Understanding the Different Types of Web Hosting

Web hosting providers offer many different types of hosting like free web hosting, Shared, Reseller, Virtual Dedicated Server, Dedicated, Managed, Colocation, Clustered, Grid. By glancing through the list, you should get a better understanding on all the different hosting packages available online and which one is the right service for you.

Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.

Shared Hosting: (My personal favorite) is a type of hosting where many web sites are hosted on same physical server. It is the cheapest and easiest way to get a web site up and running. Shared web hosting is perfect for web blogs, personal web pages, small forums, small business and e-commerce sites. Shared web hosting is ideal for establishing simple websites.

Reseller hosting: is a certain kind of web hosting where you buy server space, market it yourself, and sell it on to your own customers. Most of the resellers are web designers, consultants or marketers, who want to offer their customers a complete package with hosting included.

Virtual Dedicated Server: offer many of the capabilities and features of dedicated servers, including admin (root) access and dedicated IP addresses, but at a much lower price. However, as a virtual dedicated server is, indeed, virtually dedicated, the customer in fact shares the server space with a small number of other customers. Virtual dedicated servers meet the needs of web sites that have outgrown garden-variety shared hosting, but which don't yet justify the expense of their own dedicated server. Virtual dedicated servers come with an easy-to-use control panel that offers a highly powerful tool box that allows you easy access to powerful features.

Dedicated server: means you are renting an entire physical server for use all by yourself. Getting a dedicated server means you don't have to share system resources with other websites. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to colocation facilities , providing redundant power sources and HVAC systems. In contrast to collocation, the server hardware is owned by the provider and in some cases they will provide support for your operating system or applications.

Managed hosting: is usually more expensive since the web host will be responsible for managing and maintaining the dedicated server. Managed hosting service can be considered as an upgraded version of web hosting. The managed hosting provider takes the responsibility of hosting the clients website in a well managed way.Managed hosting firms can also help businesses change their network and systems, upgrading, adding options and extending solutions.

Colocation hosting: is like having a server on your own. With colocation you can save time and money because of using shared data infrastructure. Colocation hosting is the next best thing if you are willing to provide the server and manage it by yourself. If you don't have much experience or can't spend a lot of time managing the server or want to buy a server computer, dedicated hosting or a VPS is the best option.

Clustered Hosting : is a group of servers clustered in the same network to perform hosting services. The purpose of Clustered Hosting technology is to eradicate the troubles inherent in typical shared hosting infrastructures.

Grid hosting: is a new approach to a shared hosting environment. Instead of a few websites sharing one server, in the more classic shared environment, grid hosting is a bunch of websites all sharing a bunch of servers.

Affordable Web Hosting - Know Your Buying Criteria Before You Choose

Choosing the right web hosting service for your new or existing website is very important, and can lead to a smooth and hassle free experience, or cause you major grief, and cost you money for months to come, depending on how well you make the decision.

This article will look at three of the important 'buying criteria' you should carefully consider before you take the plunge with any web hosting service.

What is a 'buying criteria' you might ask?

Simply this: The important criteria you should consider that will affect the purchase you make and the degree to which you are satisfied with the results and outcome.

Here are three important buying criteria:

Affordable Web Hosting buying criteria #1:

Is the disk storage space and bandwidth sufficient for your needs?

If you are just starting out with a fairly small website, then this most likely won't be a problem these days. Disk space simply refers to the capacity of available disk space you will have to use. Bandwidth refers to the amount of traffic your server will be able to handle before it slows down or crashes! Again, unless you are anticipating masses of traffic, you will mostly be fine with a standard specification.

Affordable Web Hosting buying criteria #2:

What is the service like?

Service is CRITICAL when it comes to web hosting. You may like to think that you will have no problems, but trust me, this is very unlikely! It's almost certain you will need to use the service facility, so you want to make sure you it suits your needs now, before you buy.

We recommend that you find a service with either phone contact or online chat contact, as well as the usual email. And make sure it's 24/7!

Affordable Web Hosting buying criteria #3:

%"Up-time". This simply refers to an estimate of how much time the hosting is guaranteed to be up. To be honest, I don't know if there's much you can do about it if you find that in reality, it's less than the company claims, except move to another hosting provider, but at least you want to go with a company that is aiming for 99.9% up-time.

There are more important criteria you should check out before you buy. Visit my blog at the link below to view 8 affordable web hosting buying criteria that will help you make the best decision.

Choosing the Right Web Host

Choosing the right web host is a very important process that is all to often hurried through or; simply misunderstood.

Choosing a web host is in fact one the most important parts of setting up an online business. You need a service that is fast; easy to use and understand; provides excellent support; and is serious enough about its operations to guarantee that your website will never be down unless the entire datacenter were completely demolished.

Below is a list of the most common questions and answers to consider when looking for a web host. Understanding the different areas of web hosting and services available will help you to make a better educated decision when you do subscribe to a web hosting service.

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is the process of putting your web site on a web server or web host, so everyone connected to the Internet can see it. If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you could host your web site on your own computer, but that is in general not a good idea. A good web host is a real server in a datacenter with a fast high bandwidth connection to the Internet. And, to make sure you can move your web site to another web host, if necessary, you need a web hosting provider that supports domain hosting.

What is Domain Hosting?

Most Internet Service Providers (or ISP) will give you a free web site when they provide you with access to the Internet. They do this because they don't want to give you a permanent IP address, which is what you need if you'd like to host a web site on your own computer. Unfortunately, most ISPs don't support domain hosting with their free web sites. Hence, the URL of your web site is an extension of the URL of your ISP. So what happens when you change ISP? You will have to change the URL and nobody can find you anymore.

The use of a domain name for your web site is absolutely necessary for a professional web site, and to host your own domain you will need to find a real web hosting provider with domain hosting. Many web hosting plans actually include the price of a domain registration, so don't register your domain before you have chosen your web hosting company.

What is Virtual Hosting?

Virtual hosting is often used as a synonym for shared hosting, e.g. you host your web site on a web server with hundreds of other web sites and you share the IP address with these web sites.

The term virtual hosting should imply, however, that while you share the web server it looks from the outside world that you are the only web site on that server. That means that with virtual hosting you should not only have your own IP address, but also a dedicated bandwidth to the Internet and a dedicated slice of the computers processing power. So, if a web hosting provider uses the term virtual hosting, have a close look if these features are offered before you decide on paying a premium price above standard shared hosting.

What is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth is a measure that reflects how much data can be transferred over a data communication channel.

In web hosting plans the allowed bandwidth generally indicates how much data can be downloaded from your web site per month, and therefore indicates how many web pages and pictures your visitors are allowed to download. If the average amount of page views per visitor is assumed constant, the allowable bandwidth restricts how many visitors you are allowed to have per month.

Just as important, however, is how fast the communication channel between your web host and the Internet is. The amount of data that can be transferred per second is also called the bandwidth of this channel, and this bandwidth is shared by all the web sites hosted by the same provider. If this bandwidth is insufficient, you'll sometimes notice a slow down in the display of your web pages. In most cases, however, such a slow down is more likely to be caused by an overload on the web server itself.

What is a web server?

A web server is either a special computer or server for reliable hosting of web sites, or the software application that runs on that server. The two main web server applications used by most web hosting providers are

Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) for windows hosting and Apache for Unix hosting. Both use the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to transfer web pages to your web browser.

What is a datacenter?

A datacenter is building, or part of a building, which offers a professional environment for running computer servers. A datacenter will generally have high speed connections to the Internet and other networks, as well as good security to protect against natural hazards, such as fire, and other hazards, such as intruders and hackers.

Web Hosting Summary.

In summary, what are the important things to look for when selecting a web host?

1. Price
2. Datacenter Standards
3. Easy access to a Control Panel
4. Easy to navigate Control Panel
5. 24 / 7 Support
6. Host supports scripting languages / databases required to operate your site
7. Multiple packages available (As your business grows you may need to upgrade. Make sure the web host provider will allow you to do this)

This is really just the basics; although all very important things to consider. Most web host will have a FAQ file or Knowledgebase file available which you can read through before signing up. In most case cheap is not better; in most cases. However I must say the web host I am now using combines an impressive price with impressive services. Over the years I have used approximately 8 - 10 different web hosts and HostGator.com is in my opinion one of the best I have ever used. But you can see for yourself here:

http://www.hostgator.com

Also, a big name in the industry that most everyone is familiar with is Yahoo. Yahoo also provides World Class Hosting services for all sizes of business. Yahoo services can be reviewed here:

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com

Make sure you go through the checklist above while browsing their site and you'll get a better feel for comparing web host services.