A description of website hosting

As its name hints, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting online content. There are various varieties and types of web hosting, based on the mission and on the usage. Still, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the World Wide Web. A host is actually a hosting server that is linked to the World Wide Web and has its own personal IP address, which enables users to gain access to it through the World Wide Web. The web server's architecture and its limitations 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 function, the professional web hosting solution may be:

File Web Hosting - this form of web hosting permits the users to stash their files on a certain web hosting server. With the customary file web hosting solution, the files that are deposited may only be accessed by the user that's availing of the service. This web hosting service normally refers to backups of computers , documents, private files and even other hosting servers. This service may also contain certain restrictions in terms of the data storage space and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic quota limits, but that is dependent on the given hosting provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is resembling the previous web hosting service form. Even so, in contrast with the file storage hosting solution, the warez hosting service is used for distributing patented materials without being given the OK to do so by the license possessor. In brief - it refers to the unlawful distribution of files and materials. There are multiple approaches for this to be achieved, but the two main approaches are - via plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and via P2P connections. The first method entails either a certain web page, or, most often, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download licensed files free of cost. The second way involves a peer-to-peer connection, making use of the so-called Torrent servers, via which users transfer files between each other. There are not many website hosting suppliers that allow such form of hosting on their web hosting servers, chiefly owing to all the judicial complications that it involves. Typically such websites are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Electronic Mail Hosting - this solution is utilized with both shared web site hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, based on the client's wish. If you desire to have your very own private SMTP server, then you will need either a virtual private hosting server or a dedicated hosting server that offers the access level required to complete such a task. For typical e-mail hosting purposes, however, you can avail of a simple shared site 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 site hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by 2 different web servers, often belonging to separate hosting providers.

Website Hosting - the most widely spread and regularly utilized hosting service as of now. It's used for hosting site files, whose type is determined by the OS the hosting server is availing of - Linux or Windows. Different types of files demand different web server Operating Systems, or else they won't be displayed appropriately on the Internet. This sort of hosting may include data storage and traffic restrictions, root access and CPU usage limitations.

Depending on the aims and on the usage, the customer should pick the type of web hosting server that he demands for his work, and, of course, the web site hosting firm that's going to provide it. There are different kinds of web hosting servers, depending on the specs and the web space hosting services that they provide. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared website hosting server provides a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, is reflected on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small size and medium sized websites, which do not demand immense quotas of disk storage space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated - they operate on the very same principle as the shared web space hosting servers. Even so, there are much less users sharing the same server. Hence, each of them will get a greater share of the server's resources like RAM, data space, bandwidth and CPU. Excellent for hosting huge websites that do not demand complete root access.

Virtual Servers - the virtual web servers are ideal for medium web portals, which do need root-level access to the web hosting server's configuration files. Commonly, there are several virtual server hosting accounts sharing the same server. Nevertheless, each of them is isolated from the rest and runs its own Operating System.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a completely dedicated physical machine set up and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a huge amount of system resources. It also provides full server root privileges, which renders it a perfect environment for any sort of web site that requires a web space hosting service.

The only question that's left is:

Which webspace hosting firm should I opt for?

As mentioned above, there are very few companies offering warez hosting services because of judicial problems. Such hosts are being closed down practically every month. That is why, if you would like to launch such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared website hosting solution is the most widespread kind of web hosting service. That is why, each hosting provider offers it. Not all of them, however, provide services such as VPS servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the smaller site hosting companies do not have the resources required for offering those services. That's why it's always best to go with a bigger web hosting company that can furnish its clients with all the services that they are searching for. You can easily identify such hosts by the kinds of services that they are supplying and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clientele. For instance, some hosts permit you to start with a smaller web hosting plan and subsequently move to a more advanced one, if you deem it necessary to do so. This is very suitable, since you do not need to migrate websites between servers and there is no possibility of suffering network downtime due to all the predicaments that may arise. Web hosting providers like smarthouse provide all kinds of services and have the required web server resources and staff to assure that their customers will not experience any problems when swapping services, which is what a top hosting supplier is in fact all about.