A description of web site hosting

As its name signifies, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting web content. There are various forms and kinds of web hosting, based on the mission and on the objectives. Still, they all pertain to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available throughout the Web. A host is actually a web server that is connected to the World Wide Web and has its own personal IP address, which enables users to have access to it through the World Wide Web. The web server's architecture and its limitations are subject to the type of hosting service it will be used for.

What are the different types of hosting?

Depending on the usage, the business hosting service may be:

File Web Hosting - this form of hosting permits the customers to keep their files on a particular web server. With the normal file hosting service, the files that are saved may only be accessed by the customer that's utilizing the service. This web hosting service mainly refers to backups of computers , docs, private files and even other hosting servers. This solution may also have certain restrictions in terms of the web space and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic quota limits, but that depends on the particular hosting provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is quite similar to the previous web hosting service form. However, in contrast with the file hosting service, the warez hosting solution is used for disseminating licensed work without the permission of the license proprietor. In brief - it is associated with the unauthorized circulation of files and materials. There are a lot of ways for this to be brought about, but the two principal ways are - via simple HTTP downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first method entails either a certain web page, or, most often, simply a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download licensed files free of cost. The second way entails a P2P connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent web servers, via which users swap files between each other. There are a few web space hosting corporations that permit that type of hosting on their web hosting servers, chiefly due to all the legal problems that it entails. Generally such web sites are hosted on private dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by third-party enterprises either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Hosting - this solution is used with both shared webspace hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, based on the user's desire. If you want to establish your own private SMTP mail server, then you will require either a private virtual server or a dedicated web hosting server that provides the level of access needed to complete such an assignment. For standard e-mail 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 famous, because the website hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by two separate web servers, usually owned by separate hosting providers.

Site Hosting - the most widely spread and universally used hosting service as of today. It's utilized for hosting web site files, whose type is dependent on the Operating System the hosting server is running - Linux or Windows. Different types of files require different web hosting server OSs, otherwise they won't be exhibited accurately on the Internet. This sort of hosting may have storage space and bandwidth quota limitations, root access and central processing unit usage limitations.

Depending on the purpose and on the usage, the client should select the kind of web hosting server that he needs for his project, and, of course, the web hosting corporation that's going to provide it. There are several types of web hosting servers, based on the specs and the web space hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared web server provides a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small and medium sized web sites, which do not require enormous quotas of data space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated Servers Hosting - they work on the very same principle as the shared web space hosting servers. In spite of that, there are much less clients sharing the same server. That is why, each of them will get a bigger share of the web server's resources like RAM, disk storage, traffic and CPU. Ideal for hosting heavy web portals that do not require complete root-level access.

Virtual Servers - the VPS hosting servers are ideal for middle size online portals, which do demand root-level access to the web hosting server's config files. Generally, there are a bunch of virtual web server accounts located on the same machine. Even so, each of them is independent from the rest and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a completely dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a considerable amount of system resources. It also provides root-level access, which makes it the optimal environment for any kind of website that requires a web space hosting service.

The only question that remains is:

Which web site hosting company should I choose?

As already mentioned, there are very few web hosts offering warez hosting services due to judicial problems. Such web hosting providers are being closed down virtually every month. For that reason, if you would like to create such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared webspace hosting service is the most popular kind of web hosting service. For that reason, every hosting firm provides it. Not all of them, though, offer solutions such as private virtual web servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small sized hosting vendors do not have the means needed for maintaining those services. Therefore it's invariably best to go with a bigger web hosting company that can provide its clients with all the services that they are searching for. You can easily identify such web hosts by the types of services that they are offering and by the manner in which they present them to the clients. For example, some web hosts permit you to begin with a smaller website hosting package and then shift to a bigger one, if you consider it obligatory to do so. This is very suitable, since you do not have to move web pages between web hosting servers and there is no chance of suffering service disturbances due to all the complications that may arise. Hosting companies such as MarbleHost.com offer all types of solutions and have the needed web server resources and personnel to assure that their customers will not suffer any problems when swapping services, which is what a top hosting distributor is actually all about.