A definition of hosting

As its name denotes, web hosting is a service, which involves hosting web content. There are different forms and types of web hosting, based on the goals and on the usage. Yet, they all refer to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available through the Internet. A host is actually a web hosting service that is connected to the Internet and has its own IP address, which permits people to have access to it via the Web. The server's architecture and its limitations are subject to the kind of web hosting service it's going to be utilized for.

What are the different forms of hosting?

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

File Hosting - this type of web hosting allows the customers to host their files on a particular hosting server. With the traditional file storage web hosting solution, the files that are deposited may only be accessed by the client that's availing of the service. This web hosting service generally refers to backups of personal computers , docs, personal files and even other hosting servers. This service may also involve certain limitations with regard to the server storage and the root-level access. There may also be web traffic restrictions, but that is dependent on the particular provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez hosting service is comparable with the previous web hosting service form. Nonetheless, unlike the file storage web hosting solution, the warez web hosting service is utilized for distributing copyrighted content without the permission of the patent bearer. To cut a long story short - it is connected with the illegal distribution of files and documents. There are multiple approaches for this to be fulfilled, but the 2 chief methods are - via simple HTTP downloading and via peer-to-peer connections. The first one entails either some web site, or, most typically, just a directory on a hosting server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thereby download proprietary docs free of charge. The second approach involves a peer-to-peer connection, making use of the so-called Torrent servers, through which users swap files between each other. There are very few website hosting firms that permit that type of hosting on their web hosting servers, mainly owing to all the judicial problems that it entails. Generally such web portals are hosted on private dedicated web hosting servers that are registered by 3rd party firms either in the Middle East or in Asia.

E-mail Hosting - this service is relevant with both shared site hosting and dedicated web hosting servers, depending on the user's desire. If you would like to launch your own personal SMTP electronic mail server, then you will need either a VPS hosting server or a dedicated hosting server that offers the access level required to accomplish such an assignment. For standard email web hosting purposes, however, you can use a plain shared website hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a solution that's very used, because the web hosting and the electronic mail hosting services are being served by 2 separate servers, usually belonging to separate web hosts.

Web Site Hosting - the most widespread and commonly utilized hosting service nowadays. It's used for hosting web site files, whose type depends on the OS the web hosting server is availing of - Linux or Windows. Different types of files request concrete web server OSs, or else they won't be displayed correctly on the World Wide Web. This kind of web hosting may contain storage space and web traffic restrictions, root access and central processing unit usage restrictions.

Based on the mission and on the usage, the customer should choose the sort of web server that he requires for his work, and, of course, the web hosting corporation that's going to supply it. There are various sorts of hosting servers, depending on the configuration and the web space hosting services that they provide. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared hosting server includes a smaller amount of system resources, which, of course, reflects on the price of the service. It can be used for hosting small scale and middle size web portals, which do not demand considerable quotas of web storage space and traffic.

Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they operate on the same principle as the shared webspace hosting servers. However, there are much less clients hosted on the same server. Hence, each of them will obtain a larger quota of the hosting server's resources like RAM, web storage, traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting popular sites that do not need root-level access.

Virtual Private Server - the virtual private web hosting servers are excellent for medium web pages, which do need root access to the web hosting server's config files. Usually, there are a bunch of private virtual server web hosting accounts sharing the same physical machine. Still, each of them is insulated from the others and has its own Operating System.

Dedicated Server Hosting - a fully dedicated machine configured and accessed by you and solely you. It guarantees a mammoth quantity of resources. It also gives server root access, which renders it the optimal platform for any type of web portal that demands a hosting solution.

The sole question that's left is:

Which site hosting company should I settle on?

As mentioned, there are very few hosts providing warez web hosting solutions because of judicial problems. Such hosting providers are being closed down practically every month. For that reason, if you would like to offer such a service, you should do it on your own computer. The shared web hosting solution is the most famous type of hosting service. Therefore, each web site hosting firm provides it. Not all of them, though, offer services such as private virtual web hosting servers, semi-dedicated hosting servers and dedicated hosting servers. Most of the smaller site hosting firms do not have the means needed for offering those solutions. Therefore it's always best to settle on a larger hosting company that can furnish its customers with all the solutions that they need. You can easily ID such web hosts by the kinds of solutions that they are providing and by the manner in which they present them to the clientele. For instance, some companies allow you to begin with a small scale web space hosting package and afterwards shift to a more advanced one, if you deem it obligatory to do so. This is very suitable, because you do not have to transfer web portals between web hosting servers and there is no chance of suffering network outages due to all the problems that may appear. Web hosts like DuoServer.US offer all sorts of solutions and possess the adequate server resources and staff to ensure that their customers will not experience any predicaments when changing services, which is what a top hosting vendor is actually all about.