Web Hosting
Web Hosting Services – An Overview
When someone talks about a web hosting service, they are referring to a kind of service that will let them make their site accessible to the world through use of the World Wide Web. A web host is a company that offers space on a server than they either own or lease for their clients to use and offer connectivity to the internet, most often through a data center. It is also possible for web hosts to offer space on the data center and Internet connectivity for a server that they don’t own, to put in their data center, which is called co-location.
The types of web hosting services available are very different. For instance, a basic hosting service would include a web page and file hosting on a very small scale. This would allow files to be uploaded through FTP, or file transfer protocol; or what is known as a web interface. These files will most often go online with very little changing. This is often free to subscribers of many internet service providers, or ISPs. It's also possible to get web page hosting from alternative service providers. Most of the time, hosting a personal website is free because it's sponsored by advertisements, or it's very low cost. However, business web site hosting can cost quite a lot more.
When working with a personal web page, it's likely that single page hosting will be a good fit, but that's about all that single page hosting is enough for. The more complicated the site, the more complete the package of database support and application development platforms should be. Application development platforms might include Java, Ruby on Rails, ColdFusion, PHP, or ASP.NET. This will give the client a chance to write and install scripts for applications such as forums and managing content. SSL is often highly recommended for e-commerce.
Depending on the host, it is possible that they will offer a control panel or interface to help manage the web server and install scripts, as well as services that include email. Some hosts work only with special software of services, such as the case with e-commerce. This type of host is most often used by big companies who choose to outsource their network infrastructure to a hosting company.
Reliability and Uptime of Hosting
The uptime of hosting essentially makes reference to what percentage of the time the host can be accessed through the internet. Many hosts try to keep their downtime at about 45 minutes each month, or 99.9% of uptime, but there are occasionally problems such as maintenance or server restarts that will have to be done. Some of the time, this isn’t part of an official uptime promise.
It has become fairly common for web hosts to include uptime and accessibility rates into their SLA, or service legal agreement. Sometimes, SLAs will include rules for refunds or credits if the goals for performance aren't met.
Getting the Right hosting service for you
In many cases, you will find that web hosting is offered as part of general internet access plans and there are lots of free and paid providers who offer these services.
A potential client should take the time to familiarize themselves with the requirements of the application so they can properly choose a web hosting service. Considering things like database server software, operating systems and scripting software will be very helpful. Most providers will work with a Linux-based web hosting, and that give a lot of variety for software. Typical configurations for a Linux server might be the LAMP platform, or Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python. The client may choose to have additional services that might include databases, multi-media services to stream media or email for their business domain.
A client might also want to choose that Windows be their hosting platform. They still have the flexibility to choose from Perl, PHP and Python, but might also wind up using ASP.Net or the classic ASP. A web hosting package will likely include what is called a web content management system, which will reduce the need for the end user to worry about the technicalities of websites.
References
Web Hosting Service - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reliable Web Host - Find affordable web hosting provider.
