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Web Hosting Service
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. Webhosts can also provide data center space
and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be
located in their data center, called colocation.
 Service
scope
The scopes of hosting
services vary widely. The most basic is webpage and small-scale file
hosting, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or
a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or
with little processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer
this service for free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web
page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Personal web
site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap.
Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.
Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web
pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that
provides database support and application development platforms (e.g.
PHP, Java, Ruby on Rails, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the
customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and
content management. For e-commerce, SSL is also required.
The host may also provide an interface or control panel for managing
the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like
e-mail. Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g.
e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource
network infrastructure to a hosting company. To find a web hosting
company, there are searchable directories that can be used. One must be
extremely careful when searching for a new company because many of the
people promoting service providers are actually affiliates and the
reviews are biased.
Hosting
reliability and uptime
Multiple racks of servers, and how a
datacenter commonly looks.Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of
time the host is accessible via the internet. Many providers state that
they aim for a 99.9% uptime, but there may be server restarts and
planned (or unplanned) maintenance in any hosting environment.
A common claim from the popular hosting
providers is '99% or 99.9% server uptime' but this often refers only to
a server being powered on and doesn't account for network downtime. Real
downtime can potentially be larger than the percentage guaranteed by the
provider. Many providers tie uptime, and accessibility, into their own
Service Level Agreement, or SLA. SLAs may or may not include refunds, or
reduced costs if performance goals are not met.
Types
of hosting
A typical server
"cage," commonly seen in colocation centres.Internet hosting services
can run Web servers; see Internet hosting services.
Hosting services limited to the Web:
Free web hosting service:
Is free, (sometimes)
advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when
compared to paid hosting.
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Shared web hosting service:
One's Web site is placed on
the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to
hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common
pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared
website may be hosted with a reseller.
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Reseller web hosting:
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.
Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have
their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
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Virtual Dedicated Server:
Dividing a server into virtual
servers, where each user feels like they're on their own
dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with
many other users. The users may have root access to their own
virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or
VPS.
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Dedicated hosting service:
The user gets his or her own
Web server and gains full control over it (root access for
Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user
typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated
hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least
expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative
access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the
security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
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Managed hosting service:
The user gets his or her own Web
server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for
Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are
allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management
tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider
can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to
modify the server or potentially create configuration problems.
The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased
to the client.
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Colocation web hosting service:
Similar to the dedicated
web hosting service, but the user owns the colo 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. In most cases, the
colocation provider may provide little to no support directly
for their client's machine, providing only the electrical,
Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most
cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator
visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or
changes.
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Clustered hosting:
Having multiple servers hosting the
same content for better resource utilization.
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Grid hosting :
This form of distributed hosting is when a
server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple
nodes.
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Home server:
Usually a single machine placed in a private
residence can be used to host one or more websites from a
usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be
purpose-built machines or more commonly old PC's.
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Some ISP's actively attempt
to block these servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80
of the user's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses.
Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service
providers:
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File hosting service - Hosts not web pages but files.
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Image hosting service
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Video hosting service
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Blog hosting service
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One-click hosting
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Obtaining
hosting
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. Most hosting
providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of
different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the
LAMP platform: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python. The webhosting
client may want to have other services, such as email for their business
domain, databases or multi-media services for streaming media. A
customer may also choose Windows for its hosting platform. The customer
still can choose from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or
Classic ASP.
Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System,
so the end-user doesn't have to worry about the more technical aspects.
One may also search the Internet to find active webhosting message
boards that may provide feedback on what type of webhosting company may
suit his/her needs. |
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