An explanation of web site hosting

As its name hints, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting online content. There are different forms and types of web hosting, based on the goals and on the objectives. Nonetheless, they all are related to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the World Wide Web. A web host is in fact a web hosting service that is connected to the World Wide Web and has its very own IP address, which enables users to access it through the Web. The server's configuration and its resources are determined by the kind of web hosting service it's going to be utilized for.

What are the various forms of hosting?

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

File Web Hosting - this type of web hosting permits the customers to stash their files on a specific hosting server. With the classic file hosting service, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the customer that's utilizing the service. This hosting service mainly involves backups of personal computers , documents, private files and even other web servers. This solution may also involve given restrictions with regard to the storage space and the root privileges. There may also be bandwidth quota limitations, but that depends on the particular hosting provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting solution is very similar to the previous web hosting service type. Nonetheless, unlike the file hosting solution, the warez hosting service is utilized for transmitting copyrighted materials without the sanction of the license possessor. In brief - it entails the illegal propagation of files and documents. There are lots of methods for this to be carried out, but the two essential approaches are - via plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through P2P connections. The first way involves either a certain web site, or, most commonly, just a directory on a web hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download patented docs free of charge. The second approach entails a P2P connection, availing of the so-called Torrent servers, via which people share files between each other. There are a few web space hosting vendors that permit such form of hosting on their web hosting servers, chiefly due to all the legal troubles that it presupposes. Commonly such web portals are hosted on private dedicated web servers that are registered by third-party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Email Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared web site hosting and dedicated hosting servers, depending on the client's desire. If you would like to build your very own personal SMTP email server, then you will require either a VPS web server or a dedicated web server that offers the level of access required to complete such an operation. For standard mail web hosting purposes, however, you can open an average shared web space 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 site hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by two different servers, often owned by separate providers.

Site Hosting - the most widely spread and immensely utilized hosting service as of now. It's used for hosting web site files, whose type is dependent on the OS the web server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files demand different web hosting server OSs, otherwise they won't be shown appropriately on the Web. This sort of hosting may include web storage space and traffic limitations, server root access and CPU usage restrictions.

Based on the goals and on the functions, the customer should choose the kind of web server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the website hosting provider that's going to supply it. There are different sorts of hosting servers, based on the configuration and the site hosting services that they offer. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared web 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 web portals, which do not demand considerable quotas of server space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they operate on the very same principle as the shared site hosting servers. Nonetheless, there are much fewer clients sharing the same server. That is why, each of them will receive a larger share of the hosting server's resources like RAM, web storage, bandwidth and CPU. Ideal for hosting heavy web pages that do not demand root access.

VPS hosting - the virtual private web servers are excellent for medium size web sites, which do need root-level access to the web server's config files. Generally, there are a bunch of virtual server accounts accommodated on the same machine. Still, each of them is autonomous from the other ones and runs its own OS.

Dedicated Servers - a fully dedicated web server configured and accessed by you and only you. It ensures a mammoth quantity of resources. It also offers root-level access, which makes it a perfect environment for any kind of online portal that demands a site hosting service.

The sole question that remains is:

Which website hosting distributor should I opt for?

As mentioned above, there are very few providers offering 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 own PC. The shared hosting solution is the most widespread type of hosting service. That is why, each and every hosting corporation provides it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as private virtual hosting servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small scale web hosting vendors do not have the means required for maintaining those solutions. That is the reason why it's always best to settle on a bigger company that can furnish its customers with all the services that they are looking for. You can quickly ID such hosts by the types of services that they are offering and by the way that they introduce them to the customers. For instance, some web hosting companies permit you to start with a small scale web space hosting package and afterwards move to a bigger one, if you consider it mandatory to do so. This is quite convenient, since you do not need to relocate sites between servers and there is no chance of experiencing outages because of all the problems that may crop up. Hosting providers like Smartest Media offer all kinds of solutions and possess the needed hosting server resources and staff to guarantee that their clients will not face any troubles when changing services, which is what a top hosting provider is in fact all about.