Web hosting services can be ascribed as technical assistance provided by the
companies to their clients on the servers owned by them for proper internet
connectivity and online publishing of the client services. A hosting company can
also provide services on other servers like as on a middle man basis, hence
hiring server space at cheaper prices extending it further on to other clients,
known as collocation.
The cost is usually dependent upon the plan and the features provided by the
company. The rate for a personal website is usually low or sometimes is even
provided for free. Some companies will provide a free starter page when you
purchase a domain name from them. However, a business website plan that conducts
ecommerce will usually require much more storage space and bandwidth, and can
cost considerably more depending on the provider.
There are many different types of services on the World Wide Web like free,
shared, virtual dedicated, dedicated, and managed web hosting services along
with many more. Among the various types the most common ones are Shared, Virtual
dedicated, and Dedicated Services.
Shared Hosting: is where many different websites are stored or uploaded to a
single server and given a specific amount of storage space and bandwidth for
their site on that particular server. From an economical standpoint shared
hosting is often considered more fee friendly, and provides necessary space and
features for most individuals and small companies.
Virtual Hosting: Occupying the space between the shared and dedicated hosting
formats, a virtual dedicated server offers many of the capabilities and features
of dedicated servers, including administrator (root) access and dedicated IP
addresses, but at a much lower rate. Users share the server, but because each
virtual dedicated server is effectively isolated from other accounts, the user
has full control over the server space.
Virtual dedicated servers are particularly useful for companies and
individuals that run higher-traffic Web sites or complex applications and thus
need the bandwidth, consistent performance, and flexibility of a virtual
dedicated server.
Dedicated Hosting:Unlike normal hosting plans, which put many customers'
accounts on a single server, a dedicated server is reserved exclusively for the
account and usage of a single customer. This means that the dedicated server
customer has exclusive rights to their server's bandwidth, memory, and storage
space, and performance is not affected by traffic and the usage patterns of
other customers.
Dedicated servers are used for many different reasons, like gaming servers,
database management, and traffic-intensive Web sites. Dedicated servers are
considerably useful for companies and individuals who have very-high-traffic Web
sites or applications, and who need the bandwidth, storage, versatility, and
consistent performance of a dedicated box.
Now after gaining some insight and initial knowledge as to the nature of web
hosting, it is up to you to decide which type of hosting plan best suites your
needs. This should not be confused with a domain name as sometimes happens among
people that are new and unfamiliar with these terms. Once again as already
referred to in the beginning, by web hosting you are simply publishing your
website on the internet.
While selecting a reliable provider you need to be careful about the
services. Look over the features advertised by the company and make sure they
are adequate to your needs. If the service provider is not adequate or below
average, it will only eat up your time and money. It is best to choose a hosting
provider in the Country you intend to market to. Get a service provider who can
keep your website up consistently and is ready to resolve any issue, instantly.
Also, you should look for a company that doesn't charge any set-up fees, has no
annual commitment, and doesn't slip in pop up ads or banners. You want 24/7 live
access to support, and if you don't know what plan is best for you call them in
advance to ask for assistance before making a selection.
A company that offers a 99.9% uptime is good. Deficiency of more than that
can cost you server down time for many hours, and potential profits. The size of
your website is also of considerable importance apart from above discussed
points. The size of your website will determine whether additional disk space is
required for the upkeep of the website. Another important aspect to consider
while choosing a plan is the design of the website and the application platform
on which it is based. If the website is in ASP or ASP.net, the windows server is
required. In the event it is in CGI or PHP than a Linux server will work better
for you. Thus it is very important to consider as many aspects as possible
before choosing your web hosting company.
