A description of hosting

As its name indicates, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting online content. There are different forms and types of web hosting, depending on the purpose and on the usage. Yet, they all entail hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available throughout the Internet. A host is actually a web server that is linked to the Internet and has its own personal Internet Protocol address, which enables people to have access to it through the Web. The web server's architecture and its system resources are dependent on the type of web hosting solution it will be used for.

What are the different types of web hosting?

Based on the application, the web hosting service may be:

File Storage Web Hosting - this form of hosting allows the customers to keep their files on a certain hosting server. With the conventional file hosting solution, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the person that's utilizing the service. This web hosting solution normally concerns backups of personal computers , documents, personal files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also include certain limitations when it comes to the data storage space and the root privileges. There may also be bandwidth quota limitations, but that is dependent on the particular web hosting service provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting solution is quite similar to the previous hosting service form. Even so, in contrast with the file storage hosting service, the warez hosting service is utilized for spreading patented materials without being given the green light by the license possessor. In short - it is associated with the prohibited transmission of files and materials. There are a lot of approaches for this to be fulfilled, but the two essential approaches are - through simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first one involves either a particular web page, or, most commonly, just a directory on a web hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download copyrighted documents for free. The second approach involves a peer-to-peer connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent web servers, via which people exchange files between each other. There are a few webspace hosting companies that permit that form of web hosting on their web servers, chiefly due to all the judicial entanglements that it entails. Usually such web pages are hosted on personal dedicated web servers that are registered by 3rd party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared web page hosting and dedicated servers, depending on the user's desire. If you wish to have your own personal SMTP mail server, then you will need either a virtual private web server or a dedicated hosting server that offers the access level needed to accomplish such an operation. For normal email web hosting purposes, though, you can use 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 very used, because the site hosting and the email hosting services are being served by 2 separate servers, usually belonging to separate web hosting providers.

Website Hosting - the most widely spread and immensely utilized hosting service nowadays. It's used for hosting site files, whose sort depends on the OS the web server is utilizing - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files demand specific web server OSs, or else they won't be displayed correctly on the Web. This type of hosting may contain web storage space and traffic quota limits, root-level access and CPU usage limits.

Based on the goals and on the functions, the client should pick the kind of hosting server that he needs for his work, and, of course, the web hosting corporation that's going to furnish it. There are different kinds of web servers, depending on the specs and the webspace hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Website Hosting Server - a shared web hosting server supplies a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, is manifested in the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small scale and medium size web pages, which do not need large quantities of data space and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated - they operate on the same principle as the shared web hosting servers. However, there are much fewer clients sharing the same web hosting server. For that reason, each of them will receive a larger quota of the server's resources like RAM, storage space, traffic and CPU. Perfect for hosting popular web sites that do not require root privileges.

Virtual Servers - the virtual private web servers are ideal for medium sized web portals, which do need root-level access to the web server's config files. Usually, there are a number of VPS hosting accounts sharing the same physical server. Yet, each of them is independent from the other ones and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a completely dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a considerable amount of resources. It also includes server root access, which makes it the optimal solution for any sort of web page that necessitates a web space hosting service.

The sole question that remains is:

Which web hosting firm should I choose?

As mentioned above, there aren't many web hosts offering warez web hosting services because of legal entanglements. Such providers are being closed down almost every month. Because of that, if you wish to run such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared web site hosting solution is the most famous kind of web hosting service. Because of that, every hosting vendor provides it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as VPS servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web hosting servers. Most of the small scale web hosting suppliers do not have the means needed for offering those solutions. Hence it's always best to go with a bigger company that can furnish its customers with all the solutions that they seek. You can quickly identify such hosting companies by the kinds of solutions that they are making available and by the way that they introduce them to the clientele. For instance, some hosts allow you to start with a smaller web hosting plan and then move to a bigger one, if you deem it mandatory to do so. This is extremely convenient, since you do not need to relocate websites between web hosting servers and there is no risk of experiencing outages because of all the problems that may take place. Web hosting companies like Free Hostia are offering all types of services and have the adequate hosting server resources and staff to assure that their clients will not experience any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting firm is actually all about.