A description of web site hosting

As its name indicates, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting web content. There are different forms and kinds of hosting, depending on the goals and on the functions. However, they all are related to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available throughout the World Wide Web. A web host is actually a hosting server that is connected to the World Wide Web and has its very own Internet Protocol address, which allows users to gain access to it via the World Wide Web. The web hosting server's configuration and its system resources depend on the type of hosting service it's going to be used for.

What are the different forms of hosting?

Depending on the function, the business hosting solution may be:

File Storage Web Hosting - this form of web hosting allows the users to save their files on a particular server. With the ordinary file hosting service, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the client that's utilizing the service. This web hosting service traditionally concerns backups of personal computers , documents, personal files and even other web hosting servers. This solution may also have given limits in relation to the data space and the root access. There may also be web traffic limitations, but that depends on the actual hosting service provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is very similar to the previous hosting service type. Even so, unlike the file web hosting service, the warez web hosting service is utilized for disseminating proprietary materials without being given the go-ahead by the licence bearer. In brief - it is associated with the illegal propagation of files and materials. There are numerous ways for this to be fulfilled, but the two chief ways are - through plain HTTP downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first way involves either a given website, or, most commonly, simply a directory on a web server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thus download proprietary documents free of cost. The second way entails a peer-to-peer connection, using the so-called Torrent servers, through which people swap files between each other. There aren't many webspace hosting corporations that permit that form of web hosting on their web servers, chiefly due to all the legal problems that it entails. Usually such web portals are hosted on personal dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by third-party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Hosting - this service is utilized with both shared website hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, depending on the client's intention. If you would like to have your own private SMTP electronic mail server, then you will need either a virtual hosting server or a dedicated hosting server that offers the level of access required to complete such an assignment. For common electronic mail web hosting purposes, however, you can set up a plain shared website hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain name. This is not a service that's very popular, since the website hosting and the e-mail hosting services are being served by two separate servers, often owned by different web hosting providers.

Web Site Hosting - the most famous and universally used hosting service now. It's used for hosting web site files, whose type is dependent on the Operating System the web hosting server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files request concrete server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be displayed properly on the Web. This type of hosting may include data space and web traffic restrictions, root-level access and central processing unit usage limits.

Based on the purpose and on the objectives, the client should select the sort of hosting server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the webspace hosting company that's going to supply it. There are several kinds of servers, based on the configuration and the website hosting solutions that they provide. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared web site hosting server supplies a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small scale and medium size web sites, which do not require vast quotas of server storage space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated Servers - they operate on the same principle as the shared web hosting servers. Even so, there are much fewer clients hosted on the same web hosting server. Because of that, each of them will receive a greater quota of the web server's resources like RAM, disk storage, traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting huge websites that do not demand full root-level access.

Virtual Servers - the virtual web servers are perfect for middle scale web sites, which do require root-level access to the web server's configuration files. Usually, there are a bunch of VPS hosting server accounts situated on the same physical server. Nonetheless, each of them is autonomous from the others and runs its own OS.

Dedicated Servers Hosting - a completely dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a vast quantity of system resources. It also provides complete root access, which makes it a perfect solution for any kind of site that requires a webspace hosting service.

The only question that remains is:

Which web hosting vendor should I opt for?

As stated above, there are not many web hosts offering warez web hosting solutions due to judicial problems. Such web hosts are being closed down almost every month. Therefore, if you would like to run such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared web page hosting solution is the most widely spread type of web hosting service. So, every website hosting provider provides it. Not all of them, though, provide solutions such as VPS servers, semi-dedicated hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the small sized website hosting firms do not have the resources needed for maintaining those services. Because of that it's always best to settle on a larger hosting company that can provide its customers with all the services that they necessitate. You can quickly ID such web hosting companies by the kinds of solutions that they are providing and by the way that they present them to the customers. For example, certain web hosting providers allow you to start with a small sized webspace hosting account and then shift to a bigger one, if you consider it mandatory to do so. This is extremely convenient, because you do not need to transfer sites between web servers and there is no risk of experiencing network downtime because of all the complications that may take place. Web hosting providers like 4 Web Host are offering all types of services and have the necessary hosting server resources and staff to ensure that their clients will not come across any troubles when changing services, which is what a top hosting vendor is in fact all about.