subject: Understanding The World Of Web Hosting [print this page] Web hosting is a service that allows you, as an organization, business, professional or an individual, to set up a website that can be accessed by you, your employees or everyone on the World Wide Web. Companies that either have capacity to provide space and provide Internet connections for their clients through wireless connections or dedicated lines to their servers provide this hosting.
These servers are found in two classes, these classes depend on the choices that you as a client decide on, your capability and that of your organization and what kind of information you want put on the Internet.
When choosing the type of server best for you, you have a choice between using your own server and leasing it from the web hosts. For companies that process sensitive information, a dedicated server is the best choice, however, you can choose to have both servers, such one is internal while the other hosts the information you would like to share with the public. Web hosts make sure that the integrity of all the data you have is safe by saving it in their data center.
Services offered by web hosts
The main services offered by these hosts range from free, subscribed services and security services. The most common and easy service offered is webpage hosting which includes the transfer, uploading and downloading of files or simply offer you a web interface; this service is mostly offered free for files not exceeding a certain size, which varies for various hosts.
Another service offered is web site hosting, here the provider enables database support and platforms that can support the type of information you would like to share. These platforms are mainly, Java, PHP, ColdFusion and ASP.NET; they help to interpret the data put on your website such that it can be decoded from computer language in to language people can understand. Many of these platforms enable the clients to share information in the form of forums or by using content management systems.
The major service offered by web hosts is to provide infrastructure for the web server, installation, modules and other applications. Depending on the data, different ways of installations are embraced if the client has the capability to run such services. For larger companies, because of cost measures, they choose to outsource or dedicate a whole department to managing their website and the information on it.
The types of hosting that offered by web hosts
This services as mentioned earlier are available for individuals or organizations such that they are able to share information on the World Wide Web by sending emails, uploading files and photos on the Internet. These files are shared on a computer that has Internet connectivity. Briefly, the hosts offer the following services:
