A definition of hosting
As its name signifies, web hosting is a solution, which entails hosting online content. There are various forms and kinds of web hosting, based on the mission and on the usage. However, they all entail hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the Web. A host is in fact a web server that is linked to the Internet and has its own personal Internet Protocol address, which allows users to have access to it via the World Wide Web. The web server's architecture and its limitations are subject to the form of web hosting service it will be utilized for.
What are the different types of hosting?
Depending on the application, the hosting solution may be:
File Storage Hosting - this type of hosting permits the users to host their files on a specific hosting server. With the regular file web hosting service, the files that are stored may only be accessed by the client that's using the service. This hosting solution mainly involves backups of PCs , documents, personal files and even other hosting servers. This solution may also involve certain restrictions in relation to the web storage and the root-level access. There may also be bandwidth quota limits, but that depends on the particular web hosting service provider.
Warez Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting solution is comparable with the previous hosting service type. Even so, unlike the file storage web hosting solution, the warez web hosting service is utilized for propagating copyrighted materials without being given the green light by the copyright proprietor. In brief - it involves the unlawful circulation of files and docs. There are a lot of methods for this to be completed, but the two essential approaches are - via plain HTTP downloading and through P2P connections. The first way entails either a given web page, or, most typically, just a directory on a server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thus download patented content free of cost. The second method entails a P2P connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent web servers, through which people share files between each other. There are a few web page hosting distributors that allow that type of hosting on their web hosting servers, mostly because of all the legal troubles that it entails. Typically such web pages are hosted on personal dedicated web servers that are registered by 3rd party enterprises either in the Middle East or in Asia.
Email Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared web site hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, depending on the customer's intention. If you wish to create your very own private SMTP server, then you will need either a virtual private web hosting server or a dedicated web server that offers the level of access required to carry out such an operation. For conventional email hosting purposes, however, you can utilize a conventional shared site hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a service that's widely used, because the website hosting and the email hosting services are being served by two separate web servers, often belonging to separate firms.
Web Page Hosting - the most widely spread and broadly utilized hosting service as of now. It's used for hosting site files, whose type is determined by the OS the server is running - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files need specific web server Operating Systems, or else they won't be exhibited accurately on the Web. This form of web hosting may include disk space and web traffic limitations, root access and CPU usage limitations.
Based on the purpose and on the functions, the customer should choose the kind of web hosting server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the hosting distributor that's going to supply it. There are different kinds of web hosting servers, depending on the specs and the webspace hosting solutions that they offer. These are:
Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared site hosting server supplies a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the cost of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small size and medium size websites, which do not demand huge quantities of server storage space and web traffic.
Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they work on the same principle as the shared web hosting servers. However, there are much fewer customers hosted on the same hosting server. Because of that, each of them will get a larger quota of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, disk storage space, bandwidth and CPU. Excellent for hosting bulky web portals that do not need complete root-level access.
VPS hosting - the VPS servers are excellent for middle scale web portals, which do need root-level access to the web hosting server's configuration files. Typically, there are a bunch of VPS accounts hosted on the same machine. Yet, each of them is insulated from the other ones and runs its own OS.
Dedicated Server Hosting - a completely dedicated physical server configured and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a mammoth quantity of system resources. It also gives full server root access, which makes it a perfect platform for any sort of online portal that demands a site hosting service.
The only question that's left is:
Which site hosting distributor should I select?
As already mentioned, there are just a few hosting companies offering warez hosting services due to judicial problems. Such companies are being shut down practically every month. For that reason, if you want to run such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared web space hosting service is the most popular kind of web hosting service. Therefore, each web space hosting supplier provides it. Not all of them, though, offer services such as VPS hosting servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the smaller website hosting corporations do not have the resources needed for maintaining those solutions. Because of that it's invariably best to choose a larger hosting company that can provide its clients with all the solutions that they want. You can effortlessly recognize such companies by the kinds of solutions that they are making available and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clients. For instance, some hosting providers allow you to begin with a low-end webspace hosting package and subsequently upgrade to a bigger one, if you deem it obligatory to do so. This is very suitable, because you do not have to transfer web sites between hosting servers and there is no possibility of suffering network outages because of all the predicaments that may occur. Web hosting providers like Heartland Web Hosting offer all types of solutions and possess the required server resources and personnel to ensure that their customers will not experience any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting vendor is actually all about.