Varieties of Web Hosting Services

There are many varieties or scopes of web hosting. The most basic is a simple webpage and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via FTP or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service for free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap.

Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.

Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages not really business related as they are filled with adverts. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management systems. For e-commerce, SSL is also required.

The host may also provide an interface control panel (e.g. cPanel, Plesk or others) for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Recently, Web.com holds many patents it claims cover broad methods for website building and web control panels. Hostopia, a large wholesale host, recently purchased a license to use that technology from web.com for 10% of retail revenues^[1]. Web.com recently sued Go Daddy as well for similar patent infringement ^[2].

Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company. To find a web hosting company, there are searchable directories that can be used. One must be extremely careful when searching for a new company because many of the people promoting service providers are actually affiliates and the reviews are biased.

Types Of hosting

Hosting services limited to the Web:

• Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
• Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
• Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
• Virtual Dedicated Server: dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS.
• Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
• Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
• Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
• Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization.
• Grid hosting : this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service providers:

• File hosting service: hosts not web pages but files
• Image hosting service
• Video hosting service
• Blog hosting service
• One-click hosting
• Shopping cart software

How to Choose a Web Hosting Service

This is the most crucial part that will determine your websites future and success.

Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services-From free sub domains, to free for life domains!

A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and preferably the underlying operating system.

Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. Most people wonder why linux is preferred but actually this is the major reason. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP platform:-Linux, Apache, MySQL & PHP/Perl/Python.

The webhosting client may want to have other additional services, such as email for their business domain, databases or multi-media services for streaming media. A customer may also choose Windows for its hosting platform. The customer still can choose from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or Classic ASP.

Web hosting often include a package of software called fantastico. This enables the customer to install some crucial software without much pain.

What to check in a web host:-

1. Uptime and Reliability
2. Physical Disk space
3. Cost & pricing
4. Software Support
5. Operating system
6. Live support

Hosting Uptime and Reliability-99% uptime Guarantee? Is it real?

Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible.

Many hosting companies claim that they have a 99.9% uptime, but can this be trusted? What if a server restarts? What if there is a a physical problem, or in the unlikely event that there is sep 11 blast?

What if they are doing a maintenance job?

They claim only refers to a server being powered on and doesn't account for network downtime and other downtime. Real downtime can potentially be larger than the percentage guaranteed by the provider. Many providers tie uptime, and accessibility, into their own Service Level Agreement, or SLA. SLAs may or may not include refunds, or reduced costs if performance goals are not met.

One should be very careful to choose a trusted web hosting company, reliable and good uptime that is realistic.

What is a Web Hosting Service?

A web hosting service is a kind of Internet Hosting Service that enables people, be it individuals, companies or organizations to have their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web

Web Hosts Provide space (bytes) on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity.

Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

But what is a good web hosting service?

Can it deliver? That is the first question one should always ask before buying a web hosting service.

Just to mention lightly, there are fundamental issues to consider too. The hosting service should be reliable and not at any time offline as this means that your website that they are hosting is not accessible. They should be established and reliable with maximum server uptime. They should have support for different software and technologies. They should have online available support.

At one time I was trying to add files to a website and they was a problem as I couldn’t overwrite the existing files. It was a simple problem but I guess I really need some support. The guys who host this site luckily for me, have some 24/7 wonderful support. Right from their homepage you have a live chat box, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER!

Anyway I was able to get it done in no time thanks to their lively helpful support.

I don’t know about their other services and details, since I was doing the job for a client, but I know that this company has a very reliable live support. In fact, they never fail to help you at any one time!

In closing, a reliable web host service should have enough space. I mean, I’ve seen some hosts offering 500GB at a very cheap cost and if you are planning to come up with a youtube kind of a site where you have videos and they require enough space, you gotta be careful!

Cost is another factor to consider too. Cheap is not always good in web hosting.

But hey, Some of the worlds best rated hosting companies are actually some of the cheapest!