An explanation of website hosting

As its name signifies, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting web content. There are various forms and kinds of web hosting, depending on the aims and on the usage. Even so, they all refer to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the Web. A web host is actually a server that is connected to the World Wide Web and has its very own Internet Protocol address, which permits users to get access to it via the Internet. The hosting server's configuration and its system resources are determined by the kind of hosting service it's going to be used for.

What are the various forms of web hosting?

Based on the goal, the business hosting solution may be:

File Storage Web Hosting - this type of hosting permits the users to host their files on a given web hosting server. With the typical file storage web hosting solution, the files that are kept may only be accessed by the person that's using the service. This hosting solution generally refers to backups of computers , documents, personal files and even other servers. This solution may also contain certain restrictions with regard to the disk storage and the root access. There may also be traffic quota limits, but that is dependent on the actual provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is quite similar to the previous hosting service type. Nonetheless, in contrast with the file storage hosting service, the warez web hosting solution is utilized for propagating copyrighted content without the approval of the licence owner. In brief - it involves the unauthorized dissemination of files and materials. There are many ways for this to be executed, but the two chief methods are - via simple HTTP downloading and via P2P connections. The first approach involves either some website, or, most commonly, just a directory on a web server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download licensed content free of cost. The second method involves a peer-to-peer connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent web servers, through which people share files between each other. There are a few web site hosting firms that allow such form of web hosting on their web hosting servers, mostly because of all the judicial entanglements that it entails. Generally such sites are hosted on personal dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by 3rd party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Web Hosting - this solution is used with both shared site hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, based on the client's desire. If you want to establish your own private SMTP mail server, then you will need either a private virtual server or a dedicated hosting server that offers the access level needed to complete such an operation. For regular e-mail web hosting purposes, however, you can avail of a normal shared hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain name. This is not a service that's very popular, because the web page hosting and the email hosting services are being served by two separate servers, often belonging to different web hosts.

Site Hosting - the most widespread and broadly utilized hosting service as of today. It's utilized for hosting web site files, whose sort depends on the OS the web server is availing of - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files demand concrete web server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be exhibited appropriately on the Web. This form of hosting may contain disk space and web traffic limitations, root access and central processing unit usage limitations.

Depending on the mission and on the functions, the customer should choose the type of server that he demands for his work, and, of course, the website hosting distributor that's going to supply it. There are several kinds of web servers, based on the configuration and the website hosting services that they provide. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared site hosting server includes a smaller amount of resources, which, of course, is manifested in the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small scale and middle scale web portals, which do not need large quantities of storage space and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Servers Hosting - they perform on the very same principle as the shared web page hosting servers. However, there are much fewer customers sharing the same web server. For that reason, each of them will receive a greater quota of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, data storage space, traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting popular sites that do not demand complete server root access.

Virtual Servers - the VPS servers are perfect for medium sized online portals, which do need root-level access to the web server's config files. Commonly, there are a number of VPS web hosting accounts placed on the same physical server. Nevertheless, each of them is independent from the other ones and has its own OS.

Dedicated Server - a completely dedicated server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It ensures a considerable quantity of resources. It also provides server root access, which renders it the optimal environment for any type of site that requires a hosting solution.

The only question that's left is:

Which site hosting firm should I settle on?

As mentioned above, there aren't many providers providing warez hosting solutions due to legal entanglements. Such companies are being shut down practically every month. That is why, if you wish to provide such a service, you should do it on your very own PC. The shared web hosting solution is the most widely spread kind of web hosting service. That is why, each site hosting vendor offers it. Not all of them, though, offer solutions such as virtual private web servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the small scale hosting vendors do not have the means demanded for offering those solutions. That is the reason why it's invariably best to settle on a larger hosting company that can supply its clients with all the services that they are looking for. You can easily ID such web hosts by the types of services that they are supplying and by the way that they present them to the customers. For example, certain companies permit you to kick off with a small sized web hosting plan and afterwards upgrade to a bigger one, if you deem it compulsory to do so. This is extremely convenient, because you do not have to transmit web pages between servers and there is no possibility of facing service downtime due to all the complications that may show up. Web hosts such as Terapulse are offering all sorts of solutions and have the needed web hosting server resources and staff to guarantee that their clients will not experience any hassles when changing services, which is what a top hosting supplier is actually all about.