A definition of web page hosting

As its name suggests, web hosting is a solution, which entails hosting web content. There are various forms and types of hosting, depending on the mission and on the usage. Nevertheless, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the Internet. A host is actually a hosting server that is connected to the Internet and has its very own IP address, which permits users to gain access to it through the World Wide Web. The hosting server's configuration and its resources are subject to the sort of hosting solution it's going to be utilized for.

What are the different forms of web hosting?

Based on the objective, the hosting service may be:

File Storage Hosting - this type of hosting permits the customers to store their files on a particular server. With the traditional file storage hosting service, the files that are stashed may only be accessed by the person that's availing of the service. This web hosting solution typically refers to backups of computers , docs, private files and even other web servers. This solution may also have certain limits in terms of the storage space and the root access. There may also be web traffic quota limitations, but that depends on the actual provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is resembling the previous web hosting service type. Even so, unlike the file storage hosting service, the warez web hosting solution is utilized for propagating licensed materials without being given the go-ahead by the license proprietor. In brief - it pertains to the criminal dissemination of files and documents. There are a lot of methods for this to be accomplished, but the two essential ways are - through plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first way involves either a given site, or, most typically, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thus download licensed materials free of cost. The second method involves a peer-to-peer connection, availing of the so-called Torrent servers, via which people share files between each other. There are very few web space hosting firms that permit that type of web hosting on their web servers, mainly because of all the legal troubles that it entails. Typically such web sites are hosted on private dedicated servers that are registered by third-party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Electronic Mail Web Hosting - this solution is used with both shared site hosting and dedicated hosting servers, based on the user's intention. If you want to create your own personal SMTP mail server, then you will require either a VPS web hosting server or a dedicated web hosting server that offers the access level required to carry out such an operation. For regular mail web hosting purposes, however, you can avail of an ordinary shared web page hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a solution that's widely famous, since the web hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by two separate servers, usually owned by different web hosting providers.

Web Page Hosting - the most popular and universally used hosting service these days. It's utilized for hosting website files, whose type is dependent on the OS the web server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files demand concrete hosting server OSs, or else they won't be exhibited correctly on the Internet. This kind of web hosting may have server storage and web traffic limits, root-level access and central processing unit usage limits.

Based on the purpose and on the functions, the client should pick the kind of server that he demands for his project, and, of course, the web space hosting firm that's going to provide it. There are different sorts of hosting servers, based on the configuration and the webspace hosting services that they provide. These are:

Shared Website Hosting Server - a shared web page hosting server provides a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small size and medium scale online portals, which do not require big quantities of web storage space and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they are based on the very same principle as the shared web page hosting servers. However, there are much less customers hosted on the same server. Hence, each of them will enjoy a greater share of the web server's resources like RAM, web storage, web traffic and CPU. Perfect for hosting huge online portals that do not demand root access.

Virtual Private Server - the private virtual web hosting servers are excellent for middle size sites, which do need root access to the server's configuration files. Typically, there are several VPS server web hosting accounts sharing the same server. However, each of them is isolated from the others and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers - a fully dedicated physical server configured and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a gigantic amount of system resources. It also includes root access, which makes it a perfect environment for any kind of web portal that requires a web hosting service.

The only question that's left is:

Which web space hosting supplier should I select?

As already mentioned, there aren't many providers providing warez hosting services because of judicial troubles. Such web hosting companies are being closed down almost every month. Therefore, if you wish to offer such a service, you should do it on your very own PC. The shared hosting solution is the most widely spread type of hosting service. That is why, each and every web space hosting firm offers it. Not all of them, though, offer services such as virtual private web hosting servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the smaller website hosting vendors do not have the resources needed for maintaining those solutions. That is the reason why it's invariably best to go with a bigger web hosting company that can supply its clients with all the solutions that they request. You can easily identify such web hosts by the types of solutions that they are providing and by the way that they introduce them to the customers. For instance, some web hosts permit you to start with a low-end web site hosting package and afterwards move to a more powerful one, if you find it necessary to do so. This is extremely convenient, since you do not have to transmit web pages between web hosting servers and there is no possibility of experiencing service interruptions because of all the complications that may take place. Web hosting providers like Free Hostia provide all types of solutions and have the necessary web hosting server resources and personnel to ensure that their customers will not run into any problems when swapping services, which is what a top hosting company is actually all about.