An explanation of web page hosting
As its name hints, web hosting is a solution, which entails hosting web content. There are various forms and kinds of web hosting, based on the purpose and on the functions. Nevertheless, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the Web. A web host is in fact a hosting server that is connected to the Internet and has its own Internet Protocol address, which allows people to have access to it through the Web. The web hosting server's configuration and its resources are determined by the type of hosting solution it's going to be utilized for.
What are the different forms of hosting?
Based on the purpose, the professional web hosting solution may be:
File Web Hosting - this type of hosting permits the users to save their files on a given web hosting server. With the conventional file storage hosting service, the files that are kept may only be accessed by the user that's using the service. This web hosting solution typically refers to backups of computers , docs, private files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also impose given limits in terms of the server space and the root-level access. There may also be bandwidth quota limitations, but that depends on the given web host.
Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is comparable with the previous web hosting service form. However, in contrast with the file storage hosting service, the warez web hosting service is utilized for disseminating copyrighted content without being given the okay to do so by the license holder. In brief - it appertains to the unlawful transmission of files and materials. There are a lot of ways for this to be done, but the 2 principal approaches are - through plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first method involves either a specific web page, or, most typically, just a directory on a web server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download licensed files free of cost. The second way entails a peer-to-peer connection, using the so-called Torrent servers, through which users exchange files between each other. There are a few website hosting vendors that allow such form of web hosting on their web hosting servers, mainly owing to all the judicial predicaments that it entails. Typically such web pages are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party enterprises either in the Middle East or in Asia.
Electronic Mail Web Hosting - this solution is relevant with both shared website hosting and dedicated servers, depending on the customer's desire. If you desire to establish your own private SMTP e-mail server, then you will need either a private virtual web hosting server or a dedicated server that provides the access level required to execute such a task. For normal e-mail web hosting ends, though, you can set up a regular shared web space hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a solution that's very popular, because the web hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate servers, usually owned by separate providers.
Web Page Hosting - the most widely spread and vastly used hosting service as of now. It's used for hosting site files, whose sort depends on the OS the hosting server is running - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files require specific hosting server OSs, or else they won't be displayed correctly on the World Wide Web. This form of hosting may impose data space and traffic quota limits, root-level access and central processing unit usage restrictions.
Depending on the aims and on the objectives, the user should select the type of web hosting server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the web hosting supplier that's going to provide it. There are different types of hosting servers, depending on the specs and the website hosting services that they offer. These are:
Shared Website Hosting Server - a shared web site hosting server provides a smaller amount of resources, which, of course, is manifested in the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small sized and medium size online portals, which do not need large quantities of disk space and web traffic.
Semi-Dedicated Servers Hosting - they function on the very same principle as the shared web space hosting servers. Nevertheless, there are much fewer users sharing the same web hosting server. Therefore, each of them will receive a larger quota of the web server's resources like RAM, disk storage, web traffic and CPU. Perfect for hosting heavy online portals that do not demand complete server root access.
Virtual Servers - the private virtual web servers are excellent for medium size web portals, which do need root access to the web hosting server's configuration files. Generally, there are a few private virtual hosting server accounts located on the same physical server. In spite of that, each of them is autonomous from the other ones and runs its own Operating System.
Dedicated Server - a fully dedicated physical server configured and accessed by you and only you. It ensures a gigantic quantity of resources. It also gives root privileges, which makes it the optimal solution for any kind of website that needs a web hosting service.
The only question that remains is:
Which webspace hosting firm should I settle on?
As mentioned, there are very few companies providing warez hosting services because of legal complications. Such web hosting providers are being closed down almost every month. For that reason, if you wish to set up such a service, you should do it on your very own PC. The shared website hosting service is the most popular kind of web hosting service. Hence, each and every site hosting vendor provides it. Not all of them, though, offer solutions such as virtual private hosting servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the small sized web hosting providers do not have the resources demanded for maintaining those services. Hence it's invariably best to pick a larger web host that can furnish its customers with all the services that they seek. You can easily ID such hosting companies by the sorts of services that they are supplying and by the manner in which they present them to the clients. For example, certain providers permit you to start with a small scale webspace hosting package and afterwards move to a bigger one, if you find it mandatory to do so. This is very suitable, since you do not have to transfer web sites between web hosting servers and there is no risk of facing service outages due to all the problems that may occur. Hosting providers like DuoServer.US are offering all sorts of solutions and have the needed web server resources and personnel to ensure that their clients will not suffer any complications when swapping services, which is what a top hosting provider is actually all about.