A definition of web site hosting

As its name signifies, web hosting is a solution, which entails hosting web content. There are various forms and types of hosting, depending on the aims and on the functions. Yet, they all involve hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available throughout the Internet. A host is actually a hosting server that is connected to the Web and has its own personal IP address, which enables people to gain access to it via the World Wide Web. The server's architecture and its limitations are dependent on the sort of hosting solution it's going to be used for.

What are the different forms of hosting?

Depending on the goal, the web hosting solution may be:

File Storage Hosting - this form of hosting enables the clients to accommodate their files on a specific web server. With the regular file hosting solution, the files that are accommodated may only be accessed by the user that's utilizing the service. This web hosting solution generally includes backups of PCs , documents, private files and even other hosting servers. This service may also contain certain limits in relation to the server storage and the root access. There may also be bandwidth restrictions, but that is dependent on the actual hosting service provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting solution is comparable with the previous hosting service type. Yet, in contrast with the file storage hosting solution, the warez hosting solution is utilized for spreading copyrighted content without the blessing of the licence possessor. In brief - it refers to the prohibited distribution of files and documents. There are many ways for this to be realized, but the two principal methods are - through plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and via P2P connections. The first one involves either some site, or, most commonly, just a directory on a server that's been made available for everybody to access it and thereby download copyrighted documents for free. The second approach involves a peer-to-peer connection, availing of the so-called Torrent servers, through which people transfer files between each other. There are very few web site hosting vendors that allow that form of web hosting on their servers, mostly due to all the legal complications that it presupposes. Typically such web pages are hosted on personal dedicated servers that are registered by 3rd party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Mail Hosting - this solution is used with both shared webspace hosting and dedicated hosting servers, based on the user's intention. If you wish to build your very own personal SMTP email server, then you will need either a virtual web server or a dedicated hosting server that provides the level of access required to execute such a task. For routine e-mail hosting purposes, though, you can avail of an average shared web space hosting account, to which you can point the mail exchanger records of your domain. This is not a service that's very famous, since the web site hosting and the email hosting services are being served by two different web servers, often belonging to separate hosting providers.

Web Site Hosting - the most widespread and universally used hosting service as of today. It's used for hosting website files, whose type is determined by the Operating System the server is running - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files need concrete web hosting server Operating Systems, or else they won't be exhibited correctly on the World Wide Web. This form of web hosting may include web storage space and web traffic quota limits, server root access and central processing unit usage limitations.

Based on the aims and on the usage, the user should choose the type of server that he requires for his work, and, of course, the hosting provider that's going to furnish it. There are different types of web servers, based on the configuration and the web site hosting services that they offer. These are:

Shared Web Hosting Server - a shared web site hosting server offers a smaller quantity of resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small size and medium websites, which do not require immense quotas of web space and web traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Servers - they work on the same principle as the shared hosting servers. Nevertheless, there are much fewer clients hosted on the same web hosting server. Therefore, each of them will receive a bigger quota of the server's resources like RAM, web storage, bandwidth and CPU. Perfect for hosting huge web portals that do not demand complete root-level access.

VPS hosting - the virtual private hosting servers are excellent for middle scale websites, which do need root-level access to the server's config files. Typically, there are a bunch of VPS server hosting accounts accommodated on the same machine. Still, each of them is isolated from the others and has its own OS.

Dedicated Server - a fully dedicated server configured and accessed by you and solely you. It ensures a mammoth quantity of system resources. It also includes complete root access, which renders it a perfect platform for any type of site that demands a site hosting solution.

The sole question that remains is:

Which hosting distributor should I settle on?

As already mentioned, there are just a few hosts providing warez hosting services because of judicial predicaments. Such web hosting providers are being shut down practically every month. For that reason, if you desire to set up such a service, you should do it on your own PC. The shared web page hosting solution is the most famous kind of hosting service. Therefore, each hosting provider offers it. Not all of them, though, offer services such as private virtual web hosting servers, semi-dedicated web servers and dedicated web servers. Most of the small scale site hosting distributors do not have the resources needed for maintaining those services. That is the reason why it's invariably best to choose a bigger web hosting company that can provide its clients with all the solutions that they seek. You can easily recognize such web hosts by the sorts of services that they are making available and by the way that they introduce them to the clients. For example, some web hosting providers allow you to begin with a small scale website hosting plan and subsequently upgrade to a more advanced one, if you find it mandatory to do so. This is extremely suitable, since you do not have to relocate sites between web servers and there is no possibility of facing service interruptions due to all the predicaments that may appear. Providers like SynNetHost provide all kinds of services and have the adequate web hosting server resources and staff to assure that their customers will not face any problems when swapping services, which is what a top hosting distributor is actually all about.