A definition of web hosting
As its name signifies, web hosting is a solution, which entails hosting web content. There are different forms and types of hosting, based on the aims and on the functions. Even so, they all involve hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the World Wide Web. A web host is in fact a web server that is connected to the Internet and has its own IP address, which allows users to get access to it via the Internet. The web hosting server's configuration and its resources depend on the sort of hosting service it's going to be used for.
What are the different forms of web hosting?
Depending on the goal, the business hosting solution may be:
File Storage Hosting - this type of hosting enables the clients to host their files on a given server. With the ordinary file web hosting service, the files that are deposited may only be accessed by the client that's availing of the service. This web hosting service normally is related to backups of personal computers , documents, personal files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also contain certain restrictions with regard to the disk space and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic quota limitations, but that depends on the actual host.
Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is quite similar to the previous hosting service type. Even so, unlike the file storage hosting solution, the warez web hosting service is utilized for distributing patented content without being green-lighted by the license owner. To put it briefly - it pertains to the illicit circulation of files and documents. There are multiple approaches for this to be done, but the 2 essential approaches are - via simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and via P2P connections. The first method involves either a specific site, or, most typically, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thus download proprietary content free of charge. The second way involves a P2P connection, making use of the so-called Torrent web servers, via which users share files between each other. There aren't many hosting suppliers that allow that form of web hosting on their web hosting servers, mainly owing to all the judicial complications that it presupposes. Generally such web sites are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by third-party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.
Mail Web Hosting - this service is utilized with both shared website hosting and dedicated servers, based on the customer's wish. If you want to build your very own private SMTP mail server, then you will require either a virtual web hosting server or a dedicated server that offers the access level needed to execute such a procedure. For traditional email hosting purposes, though, you can utilize a regular shared hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain name. This is not a service that's widely famous, because the web hosting and the email hosting services are being served by two different web servers, often belonging to separate companies.
Web Page Hosting - the most popular and widely used hosting service now. It's utilized for hosting web site files, whose type depends on the Operating System the web server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files demand concrete server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be displayed properly on the World Wide Web. This form of web hosting may have disk storage space and traffic limitations, server root access and CPU usage limitations.
Depending on the goals and on the objectives, the user should select the kind of web server that he demands for his work, and, of course, the website hosting provider that's going to provide it. There are various kinds of web servers, based on the specifications and the hosting services that they provide. These are:
Shared Website Hosting Server - a shared site hosting server provides a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small scale and medium scale web portals, which do not require enormous amounts of web space and bandwidth.
Semi-Dedicated - they function on the very same principle as the shared hosting servers. However, there are much fewer customers sharing the same hosting server. That is why, each of them will receive a larger quota of the web server's resources like RAM, data storage space, traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting heavy websites that do not require full server root privileges.
VPS hosting - the VPS hosting servers are perfect for middle sized web portals, which do need root-level access to the web hosting server's config files. Commonly, there are several private virtual server web hosting accounts hosted on the same machine. Still, each of them is independent from the other ones and runs its own Operating System.
Dedicated Servers Hosting - a fully dedicated web server configured and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a tremendous amount of resources. It also gives full server root access, which makes it a perfect platform for any type of web site that requires a web site hosting solution.
The sole question that remains is:
Which site hosting provider should I choose?
As mentioned, there are not many hosts offering warez web hosting services because of legal problems. Such hosting companies are being closed down practically every month. That is why, if you want to launch such a service, you should do it on your own computer. The shared web hosting service is the most widespread type of hosting service. Hence, each web space hosting supplier offers it. Not all of them, however, provide solutions such as private virtual servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated web hosting servers. Most of the small sized web hosting corporations do not have the means required for offering those services. That's why it's always best to select a larger web hosting company that can supply its customers with all the services that they request. You can quickly ID such web hosts by the sorts of solutions that they are providing and by the manner in which they present them to the clients. For example, certain hosting providers permit you to kick off with a smaller hosting package and subsequently shift to a bigger one, if you consider it mandatory to do so. This is quite suitable, because you do not have to migrate web sites between hosting servers and there is no danger of facing service outages due to all the predicaments that may show up. Web hosting companies such as AIDA Host offer all types of services and possess the required web server resources and personnel to ensure that their clients will not experience any hassles when changing services, which is what a top hosting company is in fact all about.