Web Hosting, Defined

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Web hosting can be defined as renting space on a Web server in its simplest form. One must remember that a website is a collection of files linked together by HTML code to display text and graphics on a computer. But the website is not finished here until and unless it appears on the web. To make it visible to the world is to be displayed on a computer somewhere that has Internet access. This is not possible simply by a computer rather special device is required called web server. A Web server can be defined as a computer configured with special software that makes it possible to receive requests from the Internet to the website files stored on it and to send these files on the Internet, so the requesting computer can display them.

Web server in addition to making the site visible performs several other functions, and like it allows you to create email addresses based on your domain name and even helps to send and receive e-mails with them. There are several types of software installed on the Web server that allows a website to run programs, create and manage databases, display video, etc. One must note that almost any computer can act as a Web server, but it is the software on it that makes it a server.

When you go buy one, the monthly fees paid, the cost of maintenance and upgrading of server hardware and software costs to keep it online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a secure datacenter with a fast and powerful internet connection, and cost of professional convince these services. It is surprising to know that it is possible to turn your home or office computer into a Web server if you really want, but it’s just not economical. Therefore it is better to outsource it. There are several types of web hosting available, as discussed below:

Types of Web Hosting:

Shared Hosting – Through a shared server can save a large amount. If you talk about the disadvantages and then Spamming and a blacklisting of different search engines are key problems. Such problems arise because of this reason that several sites assign a specific IP address. One should require a separate IP address for his / her website (at extra cost per month) to ensure the user of such problems.

Dedicated Hosting Dedicated servers are best for large, highly trafficked sites, which would require large amounts of server resources to run. One of the disadvantages of shared hosting is that the server’s resources are spread across all the sites it is hosting and answer page requests. If you are in a dedicated environment, you better check your server resources. The downside is that dedicated servers will run you generally $ 50 per month or more. Shared hosting can be purchased for as little as $ 5 a month. Most small and medium enterprises will have neither the website size or bandwidth requirements to make dedicated servers cost effective.

Server Co-Location – If you want to have full control over all aspects of his / her web server, he / she may well choose to buy one and maintain it themselves if he / she is to have sufficient knowledge. Still, there are possibilities that you are not having sufficient resources to keep his / her server completely safe from power outages, roof leaks, thieves, unwary employees and other problems, and in addition it is not possible for him / her to keep it on the Web at a speedy, high-bandwidth connectivity through out. Thus he / she needs a data center to provide these services to him/her.

Co-location is the center provides facilities such as physical security on rental, continuous electrical power and a fast, reliable Internet connection to a server, an owner. But the data center is not responsible for any hardware or software maintenance of a co-located server, rather using his / her own. Thus, it is a cheaper alternative to dedicated if you have the necessary expertise and time to run a Web server by own.

There are multiple hosts offering UNIX hosting and Windows hosting.

UNIX Hosting

There are several web servers in the world is running mostly on Unix. UNIX is an operating system originally developed for servers and networks. Until now many different versions of UNIX, written by programmers around the world under the open source protocol, which means that the code of the operating system that is openly accessible to allow programmers to customize and make improvements when and where needed . The two most popular forms of UNIX, Linux and BSD, which comes in several flavors, such as Red Hat Linux, Debian, SuSE, and FreeBSD. The best part of Unix is most of the above versions can be obtained free of charge, which makes UNIX hosting cheaper for a webhost in relation to other operating systems. Other pluses of UNIX is that UNIX hosting platforms are generally considered to be stable, secure, powerful and fast. That is why most web programming applications can be performed by software that is available for a UNIX platform.

Windows Hosting

Another very popular operating system developed by Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Windows Server 2003. Like all things useful it is to have price and can be obtained by purchasing a license, which in turn increases the costs of operating the web host and usually results in higher hosting prices. This is considered a negative point as compared to UNIX. Plus points of Windows include the primacy of the user but it is generally considered to be less powerful and secure than UNIX for operating in a networked environment. There are several scripting languages like ASP, ASP.NET, and Coldfusion, which will only run on a Windows server, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database programs. So above are some of the most popular scripts for certain web programming applications, and if you are thinking of using them while building his / her site, he / she first definitely need to find a Windows host.

Before seeking a web host, it is important to know some important terms used in hosting. They are discussed as under:

Storage or Disk space-As a website is a collection of files offered on the internet to see what is necessary to store them somewhere for retrieval and take a seat. For every web server has a limited amount of hard disk memory, which is broken up and offered to hosting customers. Different package levels are there, so that to pay more for more space and vice versa divide specifically that space up. If your website expands its space so the user must purchase additional space from the Internet host.

Bandwidth or Data Transfer One of the crucial parts to verify the bandwidth. There are several places that lose their host due to excessive downloads causing budget goes beyond their expectations. Occasionally, the host itself charges hundreds of dollars for the extra bandwidth. You should confirm this before dealing with any of the host. Usually ideal hosting providers provide initial bandwidth of 25 to 50 GB for users.

Uptime-It is a universal truth that if you talk about your perfect web servers so they are one that would be up and running and offer web pages to the world around the clock throughout the year. But it is also true that web servers are just computers, and like any other computer, they can fail or be repaired or updated. Often hosts will give a 99% uptime guarantee, and if not they refund a certain portion of the user’s money depending on the amount of excess downtime they experienced.

Traffic Statistics – With traffic statistics, we believe the programs that track visitors on a website. These programs are able to tell how many times a user visited a website where many visitors were unique and how many came back more than once, which pages were most popular, where visitors came to a website what keywords they used in search engines, etc. In addition they offer several types of information that is useful for placing a site for an audience. There are several hosts that offer some form of traffic statistics software with their hosting packages.

CGI Scripts – Several hosts offer a variety of free CGI scripts with their packages. CGI Scripts are the things that hit counters, guestbooks, form mail programs, message boards and other programs that make a website to perform commonly desired functions. Most CGI scripts are written in common programming languages such as Perl, PHP or ASP.

Thus we must be careful and keep all the above points in mind while choosing a web host.

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