An explanation of web hosting

As its name implies, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting online content. There are different forms and types of hosting, based on the aims and on the objectives. In spite of that, they all entail hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the Internet. A host is actually a web hosting service that is linked to the Web and has its very own Internet Protocol address, which enables users to gain access to it through the Web. The web server's architecture and its system resources depend on the form of hosting service it's going to be used for.

What are the various forms of web hosting?

Based on the function, the web hosting service may be:

File Storage Web Hosting - this type of hosting allows the clients to lodge their files on a specific hosting server. With the classic file storage web hosting service, the files that are deposited may only be accessed by the individual that's using the service. This web hosting service normally involves backups of personal computers , docs, personal files and even other web servers. This solution may also contain given restrictions in relation to the web storage space and the root-level access. There may also be traffic quota limits, but that depends on the given web hosting service provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting solution is very similar to the previous web hosting service form. Nonetheless, unlike the file hosting service, the warez web hosting solution is used for transmitting licensed materials without being given the OK to do so by the licence owner. To put it briefly - it is connected with the illegal dissemination of files and materials. There are lots of methods for this to be carried out, but the 2 main ways are - through simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through P2P connections. The first one involves either a specific site, or, most commonly, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download licensed materials free of cost. The second approach entails a peer-to-peer connection, using the so-called Torrent web servers, via which people share files between each other. There are very few website hosting companies that allow that type of web hosting on their web hosting servers, mostly due to all the legal complications that it involves. Generally such websites are hosted on personal dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by third-party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared site hosting and dedicated servers, depending on the customer's wish. If you would like to set up your own private SMTP electronic mail server, then you will require either a virtual private web hosting server or a dedicated hosting server that provides the access level required to execute such a task. For normal e-mail web hosting ends, though, you can set up an ordinary shared webspace hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a service that's very famous, since the web hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by two different servers, usually owned by separate hosting providers.

Website Hosting - the most widely spread and immensely utilized hosting service at present. It's used for hosting website files, whose sort is determined by the Operating System the web hosting server is using - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files need specific server OSs, or else they won't be displayed accurately on the Internet. This form of hosting may have disk storage space and traffic quota limits, root-level access and central processing unit usage limitations.

Depending on the mission and on the usage, the customer should choose the kind of server that he needs for his project, and, of course, the web hosting supplier that's going to provide it. There are different kinds of hosting servers, based on the specs and the website hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Website Hosting Server - a shared web page hosting server includes a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, is manifested in the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small sized and middle size sites, which do not demand big quantities of disk space and web traffic.

Semi-Dedicated - they are based on the very same principle as the shared web page hosting servers. Yet, there are much less clients accommodated on the same hosting server. Therefore, each of them will have a larger quota of the web server's resources like RAM, data storage space, web traffic and CPU. Perfect for hosting immense sites that do not require complete root access.

VPS - the private virtual web hosting servers are perfect for medium online portals, which do demand root-level access to the server's configuration files. Normally, there are a few virtual private hosting server accounts located on the same machine. However, each of them is insulated from the other ones and has its own OS.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a completely dedicated hosting server set up and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees an immense amount of resources. It also offers complete root access, which makes it the optimal environment for any kind of online portal that demands a webspace hosting service.

The sole question that's left is:

Which web space hosting firm should I select?

As already stated, there are not many web hosting providers providing warez web hosting solutions because of judicial predicaments. Such hosts are being shut down almost every month. Because of that, if you wish to create such a service, you should do it on your own personal computer. The shared site hosting service is the most widely spread kind of web hosting service. Hence, each and every web hosting provider offers it. Not all of them, though, provide solutions such as virtual private web servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated web hosting servers. Most of the small scale hosting vendors do not have the resources needed for offering those services. For that reason it's invariably best to select a bigger hosting company that can provide its clients with all the services that they require. You can quickly ID such web hosting companies by the sorts of solutions that they are providing and by the way that they present them to the clientele. For instance, some companies allow you to commence with a small sized web site hosting plan and then move to a more advanced one, if you find it mandatory to do so. This is very convenient, since you do not have to transfer web portals between web hosting servers and there is no chance of facing outages because of all the problems that may show up. Hosting providers such as Hostomedia provide all types of solutions and have the required hosting server resources and staff to ensure that their clients will not stumble upon any problems when changing services, which is what a top hosting firm is in fact all about.