By Matt Ewing

Strategies for Web Hosting and Managed ServicesConstructing a website is a vital part of increasing the scope of your business world and expanding your online presence. Once you have this notion, you start to consider a possible domain name and then look into Webhosting for your potential site. You need to think about what web host is right for you and that is why we now offer you a simple guide to web hosting.

Can you define web hosting?

Not just a domain name, but a group of files linked together by HTML code in order to put on view the text and graphics on a computer is what a website is all about. The compilation of your created files has to be saved somewhere in the computer (with special software) to show others, provided it has an Internet access. Generally speaking, web hosting is a renting space on a web server. A web server lets a computer have the requests from the Internet for the website files that has been stored. It also does send the files to the Internet for the purpose of displaying by the requesting computer. It is called 'server' fir its same approach like a waiter in a restaurant.

There are many services that are provided by a web server. It has the ability to display files to other people surfing the internet and it can provide further uses. These may include offering the ability to generate email accounts and addresses that are relevant to the domain name which will allow the sending and receiving of emails. In addition to this provision, the ability to make and control databases, show moving images and a number of other options are provided to the user. It does not matter about the computer as the software is what is important in making a server.

As it is a service being provided, there is a fee for purchasing a web host and this money goes towards the general upkeep and maintenance of the software and hardware of the server. This payment is also used to keep the server online, to ensure it is held securely and that a rapid internet connection is maintained. Payment also goes towards paying for the person who maintains this service. It may be possible for the user to do it all themselves but having a dedicated provider do the tasks for you is usually a better idea for most people. Yes, this incurs a charge but it can be worthwhile providing the person does it in reliable form.

Varieties of Web Hosting

Shared Hosting- Yahoo! may be meant for everyone to use the internet but not every website is like that meaning they are targeted at a particular niche which means there i no requirement for a large amount of pages. This means most websites do not need an infinite resource of the server. The majority of servers are extremely powerful which makes them able to handle a huge amount of sites. Just fewer than 100% of websites use the shared hosting method which sees more than one website placed on a particular server. This method is used because it is easily the cheaper option as it spreads the cost of resources of the server in addition to the resources, which makes it a popular choice. Another name for shared hosting is virtual hosting which enables clients to have access to a number of available resources. Depending on how much space or how many resources are being used, the price will vary. The more of a service such as email accounts, disk space or bandwidth being used, the higher the cost will be.

Dedicated Hosting- Having a web server that is dedicated to you is worthwhile if you believe your website will have many visitors or you do not wish to share a server with others or you do not wish to dominate shared resources. This equates to renting out an entire server for you and is known as dedicated hosting. The machine remains the property of the web hosting company as does hardware maintenance and web host software but responsibility for use and configuration of the server is given to the user. A variation on this theme is provided with semi-dedicated hosting and this is where the web hosting service is extended to a few clients, usually between two and four, and there are clear boundaries between the companies. This is viewed as managed hosting as the host company manages and maintains the server. As may be expected, dedicated hosting is dearer than shared hosting.

Server Co-Location- The best option for having everything of your web server in your own domain is to purchase one and then maintain it with the aid of your own knowledge about it. It might still not be enough to keep your server aloof from power outages, roof leaks, thieves, unwary employees and other problems. It might not be able to keep your server on the Internet on a fast connection as well but a data center endows you with all these services. One thing needs to be said here that the rental of physical security, uninterrupted electrical power and a high-speed Internet connection for a server is what we know as Co-location. It is very interesting that here you are responsible for the hardware or software maintenance of a co-located server. The data center has no part to play here. Having sufficient knowledge and time to maintain a web server, this option is better and cheaper than dedicated hosting.

UNIX Hosting- Although a number of web host styles have been talked about so far, it is more accurate to say they have been variants on UNIX as this is what the majority of web severs are operated on. The UNIX operating system was developed by universities as a method of providing access to networks and servers and features in many different forms and designs. This is because this form of operating system was created with 'open source protocol' which enabled many amendments and adjustments to be made. There are a great number of variations produced such as FreeBSD, SuSE, Debian and Red Hat Linux all of which stem from Linux and BSD, which are considered to be the popular versions. A huge benefit of using UNIX as a form of hosting is its low cost and the fact that it provides a better alternative to many operating systems. This reduction in costs allows the web host to charge a lower price for their service or allows them to have a larger profit margin. Other benefits in using this style of hosting platform is that the UNIX is considered to have high security, it is considered extremely powerful and it offers great stability. You may hear the phrase 'UNIX hosting' used quite a lot and this is because it refers to any platform that originated from the first UNIX.

Windows Hosting- Windows Server 2003 is a commercial product developed by Microsoft. As far as this product is concerned, an operator needs to purchase a license that raises the cost of entire process and gives birth to higher hosting prices. This special version of Windows operating system advanced by Microsoft is less powerful and secure than UNIX instead of Windows being deemed as perfect for users if you are to operate in a network environment. ASP, ASP.NET, and ColdFusion are well-liked for some web programming applications and these scripting languages can only run on a Windows server like the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database programs. The idea of using all these requires you to have a Windows host.


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