Web Hosting

Web hosting makes a Web site available on the Internet. A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.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 operating system. Linux-based web hosting is provided by most hosting providers. It offers a wide range of different software. A Web Content Management System is also included in the Web hosting packages. It gives the solutions of the more technical aspects to the end users.

Types of hosting

ISPs have different service fees for the web hosting depending on the size of the website. Commercial Web sites with multi pages and the customer's registered domain name are hosted at a very wide range of prices. A single computer can hold dozens to hundreds of small Web sites, while a dedicated computer or multiple computers (from a handful to thousands) may be used for one large Web site.

Free web hosting service: Free web hosting service is free. It is sometimes advertisement-supported web hosting. As compared to paid hosting, the functionality of free hosting is extremely limited.

Shared web hosting service: In this hosting , one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites. It may range from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU.

Reseller web hosting (http://www.webhostinginsider.net/reseller-web-hosting.php ): 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. Virtual Dedicated Server: It slices up a server into virtual servers. Each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users.

Dedicated hosting service: In this service, the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it; however, the user typically does not own the server.

Colocation web hosting service: It is similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the 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.

Clustered hosting: In this service, multiple servers host the same content for better resource utilization.

Entirely or Partially Managed

The full service of Web hosting organizations includes site design and programming as well as all e-commerce facilities. Some customers wish to use their own servers and software. In this case, all their privately owned equipment can be co-located at the ISP, which provides power, Internet access and some level of management.

Service scope

The scopes of hosting services vary widely. Webpage and small-scale file hosting is the most basic hosting service. In this hosting, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface are used for files uploading. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. This service is offered for free to their subscribers by many Internet service providers (ISPs). People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Web page hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap.Web page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages.

A more comprehensive package is required for a complex site. This package provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, and ASP.NET). The customers can write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management with these facilities.SSL is also required for e-commerce.

A Web interface control panel (e.g. cPanel, Hosting Controller, Plesk or View a list of Control panels) may also be provided by the host. It manages the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail.

Certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce) are the specialization of some hosts. Larger companies commonly use these services to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company.

Hosting reliability and uptime Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. Many hosting providers claim '99% or 99.9% server uptime' but this often refers only to a server being powered on and doesn't account for network downtime state. There may be server restarts and planned (or unplanned) maintenance in any web hosting environment.

Real downtime can potentially be larger than the percentage guaranteed by the hosting provider. Many providers tie uptime, and accessibility, into their own Service Level Agreement, or SLA. If performance goals are not met, SLAs may or may not include refunds, or reduced costs.