As its name implies, hosting is a solution, which entails hosting online content. There are various varieties and types of hosting, depending on the purpose and on the functions. Yet, they all refer to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the World Wide Web. A host is in fact a web hosting service that is connected to the World Wide Web and has its own personal IP address, which allows users to have access to it through the Web. The hosting server’s configuration and its limitations are dependent on the form of web hosting service it’s going to be used for.
What are the different forms of hosting?
Depending on the function, the web hosting service may be:
File Hosting – this form of web hosting permits the users to keep their files on a specific server. With the regular file storage web hosting service, the files that are stashed may only be accessed by the customer that’s availing of the service. This hosting solution typically entails backups of PCs , docs, private files and even other hosting servers. This service may also impose given restrictions in terms of the server storage space and the root-level access. There may also be web traffic limitations, but that depends on the actual provider.
- Warez Hosting
The so-called warez hosting service is quite similar to the previous hosting service type. However, in contrast with the file hosting solution, the warez hosting service is used for spreading proprietary work without the sanction of the license proprietor. To put it briefly – it is related to the forbidden transmission of files and materials. There are numerous ways for this to be achieved, but the two main approaches are – via simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections.
The first way entails either a given website, or, most often, just a directory on a web server that’s been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download proprietary files free of cost. The second method entails a peer-to-peer connection, using the so-called Torrent servers, via which users swap files between each other.
There are just a few web page hosting distributors that permit such type of web hosting on their servers, mainly owing to all the legal problems that it entails. Commonly such web portals are hosted on personal dedicated hosting servers that are registered by 3rd party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia. - E-mail Web Hosting
This service is relevant with both shared webspace hosting and dedicated web hosting, depending on the customer’s wish. If you wish to run your very own private SMTP email server, then you will require either a private virtual web server or a dedicated web server that offers the access level required to perform such an assignment. For standard mail hosting ends, however, you can set up a conventional shared web page hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a service that’s widely popular, since the web hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by two different web servers, usually belonging to different providers. - Web Page Hosting
The most popular and regularly utilized web hosting service as of now. It’s utilized for hosting web site files, whose sort is determined by the Operating System the web server is running – Linux or Windows. Different types of files need concrete hosting server Operating Systems, or else they won’t be shown correctly on the Web. This kind of web hosting may have server space and traffic limits, root-level access and CPU usage limits. Based on the purpose and on the functions, the customer should choose the type of web server that he demands for his work, and, of course, the web space hosting supplier that’s going to provide it.
There are several types of web hosting servers, based on the specs and the web space hosting solutions that they offer. These are:
- Shared Website Hosting Servers
A shared hosting server supplies a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, is reflected on the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small sized and middle sized web pages, which do not demand considerable amounts of disk storage space and web traffic. - Semi-dedicated Servers
They are based on the same principle as the shared website hosting servers. Nevertheless, there are much fewer clients hosted on the same server. For that reason, each of them will receive a larger quota of the hosting server’s resources like RAM, storage space, traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting bulky websites that do not need full root privileges. - Virtual Private Servers
The VPS hosting servers are perfect for medium scale web portals, which do require root access to the web hosting server’s config files. Normally, there are a handful of private virtual hosting server accounts hosted on the same server. However, each of them is independent from the other ones and runs its own Operating System. - Dedicated Servers
A fully dedicated physical server configured and accessed by you and only you. It ensures a great quantity of system resources. It also gives complete root-level access, which renders it the optimal environment for any kind of online portal that demands a web site hosting service.
The only question that remains is:
Which website hosting company should I pick?
As already mentioned, there are not many hosting providers offering warez web hosting solutions because of legal entanglements. Such companies are being closed down almost every month. For that reason, if you would like to set up such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared web site hosting solution is the most popular type of web hosting service. Because of that, each web space hosting corporation provides it.
Not all of them, however, offer solutions such as virtual private web hosting servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the small sized website hosting suppliers do not have the resources required for offering those services. Because of that it’s always best to select a bigger web hosting company that can provide its clients with all the services that they want. You can easily ID such web hosting companies by the sorts of services that they are offering and by the manner in which they present them to the customers. For example, some providers allow you to begin with a low-end web hosting plan and afterwards move to a more advanced one, if you find it compulsory to do so.
This is very suitable, because you do not need to move sites between web servers and there is no risk of suffering downtime due to all the complications that may show up. Web hosting providers like ’50 Webs’ offer all kinds of services and possess the required web hosting server resources and staff to assure that their clients will not suffer any hassles when swapping services, which is what a top web hosting vendor is in fact all about.