A definition of hosting

As its name hints, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting online content. There are various varieties and types of web hosting, depending on the aims and on the functions. In spite of that, they all pertain to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the Internet. A web host is in fact a web hosting service that is linked to the Internet and has its very own IP address, which enables users to access it through the World Wide Web. The server's configuration and its resources depend on the sort of hosting solution it will be used for.

What are the different types of web hosting?

Depending on the goal, the hosting solution may be:

File Storage Web Hosting - this type of hosting enables the customers to host their files on a particular server. With the regular file storage hosting service, the files that are kept may only be accessed by the customer that's availing of the service. This hosting service generally entails backups of personal computers , docs, private files and even other web hosting servers. This service may also include given restrictions in terms of the disk storage space and the root privileges. There may also be bandwidth quota limits, but that is dependent on the actual web host.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is quite similar to the previous web hosting service form. Nevertheless, in contrast with the file storage web hosting solution, the warez hosting service is used for disseminating copyrighted content without the blessing of the patent keeper. To put it briefly - it is associated with the unauthorized transmission of files and materials. There are many ways for this to be attained, but the two main approaches are - via plain HTTP downloading and via P2P connections. The first approach entails either a certain web page, or, most often, just a directory on a web server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thus download licensed content for free. The second approach involves a peer-to-peer connection, making use of the so-called Torrent servers, via which users transmit files between each other. There are not many website hosting firms that allow that type of web hosting on their web servers, chiefly because of all the legal problems that it involves. Usually such websites are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Electronic Mail Web Hosting - this service is applicable with both shared hosting and dedicated servers, depending on the customer's desire. If you wish to have your own personal SMTP email server, then you will need either a private virtual server or a dedicated web server that provides the access level required to carry out such a task. For ordinary e-mail hosting purposes, however, you can use a regular shared website hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a solution that's widely popular, because the web site hosting and the e-mail hosting services are being served by two separate web servers, usually belonging to different hosting providers.

Web Page Hosting - the most popular and largely utilized hosting service nowadays. It's utilized for hosting web site files, whose type is dependent on the OS the server is utilizing - Linux or Windows. Different types of files necessitate specific server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be shown correctly on the World Wide Web. This kind of hosting may have server space and traffic limits, root-level access and central processing unit usage limitations.

Based on the goals and on the objectives, the customer should select the sort of hosting server that he demands for his work, and, of course, the website hosting provider that's going to supply it. There are several kinds of hosting servers, based on the specifications and the webspace hosting services that they provide. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared web site hosting server supplies a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, is reflected on the cost of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small sized and medium sized online portals, which do not require big amounts of storage space and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Servers - they function on the same principle as the shared webspace hosting servers. Still, there are much less clients hosted on the same web hosting server. For that reason, each of them will get a larger quota of the web hosting server's resources like RAM, disk space, traffic and CPU. Perfect for hosting immense web pages that do not require full server root privileges.

Virtual Private Server - the private virtual web servers are excellent for middle sized online portals, which do require root-level access to the web hosting server's config files. Normally, there are a bunch of VPS web server accounts accommodated on the same physical machine. Still, each of them is independent from the other ones and runs its own Operating System.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a fully dedicated web server configured and accessed by you and only you. It ensures a large amount of resources. It also offers complete server root access, which renders it a perfect solution for any sort of web page that necessitates a web hosting service.

The sole question that remains is:

Which hosting company should I opt for?

As already stated, there are just a few companies providing warez web hosting services due to legal complications. Such web hosting providers are being closed down practically every month. Therefore, if you wish to offer such a service, you should do it on your very own personal computer. The shared web page hosting solution is the most famous type of hosting service. So, each web site hosting corporation provides it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as Virtual Private Servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web hosting servers. Most of the small scale site hosting distributors do not have the resources needed for offering those solutions. Hence it's invariably best to pick a larger web host that can provide its customers with all the solutions that they request. You can quickly identify such companies by the types of services that they are providing and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clientele. For example, certain hosting companies allow you to begin with a smaller web site hosting account and then shift to a more advanced one, if you find it compulsory to do so. This is extremely suitable, because you do not need to migrate sites between servers and there is no chance of suffering outages due to all the problems that may occur. Providers such as SupremeServer offer all kinds of services and have the necessary web server resources and personnel to ensure that their clients will not suffer any predicaments when changing services, which is what a top hosting firm is actually all about.