A definition of website hosting

As its name suggests, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting web content. There are different varieties and kinds of hosting, depending on the purpose and on the objectives. Yet, they all entail hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the Web. A host is in fact a web hosting service that is linked to the Web and has its own personal IP address, which permits users to get access to it via the World Wide Web. The server's configuration and its limitations depend on the form of web hosting solution it's going to be utilized for.

What are the different forms of web hosting?

Based on the purpose, the business website hosting service may be:

File Storage Web Hosting - this type of hosting enables the customers to store their files on a certain web hosting server. With the standard file storage hosting service, the files that are saved may only be accessed by the customer that's availing of the service. This hosting solution usually is associated with backups of PCs , docs, private files and even other servers. This solution may also impose given restrictions in relation to the server storage and the root privileges. There may also be web traffic quota limits, but that is dependent on the actual web hosting provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting solution is resembling the previous web hosting service form. Nonetheless, unlike the file storage hosting solution, the warez web hosting service is used for propagating patented materials without the sanction of the patent keeper. In short - it pertains to the forbidden distribution of files and docs. There are numerous ways for this to be done, but the 2 principal approaches are - via plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first one entails either a particular web portal, or, most often, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download proprietary files free of cost. The second approach involves a P2P connection, availing of the so-called Torrent web servers, through which people share files between each other. There are not many web site hosting corporations that permit such form of web hosting on their servers, chiefly because of all the legal troubles that it involves. Generally such sites are hosted on private dedicated servers that are registered by third-party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Hosting - this service is used with both shared web site hosting and dedicated hosting servers, depending on the user's desire. If you desire to build your very own personal SMTP server, then you will need either a virtual private web hosting server or a dedicated web server that offers the access level required to complete such an operation. For standard e-mail web hosting purposes, though, you can avail of a simple shared web site hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a solution that's very famous, because the site hosting and the e-mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate web servers, often owned by separate hosts.

Website Hosting - the most widely spread and commonly used hosting service nowadays. It's used for hosting website files, whose sort depends on the Operating System the hosting server is making use of - Linux or Windows. Different types of files need different web server Operating Systems, or else they won't be displayed correctly on the Internet. This form of hosting may contain disk storage and web traffic limitations, server root access and central processing unit usage limitations.

Depending on the purpose and on the usage, the user should pick the type of web hosting server that he demands for his project, and, of course, the website hosting vendor that's going to supply it. There are various kinds of servers, depending on the configuration and the site hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared web hosting server offers a smaller quantity of system resources, which, of course, is reflected on the cost of the service. It can be used for hosting small sized and medium size sites, which do not need huge amounts of web storage space and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated - they operate on the very same principle as the shared web servers. Yet, there are much less users hosted on the same server. Because of that, each of them will receive a larger quota of the web server's resources like RAM, storage space, traffic and CPU. Ideal for hosting big web portals that do not demand root-level access.

VPS hosting - the VPSs are ideal for medium sized web pages, which do need root access to the web server's configuration files. Usually, there are several virtual private web server hosting accounts placed on the same server. Even so, each of them is independent from the other ones and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers - a fully dedicated web server set up and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a large quantity of resources. It also offers root-level access, which renders it the optimal environment for any sort of site that demands a webspace hosting service.

The sole question that remains is:

Which web space hosting vendor should I choose?

As stated above, there are just a few companies offering warez hosting services due to judicial problems. Such web hosting providers are being closed down virtually every month. For that reason, if you desire to run such a service, you should do it on your very own PC. The shared hosting service is the most famous type of hosting service. That is why, every web hosting corporation offers it. Not all of them, however, offer services such as Virtual Private Servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the small sized hosting companies do not have the means needed for offering those solutions. Because of that it's always best to choose a larger company that can supply its clients with all the services that they need. You can quickly identify such companies by the kinds of solutions that they are supplying and by the manner in which they introduce them to the clients. For instance, certain hosting companies allow you to start with a smaller web space hosting package and then upgrade to a bigger one, if you consider it necessary to do so. This is quite convenient, since you do not have to migrate web sites between servers and there is no chance of facing outages because of all the problems that may appear. Providers like Exclusive Hosting provide all sorts of solutions and have the required web server resources and personnel to assure that their customers will not face any complications when changing services, which is what a top hosting vendor is actually all about.