A definition of web site hosting

As its name denotes, web hosting is a solution, which entails hosting web content. There are different varieties and types of web hosting, depending on the mission and on the objectives. However, they all entail hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible through the Internet. A host is in fact a web hosting service that is linked to the Internet and has its own Internet Protocol address, which permits people to have access to it through the Web. The web hosting server's architecture and its limitations are determined by the form of web hosting solution it's going to be used for.

What are the different forms of hosting?

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

File Hosting - this type of web hosting enables the clients to stash their files on a particular hosting server. With the conventional file hosting solution, the files that are stored may only be accessed by the user that's availing of the service. This hosting service normally includes backups of computers , docs, personal files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also have given limitations with regard to the storage space and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic limits, but that depends on the particular web hosting provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is comparable with the previous web hosting service type. In spite of that, in contrast with the file storage hosting solution, the warez web hosting solution is utilized for distributing proprietary work without being given the OK to do so by the patent possessor. In short - it involves the illegal distribution of files and materials. There are many methods for this to be achieved, but the 2 main approaches are - via simple HTTP downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first one entails either a certain web portal, or, most commonly, simply a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download proprietary materials free of cost. The second approach entails a peer-to-peer connection, using the so-called Torrent servers, via which people swap files between each other. There are not many site hosting firms that permit such type of hosting on their web hosting servers, mainly because of all the judicial entanglements that it entails. Commonly such web sites are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Hosting - this solution is applicable with both shared hosting and dedicated servers, depending on the user's intention. If you wish to build your very own private SMTP e-mail server, then you will require either a virtual server or a dedicated web server that provides the level of access required to complete such an assignment. For customary e-mail web hosting purposes, however, you can avail of an ordinary shared web page hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain name. This is not a solution that's widely popular, since the website hosting and the email hosting services are being served by 2 separate web servers, usually belonging to separate hosting providers.

Site Hosting - the most widely spread and regularly utilized hosting service these days. It's utilized for hosting site files, whose sort is dependent on the OS the web server is utilizing - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files request specific hosting server OSs, or else they won't be shown properly on the Internet. This type of web hosting may have server storage and bandwidth restrictions, server root access and CPU usage restrictions.

Depending on the purpose and on the objectives, the user should select the type of hosting server that he requires for his project, and, of course, the web site hosting firm that's going to supply it. There are different kinds of hosting servers, depending on the configuration and the webspace hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared webspace hosting server includes a smaller amount of resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small sized and middle scale web portals, which do not need vast quotas of data space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated - they function on the same principle as the shared hosting servers. Even so, there are much fewer customers sharing the same web server. Because of that, each of them will have a greater share of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, web storage space, web traffic and CPU. Ideal for hosting popular web pages that do not require complete server root access.

Virtual Servers - the VPS servers are ideal for medium scale websites, which do demand root-level access to the server's configuration files. Usually, there are a few virtual web server accounts located on the same machine. Yet, each of them is isolated from the other ones and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Hosting - a completely dedicated web server set up and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a great amount of resources. It also provides full root privileges, which renders it the optimal environment for any sort of site that demands a hosting solution.

The only question that's left is:

Which website hosting vendor should I settle on?

As stated above, there aren't many web hosting providers offering warez hosting services because of legal problems. Such web hosts are being closed down virtually every month. Because of that, if you want to launch such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared hosting service is the most popular kind of web hosting service. So, every web hosting corporation offers it. Not all of them, however, offer solutions such as virtual private web servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small sized hosting distributors do not have the resources demanded for maintaining those services. Therefore it's always best to choose a larger host that can supply its clients with all the solutions that they are searching for. You can easily recognize such hosting companies by the types of services that they are offering and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clientele. For instance, some providers permit you to commence with a small sized webspace hosting plan and subsequently shift to a more advanced one, if you consider it necessary to do so. This is quite suitable, because you do not have to relocate web portals between web hosting servers and there is no danger of experiencing service outages due to all the complications that may take place. Hosting providers such as 1st Hosting provide all types of solutions and possess the adequate web hosting server resources and personnel to assure that their customers will not run into any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting distributor is actually all about.