A description of hosting

As its name hints, web hosting is a service, which entails hosting web content. There are various varieties and kinds of web hosting, depending on the aims and on the functions. However, they all are associated with hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the World Wide Web. A host is in fact a server that is connected to the Internet and has its very own Internet Protocol address, which allows people to gain access to it through the Web. The hosting server's configuration and its system resources are subject to the sort of hosting solution it's going to be used for.

What are the different forms of web hosting?

Based on the mission, the web hosting solution may be:

File Storage Web Hosting - this form of hosting allows the customers to store their files on a particular hosting server. With the standard file hosting solution, the files that are hosted may only be accessed by the client that's availing of the service. This web hosting service traditionally pertains to backups of personal computers , docs, personal files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also involve given limits in relation to the data space and the root privileges. There may also be traffic limitations, but that depends on the given web hosting provider.

Warez Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is comparable with the previous web hosting service form. In spite of that, unlike the file storage web hosting service, the warez web hosting service is used for distributing proprietary work without being given the go-ahead by the license proprietor. To put it briefly - it is connected with the illegitimate distribution of files and materials. There are multiple approaches for this to be executed, but the two chief ways are - via simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first way entails either a given website, or, most often, simply a directory on a server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download copyrighted materials for free. The second method entails a P2P connection, availing of the so-called Torrent servers, through which users transmit files between each other. There are not many webspace hosting firms that allow that form of web hosting on their web hosting servers, chiefly because of all the legal entanglements that it presupposes. Typically such web sites are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party enterprises either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Hosting - this service is relevant with both shared web page hosting and dedicated web servers, based on the client's desire. If you wish to run your own private SMTP mail server, then you will require either a VPS web server or a dedicated web server that offers the level of access needed to carry out such an operation. For standard email hosting ends, however, you can use a regular shared web space hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain name. This is not a service that's widely famous, because the site hosting and the mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate web servers, often belonging to different web hosting providers.

Web Site Hosting - the most widely spread and immensely utilized hosting service today. It's used for hosting website files, whose kind depends on the Operating System the hosting server is using - Linux or Windows. Different kinds of files need concrete server OSs, otherwise they won't be exhibited appropriately on the Internet. This kind of hosting may involve disk space and bandwidth quota limitations, root-level access and central processing unit usage limits.

Depending on the aims and on the objectives, the client should select the kind of server that he requires for his work, and, of course, the web hosting company that's going to supply it. There are different types of web hosting servers, depending on the specs and the website hosting solutions that they provide. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared webspace hosting server offers a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, is reflected on the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small size and middle scale online portals, which do not demand huge quantities of web storage and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they perform on the very same principle as the shared web hosting servers. Even so, there are much fewer customers hosted on the same web server. Therefore, each of them will enjoy a larger share of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, server storage space, web traffic and CPU. Ideal for hosting popular web pages that do not demand full server root privileges.

VPS - the private virtual web hosting servers are excellent for middle scale web sites, which do demand root-level access to the web server's configuration files. Traditionally, there are a few Virtual Private Server accounts accommodated on the same physical server. Nevertheless, each of them is isolated from the rest and runs its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers - a fully dedicated physical machine configured and accessed by you and only you. It ensures a great quantity of system resources. It also gives complete root access, which makes it an ideal platform for any kind of web page that requires a web space hosting solution.

The only question that's left is:

Which web hosting provider should I pick?

As mentioned above, there are very few companies providing warez web hosting solutions due to judicial problems. Such web hosting providers are being shut down almost every month. Because of that, if you wish to run such a service, you should do it on your own computer. The shared web space hosting solution is the most famous kind of web hosting service. Because of that, each and every web hosting supplier provides it. Not all of them, however, offer solutions such as Virtual Private Servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated servers. Most of the small sized web hosting vendors do not have the resources demanded for maintaining those solutions. Therefore it's invariably best to pick a larger web hosting company that can supply its clients with all the services that they request. You can effortlessly recognize such companies by the sorts of services that they are supplying and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clientele. For example, certain hosting providers permit you to start with a small sized webspace hosting package and subsequently move to a bigger one, if you deem it compulsory to do so. This is quite suitable, because you do not have to transmit sites between web hosting servers and there is no risk of suffering service interruptions because of all the complications that may arise. Providers such as ProMaxHosting are offering all sorts of services and have the required hosting server resources and staff to ensure that their customers will not suffer any problems when swapping services, which is what a top hosting provider is actually all about.