An explanation of web space hosting

As its name suggests, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting online content. There are different varieties and types of hosting, depending on the aims and on the objectives. In spite of that, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available throughout the Web. A host is in fact a web server that is linked to the Internet and has its own IP address, which allows people to get access to it via the Internet. The hosting server's configuration and its system resources depend on the form of web hosting solution it's going to be used for.

What are the different types of web hosting?

Depending on the mission, the professional hosting service may be:

File Hosting - this type of web hosting enables the clients to keep their files on a particular hosting server. With the average file hosting service, the files that are stashed may only be accessed by the individual that's utilizing the service. This web hosting service generally refers to backups of personal computers , docs, private files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also involve certain restrictions when it comes to the web storage space and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic restrictions, but that depends on the actual web hosting provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is quite similar to the previous web hosting service type. Nonetheless, in contrast with the file hosting service, the warez web hosting service is utilized for circulating licensed content without the approval of the patent possessor. In brief - it involves the illicit circulation of files and documents. There are many approaches for this to be completed, but the two essential approaches are - via plain HTTP downloading and via P2P connections. The first approach entails either a certain website, or, most typically, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download patented documents free of cost. The second approach involves a P2P connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent servers, through which people transmit files between each other. There are not many site hosting distributors that permit such form of web hosting on their web servers, mainly due to all the judicial problems that it involves. Typically such web pages are hosted on private dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party enterprises either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Electronic Mail Hosting - this solution is applicable with both shared webspace hosting and dedicated hosting servers, based on the user's intention. If you wish to have your own personal SMTP server, then you will require either a virtual private hosting server or a dedicated server that provides the access level required to complete such an operation. For regular electronic mail web hosting purposes, however, you can create an ordinary shared webspace hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain name. This is not a service that's very popular, since the site hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by 2 different web servers, usually owned by separate web hosting providers.

Web Site Hosting - the most widely spread and broadly used hosting service as of now. It's used for hosting site files, whose type depends on the Operating System the web hosting server is using - Linux or Windows. Different types of files necessitate different hosting server OSs, or else they won't be shown accurately on the Web. This type of web hosting may have server storage and web traffic limits, server root access and CPU usage limits.

Depending on the aims and on the objectives, the user should choose the type of web server that he demands for his project, and, of course, the website hosting distributor that's going to furnish it. There are different kinds of servers, depending on the specifications and the website hosting services that they provide. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared webspace hosting server supplies a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, is reflected on the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small scale and medium sized web sites, which do not demand enormous quotas of data storage space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated - they operate on the very same principle as the shared site hosting servers. In spite of that, there are much less clients sharing the same server. For that reason, each of them will have a greater quota of the server's resources like RAM, disk storage, traffic and CPU. Ideal for hosting heavy web pages that do not demand server root access.

Virtual Servers - the virtual web hosting servers are ideal for medium scale websites, which do need root-level access to the hosting server's config files. Commonly, there are a number of private virtual web hosting server accounts placed on the same physical machine. Nonetheless, each of them is autonomous from the rest and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers - a completely dedicated machine configured and accessed by you and solely you. It ensures a tremendous quantity of resources. It also offers server root access, which makes it an ideal environment for any type of site that requires a web site hosting service.

The sole question that's left is:

Which web site hosting firm should I pick?

As mentioned above, there are very few companies providing warez web hosting solutions because of judicial entanglements. Such hosts are being shut down practically every month. Therefore, if you want to create such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared web hosting service is the most widely spread kind of hosting service. Because of that, every hosting supplier offers it. Not all of them, however, provide services such as virtual private web hosting servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated servers. Most of the small scale site hosting firms do not have the resources required for offering those solutions. For that reason it's always best to select a bigger web host that can supply its customers with all the services that they are searching for. You can effortlessly ID such hosting companies by the sorts of solutions that they are offering and by the way that they introduce them to the clientele. For instance, some providers allow you to start with a small scale site hosting package and afterwards upgrade to a more advanced one, if you deem it mandatory to do so. This is quite suitable, since you do not need to relocate web portals between hosting servers and there is no risk of suffering network downtime because of all the complications that may show up. Web hosts like M S N Web Hosting offer all sorts of services and have the required server resources and staff to guarantee that their clients will not stumble upon any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting company is actually all about.