Learn about Hosting

Web hosting is a service for web users who would like to upload and store their web sites/information on the Internet for the purpose of being accessed and viewed by people across the world. It can be accessed through File Transfer Protocol or any Web Interface. Web hosting companies, thus provide space on their web servers and Internet connectivity for their clients.

There are several types of web hosting:





* Free Web Hosting is as the name suggests, a service offered by companies to have your web site accessible in the Web, free of cost. For this, they may have ads or banners popping up on your web site. Free services typically will have limited bandwidth, disk space, development tools as well as traffic limits. This is best suited for up and coming web developers.

* Image Web Hosting – This is good for those who prefer having an image gallery or pictures depot. Image Web Hosting is usually free but you have to become an active member of the web host's site.

* Shared web hosting – This kind of hosting generally only allows a few web pages to be uploaded for a web site. Disk space for the entire server and other resources are usually limited, but this service is provided free of cost.

* Clustered Web Hosting - Unlike Shared Web Hosting where the resources are common for all web sites, this type of hosting uses Clustering Technology. This technology offers strict security, a load balancing system and other necessary web development tools which are replicated for each web site. Clustered Web Hosting has several physical servers working in tandem with greater possibilities for disk space and memory upgrades.

* Reseller Web Hosting is when entrepreneurs market Web Hosting for reselling by other entrepreneurs. You buy a large chunk of space in their servers with all the web development tools which can be further divided to enable you to create space for other web sites.

* Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting is similar to clustered Web Hosting, except that all hosted web sites are in one physical server.

* Dedicated Web Hosting – Here the client has his own physical server. He enjoys all the resources that a dedicated server, but is restricted by the policy set by the Web hosting company. It is also quite expensive and typically this kind of hosting is done by companies with high bandwidths and large databases.

* Co-located Web Hosting – This is again very similar to dedicated Web Hosting but without the policy restrictions of the Web hosting company. Individuals or companies having comprehensive Web Server Administration knowledge would be best suited for this service.



Before obtaining the services of any web hosting company, ensure that it provides good security for confidential data that will be posted on databases hosted on web servers. The web hosting company must support the platform or application requirements of the Web site.



Although, there are several hundreds of web hosting companies floating around, choose one that suits your requirements. Web hosting is a long-term investment, thus be prudent of which hosting company you ultimately choose.