A definition of web page hosting
As its name indicates, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting online content. There are various forms and types of web hosting, based on the purpose and on the objectives. Nevertheless, they all pertain to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the Web. A web host is in fact a web hosting service that is connected to the World Wide Web and has its own personal Internet Protocol address, which enables users to access it via the Internet. The web hosting server's architecture and its resources are determined by the kind of hosting service it's going to be used for.
What are the various types of web hosting?
Depending on the usage, the web hosting solution may be:
File Web Hosting - this form of web hosting allows the users to lodge their files on a specific hosting server. With the classic file hosting solution, the files that are hosted may only be accessed by the person that's availing of the service. This web hosting service traditionally refers to backups of PCs , documents, private files and even other hosting servers. This service may also impose given limitations in relation to the disk storage and the root privileges. There may also be traffic quota limitations, but that is dependent on the particular hosting provider.
Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is quite similar to the previous hosting service type. Nonetheless, unlike the file storage hosting service, the warez web hosting service is used for disseminating copyrighted materials without the approval of the copyright owner. To cut a long story short - it is connected with the illegal circulation of files and materials. There are a lot of methods for this to be carried out, but the two chief approaches are - via simple HTTP downloading and through P2P connections. The first method entails either a given web site, or, most often, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download licensed docs for free. The second approach involves a P2P connection, availing of the so-called Torrent servers, through which people share files between each other. There are very few webspace hosting distributors that permit that type of web hosting on their servers, mainly due to all the legal troubles that it presupposes. Typically such websites are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by third-party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.
Email Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared website hosting and dedicated servers, based on the user's wish. If you wish to establish your own private SMTP server, then you will require either a private virtual hosting server or a dedicated server that offers the level of access required to perform such an operation. For standard email hosting purposes, however, you can open a simple shared site hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain name. This is not a service that's very famous, since the web page hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate web servers, usually belonging to separate providers.
Web Page Hosting - the most famous and universally used hosting service nowadays. It's used for hosting website files, whose sort depends on the OS the hosting server is availing of - Linux or Windows. Different types of files need different server OSs, otherwise they won't be shown correctly on the World Wide Web. This sort of hosting may contain disk storage and traffic limitations, root-level access and CPU usage restrictions.
Based on the goals and on the usage, the client should select the kind of web hosting server that he demands for his work, and, of course, the web site hosting corporation that's going to provide it. There are different sorts of web hosting servers, depending on the specs and the web site hosting services that they provide. These are:
Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared web site hosting server includes a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the cost of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small sized and medium web sites, which do not need huge quantities of disk storage space and web traffic.
Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they function on the same principle as the shared website hosting servers. In spite of that, there are much less customers sharing the same server. That is why, each of them will get a bigger quota of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, server space, traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting enormous web pages that do not demand full root-level access.
Virtual Servers - the VPSs are excellent for medium size websites, which do demand root access to the server's config files. Normally, there are several virtual web server hosting accounts hosted on the same server. In spite of that, each of them is insulated from the rest and has its own Operating System.
Dedicated Servers - a completely dedicated machine configured and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a tremendous amount of resources. It also gives root-level access, which renders it an excellent solution for any sort of web site that necessitates a web site hosting solution.
The only question that remains is:
Which web space hosting distributor should I choose?
As mentioned, there are very few hosts providing warez hosting services because of legal entanglements. Such providers are being closed down almost every month. For that reason, if you want to provide such a service, you should do it on your own personal computer. The shared web space hosting service is the most famous kind of web hosting service. That is why, each and every web site hosting supplier provides it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as virtual servers, semi-dedicated hosting servers and dedicated web hosting servers. Most of the small scale hosting firms do not have the resources needed for maintaining those solutions. That is the reason why it's always best to settle on a bigger web hosting company that can furnish its customers with all the solutions that they require. You can easily identify such hosting companies by the types of services that they are making available and by the manner in which they introduce them to the customers. For instance, certain web hosting providers permit you to commence with a low-end site hosting plan and subsequently upgrade to a bigger one, if you consider it obligatory to do so. This is extremely suitable, since you do not have to transfer web sites between web hosting servers and there is no chance of suffering network outages due to all the problems that may occur. Hosting providers like Smartway Hosting offer all types of services and possess the necessary web server resources and staff to assure that their clients will not encounter any troubles when changing services, which is what a top hosting firm is actually all about.