A definition of web hosting

As its name indicates, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting web content. There are different varieties and kinds of hosting, depending on the aims and on the functions. Yet, they all refer to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made accessible throughout the Internet. A web host is actually a web server that is linked to the World Wide Web and has its own personal IP address, which enables users to get access to it through the Internet. The hosting server's configuration and its system resources are subject to the type of web hosting service it's going to be used for.

What are the different forms of hosting?

Depending on the usage, the professional web hosting service may be:

File Hosting - this form of web hosting permits the users to stash their files on a specific server. With the average file web hosting solution, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the person that's using the service. This hosting solution typically is associated with backups of computers , docs, private files and even other hosting servers. This solution may also include certain restrictions with regard to the disk storage space and the root access. There may also be bandwidth limitations, but that is dependent on the actual hosting service provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is quite similar to the previous web hosting service form. In spite of that, unlike the file storage web hosting service, the warez hosting solution is used for transmitting licensed content without being given the okay to do so by the patent owner. To cut a long story short - it appertains to the illegitimate transmission of files and materials. There are a lot of approaches for this to be fulfilled, but the two principal methods are - through plain HTTP downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first approach involves either some website, or, most typically, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thus download patented docs free of cost. The second approach involves a P2P connection, making use of the so-called Torrent web servers, via which people swap files between each other. There aren't many web page hosting companies that allow such form of web hosting on their servers, chiefly because of all the judicial problems that it presupposes. Commonly such sites are hosted on personal dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by 3rd party corporations either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Hosting - this service is utilized with both shared web page hosting and dedicated web servers, depending on the user's wish. If you would like to establish your very own private SMTP e-mail server, then you will require either a virtual private hosting server or a dedicated hosting server that provides the access level needed to carry out such an operation. For routine e-mail hosting ends, however, you can use a conventional shared website hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a service that's very used, because the web hosting and the email hosting services are being served by two separate servers, usually owned by different hosts.

Site Hosting - the most widespread and broadly used hosting service at the moment. It's utilized for hosting website files, whose type is determined by the Operating System the web hosting server is availing of - Linux or Windows. Different types of files necessitate specific web server Operating Systems, otherwise they won't be shown accurately on the World Wide Web. This kind of hosting may have web storage and traffic limits, root access and central processing unit usage limitations.

Depending on the purpose and on the functions, the customer should select the kind of hosting server that he requires for his work, and, of course, the webspace hosting supplier that's going to furnish it. There are various sorts of web servers, depending on the specs and the webspace hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared webspace hosting server includes a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, is manifested in the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small sized and medium sized web pages, which do not require immense amounts of web storage and bandwidth.

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

Virtual Private Server - the VPS web hosting servers are excellent for middle scale online portals, which do demand root-level access to the server's configuration files. Traditionally, there are several private virtual hosting server accounts accommodated on the same physical machine. In spite of that, each of them is independent from the others and has its own OS.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a fully dedicated web server configured and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a vast amount of system resources. It also gives full server root privileges, which renders it an excellent environment for any kind of website that needs a hosting service.

The only question that's left is:

Which web space hosting company should I choose?

As stated above, there are very few web hosts offering warez web hosting solutions because of judicial complications. Such companies are being closed down almost every month. Because of that, if you wish to create such a service, you should do it on your very own PC. The shared webspace hosting service is the most widespread type of hosting service. So, each site hosting supplier provides it. Not all of them, however, offer solutions such as Virtual Private Servers, semi-dedicated servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small sized web hosting companies do not have the resources demanded for offering those solutions. Therefore it's invariably best to go with a bigger web hosting company that can furnish its customers with all the solutions that they want. You can effortlessly recognize such hosting companies by the sorts of solutions that they are supplying and by the way that they introduce them to the clientele. For example, some providers permit you to commence with a low-end web site hosting account and then upgrade to a more powerful one, if you deem it mandatory to do so. This is quite suitable, because you do not have to migrate websites between servers and there is no chance of experiencing downtime due to all the complications that may take place. Web hosting companies such as Heartland Web Hosting are offering all sorts of services and possess the needed web server resources and personnel to assure that their customers will not come across any troubles when swapping services, which is what a top hosting distributor is in fact all about.