A definition of website hosting

As its name suggests, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting web content. There are various forms and kinds of hosting, based on the purpose and on the functions. Still, they all involve hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the Web. A web host is in fact a hosting server that is connected to the Internet and has its very own IP address, which permits people to have access to it through the Web. The hosting server's configuration and its resources are dependent on the type of hosting service it's going to be used for.

What are the different forms of web hosting?

Based on the application, the hosting solution may be:

File Web Hosting - this form of web hosting allows the clients to lodge their files on a particular hosting server. With the average file web hosting service, the files that are saved may only be accessed by the user that's utilizing the service. This web hosting solution mainly pertains to backups of PCs , documents, private files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also contain given limitations in terms of the data space and the root privileges. There may also be bandwidth quota limits, but that is dependent on the actual host.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is comparable with the previous web hosting service form. Nevertheless, in contrast with the file storage hosting service, the warez web hosting service is utilized for transmitting licensed work without being given the OK to do so by the license keeper. To put it briefly - it entails the criminal circulation of files and documents. There are numerous ways for this to be executed, but the 2 main ways are - via plain HTTP downloading and via P2P connections. The first approach involves either a certain website, or, most often, just a directory on a web server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download proprietary materials free of cost. The second way involves a P2P connection, utilizing the so-called Torrent servers, through which people exchange files between each other. There are a few site hosting providers that allow that form of web hosting on their hosting servers, chiefly because of all the legal troubles that it entails. Usually such websites are hosted on private dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared web space hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, based on the customer's intention. If you wish to run your very own private SMTP server, then you will require either a private virtual hosting server or a dedicated web hosting server that provides the level of access required to execute such an operation. For common mail web hosting ends, however, you can utilize a simple shared web site hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain name. This is not a solution that's very popular, because the web site hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate servers, often owned by different web hosting providers.

Site Hosting - the most famous and extensively utilized hosting service at the moment. It's used for hosting web site files, whose type is determined by the OS the hosting server is utilizing - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files require different web server Operating Systems, or else they won't be shown accurately on the World Wide Web. This type of web hosting may include storage space and web traffic limits, root access and central processing unit usage restrictions.

Depending on the mission and on the usage, the user should pick the type of web hosting server that he needs for his project, and, of course, the site hosting supplier that's going to provide it. There are several types of web hosting servers, depending on the specifications and the hosting services that they offer. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared web page hosting server provides a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small size and medium sized sites, which do not require enormous amounts of server storage and web traffic.

Semi-Dedicated - they work on the very same principle as the shared webspace hosting servers. Nevertheless, there are much fewer customers sharing the same server. Therefore, each of them will enjoy a bigger share of the server's resources like RAM, server space, bandwidth and CPU. Ideal for hosting bulky websites that do not need full server root access.

Virtual Servers - the private virtual web hosting servers are perfect for medium scale websites, which do require root access to the server's config files. Normally, there are a number of VPS server hosting accounts sharing the same physical machine. However, each of them is isolated from the others and runs its own OS.

Dedicated Server - a completely dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a vast amount of system resources. It also provides root privileges, which renders it an excellent solution for any sort of web page that requires a webspace hosting solution.

The only question that's left is:

Which website hosting supplier should I opt for?

As mentioned above, there are just a few hosting providers offering warez web hosting solutions because of judicial entanglements. Such hosting providers are being shut down almost every month. Because of that, if you want to set up such a service, you should do it on your very own PC. The shared web page hosting solution is the most famous kind of web hosting service. So, each web space hosting corporation offers it. Not all of them, however, offer solutions such as VPS web servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated web hosting servers. Most of the small sized website hosting firms do not have the means required for offering those services. Because of that it's always best to go with a bigger hosting company that can furnish its customers with all the solutions that they seek. You can easily recognize such web hosts by the sorts of solutions that they are offering and by the way that they present them to the clients. For example, some web hosting providers allow you to begin with a small sized web space hosting account and then upgrade to a more advanced one, if you consider it obligatory to do so. This is extremely convenient, since you do not need to relocate web sites between servers and there is no possibility of facing network outages due to all the problems that may take place. Companies like Allenion Web Hosting provide all kinds of solutions and have the adequate web server resources and staff to ensure that their customers will not experience any problems when changing services, which is what a top hosting company is in fact all about.