site, or, most often, simply a directory on a web server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download proprietary files for free. The second approach entails a peer-to-peer connection, using the so-called Torrent web servers, through which users swap files between each other. There are very few web hosting providers that permit such form of hosting on their web hosting servers, mainly owing to all the legal troubles that it entails. Generally such web pages are hosted on private dedicated web hosting 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 web site hosting and dedicated hosting servers, based on the customer's intention. If you want to build your own private SMTP mail server, then you will need either a virtual hosting server or a dedicated web server that provides the access level required to complete such a procedure. For traditional mail hosting purposes, however, you can avail of a regular shared web hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a solution that's very famous, because the website hosting and the email hosting services are being served by 2 separate web servers, often belonging to different hosting providers.
Web Site Hosting - the most widely spread and regularly used hosting service at the moment. It's used for hosting site files, whose sort is dependent on the OS the server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files request different web server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be displayed properly on the Web. This sort of hosting may involve disk space and bandwidth limitations, root access and CPU usage limitations.
Depending on the mission and on the objectives, the user should pick the type of web hosting server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the webspace hosting corporation that's going to provide it. There are different sorts of servers, depending on the specifications and the website hosting solutions that they provide. These are:
Shared Website Hosting Server - a shared webspace hosting server includes a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small sized and middle scale web sites, which do not need huge amounts of server storage and traffic.
Semi-Dedicated Servers Hosting - they function on the same principle as the shared webspace hosting servers. Nevertheless, there are much fewer clients hosted on the same web hosting server. That is why, each of them will enjoy a bigger share of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, disk storage, traffic and CPU. Perfect for hosting immense web portals that do not demand complete root-level access.
VPS hosting - the VPS servers are ideal for medium sized web portals, which do demand root-level access to the web server's configuration files. Commonly, there are a number of VPS accounts situated on the same server. Nevertheless, each of them is isolated from the other ones and has its own Operating System.
Dedicated Servers - a completely dedicated machine configured and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a vast quantity of system resources. It also provides full server root access, which makes it a perfect platform for any type of online portal that demands a hosting solution.
The sole question that's left is:
Which web site hosting vendor should I pick?
As already mentioned, there are very few providers offering warez web hosting solutions because of legal complications. Such web hosting companies are being closed down almost every month. For that reason, if you would like to establish such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared hosting service is the most widespread type of web hosting service. Because of that, each hosting company offers it. Not all of them, however, provide solutions such as virtual private web servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the small sized web space hosting providers do not have the means required for offering those services. That is the reason why it's always best to select a bigger web host that can supply its customers with all the services that they require. You can effortlessly ID such hosting companies by the types of services that they are supplying and by the manner in which they introduce them to the customers. For instance, certain hosting providers allow you to commence with a smaller web hosting package and subsequently upgrade to a more powerful one, if you consider it obligatory to do so. This is quite suitable, since you do not need to move sites between web hosting servers and there is no chance of facing network downtime due to all the problems that may take place. Web hosting providers such as 100WebSpace offer all kinds of services and have the needed server resources and staff to assure that their clients will not face any hassles when changing services, which is what a top hosting supplier is actually all about.