An explanation of hosting

As its name indicates, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting online content. There are various forms and kinds of web hosting, based on the aims and on the functions. Even so, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the Web. A host is actually a hosting server that is linked to the Web and has its own personal Internet Protocol address, which permits users to gain access to it through the Internet. The hosting server's architecture and its limitations are determined by the kind of hosting service it will be used for.

What are the different types of hosting?

Based on the mission, the business hosting service may be:

File Storage Web Hosting - this form of web hosting allows the clients to store their files on a given web server. With the traditional file storage hosting solution, the files that are stored may only be accessed by the individual that's availing of the service. This web hosting solution usually is related to backups of personal computers , docs, private files and even other hosting servers. This solution may also involve given limits in terms of the data storage space and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic limits, but that is dependent on the given provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is quite similar to the previous hosting service type. Nevertheless, in contrast with the file storage hosting service, the warez web hosting service is used for distributing proprietary work without being given the okay to do so by the patent bearer. To cut a long story short - it involves the unauthorized circulation of files and docs. There are many ways for this to be realized, but the two main methods are - through simple HTTP downloading and through P2P connections. The first one involves either a certain web portal, or, most often, just a directory on a web hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download copyrighted docs free of charge. The second method entails a P2P connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent servers, via which people transmit files between each other. There are very few web space hosting vendors that allow such type of hosting on their web hosting servers, mostly owing to all the legal complications that it presupposes. Generally such web pages are hosted on personal dedicated web servers that are registered by 3rd party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Electronic Mail Hosting - this solution is applicable with both shared web space hosting and dedicated servers, based on the user's desire. If you desire to set up your own private SMTP mail server, then you will need either a virtual private web hosting server or a dedicated server that provides the access level needed to execute such an assignment. For common electronic mail hosting purposes, though, you can set up a standard shared web site hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a service that's widely famous, because the web hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by two different servers, often owned by different providers.

Web Page Hosting - the most popular and largely used hosting service at present. It's used for hosting website files, whose kind is determined by the OS the hosting server is using - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files necessitate concrete web server OSs, otherwise they won't be exhibited properly on the Internet. This kind of hosting may contain data storage and web traffic restrictions, root-level access and central processing unit usage restrictions.

Depending on the mission and on the functions, the user should choose the sort of server that he demands for his work, and, of course, the web hosting corporation that's going to provide it. There are several sorts of servers, based on the specifications and the web space hosting solutions that they provide. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared site hosting server supplies a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, is manifested in the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small sized and medium size web pages, which do not require large quantities of server space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they function on the very same principle as the shared site hosting servers. Yet, there are much fewer clients sharing the same server. Therefore, each of them will receive a bigger quota of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, web storage space, web traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting huge web sites that do not need full root-level access.

Virtual Private Server - the virtual private web hosting servers are perfect for medium size web portals, which do require root-level access to the server's config files. Commonly, there are several virtual hosting server accounts hosted on the same machine. Even so, each of them is independent from the other ones and has its own OS.

Dedicated Server - a fully dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a vast quantity of system resources. It also provides complete server root access, which makes it an excellent solution for any kind of website that requires a web space hosting solution.

The only question that's left is:

Which web space hosting company should I choose?

As mentioned above, there aren't many providers providing warez web hosting solutions because of judicial problems. Such hosting providers are being shut down practically every month. Therefore, if you desire to provide such a service, you should do it on your very own personal computer. The shared hosting service is the most widely spread kind of hosting service. That is why, each web space hosting firm provides it. Not all of them, however, offer services such as virtual web servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the smaller hosting corporations do not have the means demanded for maintaining those solutions. Hence it's invariably best to settle on a bigger host that can supply its clients with all the services that they request. You can quickly identify such hosting companies by the sorts of solutions that they are supplying and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clients. For instance, certain hosting providers allow you to begin with a small scale site hosting package and afterwards shift to a more powerful one, if you consider it compulsory to do so. This is quite convenient, because you do not need to move websites between servers and there is no risk of experiencing downtime because of all the complications that may occur. Companies like I'mHosting provide all sorts of solutions and have the required hosting server resources and personnel to assure that their customers will not chance upon any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting firm is in fact all about.