An explanation of web site hosting

As its name suggests, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting online content. There are different forms and types of web hosting, based on the mission and on the functions. Yet, they all pertain to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the Web. A host is in fact a web hosting service that is linked to the Web and has its own personal Internet Protocol address, which permits people to have access to it through the World Wide Web. The web server's configuration and its resources are subject to the kind of hosting service it will be used for.

What are the various forms of hosting?

Depending on the goal, the business website hosting service may be:

File Storage Hosting - this type of hosting enables the users to save their files on a particular web hosting server. With the classic file hosting solution, the files that are kept may only be accessed by the customer that's using the service. This hosting solution typically is connected with backups of PCs , docs, personal files and even other servers. This service may also impose given restrictions when it comes to the disk space and the root privileges. There may also be traffic quota limits, but that is dependent on the actual hosting provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is comparable with the previous web hosting service form. However, unlike the file storage web hosting service, the warez web hosting service is used for circulating patented materials without the sanction of the copyright holder. In brief - it is related to the unauthorized propagation of files and materials. There are many approaches for this to be attained, but the two main ways are - through simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through P2P connections. The first approach entails either a certain web page, or, most typically, simply a directory on a web hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download licensed files free of charge. The second approach entails a peer-to-peer connection, making use of the so-called Torrent servers, via which people swap files between each other. There are just a few webspace hosting companies that permit such type of web hosting on their servers, mostly because of all the legal complications that it involves. Generally such websites are hosted on private dedicated hosting servers that are registered by third-party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared site hosting and dedicated web servers, based on the customer's intention. If you would like to create your own private SMTP mail server, then you will require either a Virtual Private Server or a dedicated hosting server that provides the level of access needed to execute such an operation. For ordinary e-mail web hosting purposes, however, you can open an average shared website hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain name. This is not a solution that's very famous, because the web site hosting and the email hosting services are being served by two separate web servers, usually owned by different firms.

Website Hosting - the most famous and regularly used hosting service now. It's utilized for hosting site files, whose sort depends on the Operating System the server is utilizing - Linux or Windows. Different types of files require concrete server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be shown appropriately on the World Wide Web. This type of web hosting may contain server storage space and bandwidth quota limitations, root access and central processing unit usage limits.

Depending on the goals and on the objectives, the user should pick the type of web hosting server that he needs for his project, and, of course, the web space hosting vendor that's going to provide it. There are various types of servers, depending on the specs and the web site hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Website Hosting Server - a shared website hosting server provides a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, reflects on the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small and medium web portals, which do not require vast quantities of web storage space and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Servers Hosting - they function on the same principle as the shared webspace hosting servers. Nonetheless, there are much less customers sharing the same server. That is why, each of them will receive a greater share of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, server storage, bandwidth and CPU. Excellent for hosting big web sites that do not demand root-level access.

Virtual Servers - the private virtual web servers are ideal for medium online portals, which do require root access to the web server's config files. Normally, there are a bunch of private virtual web server accounts accommodated on the same physical server. In spite of that, each of them is autonomous from the other ones and runs its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers - a completely dedicated web hosting server configured and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a large quantity of resources. It also includes root-level access, which renders it the optimal environment for any kind of online portal that necessitates a web site hosting service.

The sole question that's left is:

Which web hosting distributor should I settle on?

As already mentioned, there are not many companies providing warez web hosting services due to judicial entanglements. Such web hosting providers are being shut down almost every month. Therefore, if you desire to offer such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared web hosting solution is the most widely spread type of hosting service. So, each web hosting company provides it. Not all of them, however, offer services such as virtual private web hosting servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated servers. Most of the small sized hosting providers do not have the means required for maintaining those services. Because of that it's invariably best to select a larger hosting company that can supply its customers with all the solutions that they request. You can quickly ID such hosts by the types of services that they are making available and by the way that they introduce them to the customers. For instance, certain hosting companies permit you to start with a smaller hosting package and then upgrade to a more advanced one, if you consider it obligatory to do so. This is very suitable, because you do not need to transmit web portals between servers and there is no chance of suffering service downtime because of all the complications that may appear. Hosting companies such as NTC Hosting offer all sorts of solutions and possess the required server resources and staff to ensure that their clients will not encounter any predicaments when swapping services, which is what a top hosting distributor is in fact all about.