An explanation of site hosting

As its name indicates, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting web content. There are various varieties and types of web hosting, based on the aims and on the functions. Still, they all pertain to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the Web. A web host is in fact a hosting server that is linked to the Internet and has its own personal IP address, which allows people to have access to it via the Internet. The web hosting server's configuration and its resources are determined by the form of web hosting service it's going to be utilized for.

What are the various forms of hosting?

Based on the purpose, the hosting service may be:

File Web Hosting - this type of hosting permits the clients to host their files on a certain web hosting server. With the customary file storage web hosting solution, the files that are stored may only be accessed by the person that's utilizing the service. This hosting service traditionally includes backups of computers , docs, private files and even other web hosting servers. This solution may also include given restrictions in terms of the data space and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic limits, but that is dependent on the particular service provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is very similar to the previous web hosting service form. Yet, in contrast with the file hosting solution, the warez web hosting service is used for distributing copyrighted materials without the authorization of the licence owner. In brief - it refers to the prohibited propagation of files and documents. There are many approaches for this to be fulfilled, but the 2 essential methods are - via simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first one entails either a particular site, or, most commonly, simply a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download licensed content free of cost. The second way involves a peer-to-peer connection, making use of the so-called Torrent web servers, via which users exchange files between each other. There are not many web site hosting providers that allow that type of web hosting on their web servers, mainly due to all the legal entanglements that it presupposes. Generally such web pages are hosted on personal dedicated web servers that are registered by 3rd party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Electronic Mail Web Hosting - this solution is utilized with both shared web space hosting and dedicated web servers, depending on the customer's wish. If you desire to run your own private SMTP email server, then you will require either a virtual web server or a dedicated server that offers the access level required to execute such a task. For conventional e-mail hosting ends, though, you can create a plain shared webspace hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a service that's widely used, since the website hosting and the email hosting services are being served by 2 different servers, usually belonging to different web hosting providers.

Web Site Hosting - the most popular and broadly used hosting service now. It's utilized for hosting site files, whose kind is dependent on the Operating System the server is utilizing - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files demand concrete web hosting server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be shown properly on the World Wide Web. This sort of web hosting may involve data space and traffic quota limitations, root access and central processing unit usage limits.

Depending on the aims and on the objectives, the user should choose the kind of hosting server that he needs for his work, and, of course, the web hosting firm that's going to provide it. There are several sorts of hosting servers, depending on the specs and the website hosting services that they offer. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared web space hosting server supplies a smaller amount of resources, which, of course, is manifested in the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small scale and medium sized online portals, which do not need considerable quantities of web storage space and web traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they are based on the same principle as the shared web site hosting servers. Still, there are much fewer clients sharing the same web server. That is why, each of them will get a bigger quota of the server's resources like RAM, data storage, web traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting bulky online portals that do not require complete server root access.

Virtual Servers - the VPS web hosting servers are perfect for medium size websites, which do require root-level access to the hosting server's config files. Usually, there are a number of virtual server hosting accounts situated on the same machine. Even so, each of them is autonomous from the rest and runs its own OS.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a completely dedicated physical machine configured and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees an immense quantity of resources. It also includes complete root access, which makes it an excellent environment for any kind of web page that requires a web site hosting solution.

The sole question that remains is:

Which website hosting company should I opt for?

As already stated, there are just a few hosting companies offering warez hosting services due to legal complications. Such hosting providers are being shut down almost every month. That is why, if you would like to run such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared site hosting service is the most widespread kind of web hosting service. Therefore, each and every website hosting provider offers it. Not all of them, however, provide solutions such as virtual private web hosting servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the small sized web space hosting providers do not have the resources demanded for offering those services. Hence it's invariably best to go with a larger web hosting company that can provide its clients with all the solutions that they are searching for. You can easily identify such hosts by the sorts of services that they are offering and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clientele. For example, some hosting providers allow you to start with a small scale hosting package and afterwards shift to a more advanced one, if you deem it compulsory to do so. This is quite convenient, since you do not have to relocate sites between servers and there is no risk of facing network outages due to all the complications that may appear. Web hosting companies like HD Web Hosting provide all types of services and possess the needed server resources and personnel to ensure that their customers will not chance upon any problems when swapping services, which is what a top hosting vendor is in fact all about.