A definition of web space hosting

As its name signifies, web hosting is a solution, which involves hosting web content. There are various forms and kinds of hosting, based on the purpose and on the usage. In spite of that, they all are related to hosting files, which, once hosted, are made available throughout the Web. A host is in fact a server that is connected to the Web and has its own IP address, which allows users to get access to it through the Internet. The hosting server's architecture and its limitations are dependent on the kind of web hosting solution it will be utilized for.

What are the various forms of hosting?

Depending on the usage, the professional hosting service may be:

File Storage Hosting - this type of web hosting enables the users to host their files on a certain server. With the conventional file web hosting service, the files that are deposited may only be accessed by the client that's availing of the service. This web hosting solution mainly includes backups of PCs , docs, private files and even other web hosting servers. This solution may also involve certain limits in terms of the data storage and the root access. There may also be traffic limits, but that is dependent on the given provider.

Warez Web Hosting - the so-called warez web hosting service is resembling the previous hosting service form. Even so, unlike the file web hosting solution, the warez web hosting solution is used for distributing proprietary content without being given the okay to do so by the license proprietor. To put it briefly - it refers to the forbidden transmission of files and materials. There are lots of methods for this to be done, but the 2 main ways are - via plain Hypertext Transfer Protocol downloading and through peer-to-peer connections. The first way entails either a specific site, or, most typically, just a directory on a server that's been made available for everyone to access it and thus download patented content for free. The second way involves a peer-to-peer connection, using the so-called Torrent servers, via which people exchange files between each other. There are very few web page hosting firms that allow that form of hosting on their web hosting servers, mainly because of all the judicial troubles that it presupposes. Typically such websites are hosted on private dedicated hosting servers that are registered by third-party companies either in the Middle East or in Asia.

Email Hosting - this service is used with both shared hosting and dedicated web servers, based on the client's wish. If you would like to create your very own private SMTP e-mail server, then you will require either a private virtual web hosting server or a dedicated hosting server that provides the access level required to execute such a task. For normal email web hosting ends, however, you can open a conventional shared web site hosting account, to which you can point the MX records of your domain. This is not a solution that's very popular, since the site hosting and the e-mail hosting services are being served by 2 different servers, usually owned by separate companies.

Web Page Hosting - the most famous and broadly used hosting service at the moment. It's used for hosting website files, whose type is dependent on the OS the hosting server is availing of - Linux or Windows. Different sorts of files demand different hosting server Operating Systems, or else they won't be displayed accurately on the Internet. This form of hosting may contain server space and traffic quota limitations, server root access and CPU usage restrictions.

Depending on the aims and on the usage, the client should choose the sort of hosting server that he needs for his project, and, of course, the web site hosting company that's going to supply it. There are different types of web hosting servers, based on the specs and the webspace hosting solutions that they offer. These are:

Shared Hosting Server - a shared webspace hosting server provides a smaller amount of resources, which, of course, reflects on the cost of the service. It can be utilized for hosting small and medium scale online portals, which do not need considerable quantities of server space and bandwidth.

Semi-Dedicated Hosting - they are based on the very same principle as the shared site hosting servers. Yet, there are much less clients hosted on the same web server. Therefore, each of them will receive a greater quota of the hosting server's resources like RAM, web space, traffic and CPU. Excellent for hosting bulky sites that do not require complete root access.

VPS - the virtual private web servers are excellent for middle sized web sites, which do demand root-level access to the server's config files. Commonly, there are several Virtual Private Server accounts accommodated on the same server. Yet, each of them is isolated from the rest and runs its own Operating System.

Dedicated Servers Hosting - a fully dedicated physical server set up and accessed by you and only you. It guarantees a vast amount of resources. It also provides server root access, which renders it an excellent environment for any type of site that demands a hosting solution.

The sole question that remains is:

Which web space hosting company should I pick?

As already mentioned, there are not many web hosting companies providing warez web hosting services due to judicial troubles. Such companies are being shut down virtually every month. Because of that, if you want to start such a service, you should do it on your very own computer. The shared web page hosting solution is the most widely spread type of web hosting service. For that reason, every site hosting distributor offers it. Not all of them, though, provide services such as virtual private web servers, semi-dedicated web hosting servers and dedicated servers. Most of the small scale web space hosting providers do not have the resources required for offering those services. Hence it's invariably best to choose a larger host that can provide its clients with all the solutions that they are looking for. You can easily ID such web hosting companies by the sorts of solutions that they are offering and by the way that they present them to the clientele. For example, some hosts allow you to kick off with a small sized web space hosting plan and subsequently move to a more advanced one, if you find it compulsory to do so. This is very suitable, because you do not have to migrate web sites between servers and there is no risk of experiencing outages because of all the predicaments that may appear. Web hosting companies like Free Hostia offer all sorts of solutions and have the necessary hosting server resources and personnel to assure that their clients will not suffer any complications when changing services, which is what a top hosting company is in fact all about.