A description of webspace hosting
As its name hints, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting web content. There are different forms and types of hosting, depending on the purpose and on the usage. However, they all involve hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the Internet. A web host is in fact a web server that is connected to the World Wide Web and has its very own IP address, which permits people to have access to it via the Web. The server's configuration and its resources depend on the sort of web hosting service it will be utilized for.
What are the various forms of hosting?
Based on the usage, the professional web hosting solution may be:
File Storage Web Hosting - this form of hosting allows the clients to store their files on a given web hosting server. With the routine file storage web hosting service, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the person that's availing of the service. This web hosting service generally is associated with backups of personal computers , documents, personal files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also include certain restrictions in relation to the data space and the root-level access. There may also be web traffic quota limits, but that is dependent on the particular hosting provider.
Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is quite similar to the previous hosting service form. Nonetheless, unlike the file web hosting solution, the warez web hosting service is utilized for distributing licensed content without the authorization of the patent possessor. In brief - it is connected with the illegal transmission of files and docs. There are lots of approaches for this to be brought about, but the two principal ways are - through plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and via P2P connections. The first one involves either a certain web page, or, most often, just a directory on a web server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download patented docs free of charge. The second approach entails a P2P connection, making use of the so-called Torrent web servers, via which users transfer files between each other. There are not many web site hosting firms that allow such type of web hosting on their hosting servers, mostly due to all the legal troubles that it presupposes. Typically such web sites are hosted on personal dedicated web servers that are registered by 3rd party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.
Electronic Mail Hosting - this solution is applicable with both shared web site hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, based on the customer's wish. If you want to build your very own private SMTP server, then you will require either a VPS server or a dedicated web hosting server that provides the access level needed to complete such an operation. For traditional e-mail hosting purposes, though, you can utilize an average shared website hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain name. This is not a solution that's widely famous, since the website hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by two separate web servers, usually owned by separate web hosts.
Web Page Hosting - the most popular and broadly utilized hosting service these days. It's utilized for hosting site files, whose kind is dependent on the Operating System the web server is utilizing - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files necessitate different hosting server Operating Systems, or else they won't be displayed properly on the Web. This sort of hosting may have server storage space and traffic quota limits, root access and CPU usage limits.
Based on the mission and on the usage, the customer should select the kind of server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the site hosting company that's going to furnish it. There are several sorts of hosting servers, based on the specifications and the hosting services that they offer. These are:
Shared Website Hosting Server - a shared site hosting server provides a smaller amount of resources, which, of course, is manifested in the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small scale and medium scale web pages, which do not need enormous quantities of data space and bandwidth.
Semi-Dedicated Servers - they work on the same principle as the shared web site hosting servers. Nevertheless, there are much fewer users hosted on the same web hosting server. Therefore, each of them will have a larger quota of the web server's resources like RAM, data space, bandwidth and CPU. Ideal for hosting popular sites that do not need full server root access.
Virtual Servers - the Virtual Private Servers are perfect for medium scale online portals, which do demand root access to the server's configuration files. Commonly, there are several virtual private web server hosting accounts situated on the same server. Nevertheless, each of them is autonomous from the rest and has its own Operating System.
Dedicated Hosting - a fully dedicated physical server configured and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a vast quantity of resources. It also offers root-level access, which renders it a perfect solution for any type of online portal that needs a website hosting service.
The sole question that remains is:
Which web site hosting vendor should I select?
As mentioned above, there aren't many web hosts providing warez hosting solutions due to judicial problems. Such web hosts are being closed down almost every month. Therefore, if you would like to run such a service, you should do it on your own computer. The shared site hosting solution is the most widely spread type of web hosting service. So, each website hosting company provides it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as Virtual Private Servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the smaller hosting companies do not have the means demanded for maintaining those services. Because of that it's always best to select a bigger web hosting company that can furnish its clients with all the services that they necessitate. You can easily recognize such companies by the types of solutions that they are providing and by the way that they introduce them to the customers. For example, certain web hosting companies permit you to kick off with a low-end site hosting plan and subsequently shift to a bigger one, if you deem it compulsory to do so. This is extremely convenient, because you do not need to migrate web portals between hosting servers and there is no chance of experiencing downtime due to all the complications that may arise. Web hosts like NTC Hosting are offering all sorts of solutions and possess the adequate web hosting server resources and personnel to guarantee that their customers will not encounter any problems when swapping services, which is what a top hosting provider is actually all about.