Today,
most of the people & businesses have their own website. You can
create your website on CMS platforms such as WordPress, Joomla etc.
These platforms are affordable(free) & easy to use. With
knowledge of website hosting & other services, you can take
advantage of Internet boom. In this article, we will discuss about
web hosting basics for beginners.
What
Is Web Hosting?
A website is a collection of web
pages which contains text, content, images, videos etc. Website
hosting simply means a personal or company's website available to
public over the internet. To place your website on the Internet, you
need to store it on web server. You should rent or buy some space on
a web server.
Web
Server: Web server is a
computer where you buy some space & store your web pages. It
serves your website over the Internet to the users. These
servers are provided by Web hosts or web hosting companies.
Web
Host: Web host is a company
that provides space on a server to host your website. Large
Web hosts have their own servers or data centers where they host
multiple websites, but some web hosts don't have own server. They
rent server from large company & provide(resell) the space under
own brand. These hosts are called resellers & this service is
called reseller hosting.
Some
Basic Features Provided By Web Hosts:
Below mentioned are some basic
features provided by web hosting companies.
Disk
Space: Disk
space refers to amount of storage space provided by web hosting
company. Disk space will be used to store website files contains
text, images, video, content etc. Web
hosting company provides
the disk space for all size of businesses according to their needs.
Bandwidth:
Bandwidth refers to amount
of data &
traffic allowed to travel &
transfer between your site, users & the Internet. Web
hosting companies provide particular level of bandwidth. More
bandwidth your site has, it will be faster to load. If
your website has lots of graphics or heavy pages then you will need
higher bandwidth & higher storage.
Programming
Languages: Web hosting packages
provided by web hosting provider includes programming languages such
as HTML, PHP, ASP, Python, perl scripts with
MySQL, MSSQL databases.
Uptime:
This is the amount of time
that a web server has stayed up & running. If a web host has high
uptime percentage then it means their servers stay running & good
for host any site. Most of
hosting providers
offer 99.99% uptime which means website will down for 8.8 hours in a
year. If you have E-commerce
website then you require greater
uptime.
Support:
This is one of the most
important feature you should take care while choosing web host. Web
host should provide quick customer support via chat, phone, tickets &
email for your problems related to website.
Pricing:
You should make sure that your
web hosting company not charge extra money for basic features. You
should also check that there is no hidden charges in your hosting
plan.
Types
of Web Hosting:
Web hosting companies offer
different types of web hosting services according to website needs.
Generally, there are four types of web hosting options: Shared
Hosting, Virtual Private Server(VPS), Dedicated Hosting & Cloud
Hosting. You can migrate to any plan when you want.
Shared Hosting: In this
hosting, multiple websites share space on a single server. This is
cost effective hosting solution. This hosting is best for personal
websites, small businesses, low traffic websites etc. This is
economical hosting option because server cost is shared in multiple
users. In shared hosting, websites share server resources such as
processor, RAM, disk space & bandwidth.
Virtual Private Server(VPS):
VPS hosting divides a server into multiple virtual servers. VPS
offers you a physical server with dedicated IP address &
resources. Users have root access to their virtual server. This
solution provides features same as dedicated server at lower cost. So
this is also called virtual dedicated server. VPS hosting is very popular from small businesses to large size businesses.
Dedicated
Server Hosting: In
dedicated hosting, you
will get your own server &
only your websites are stored on the server.
You have full control over the server. This
hosting is best for large websites because large
websites need more resources such as bandwidth, disk space, and
processor. In dedicated
hosting processing speed is high rather than other hosting options.
In this hosting, traffic of other websites can't affect your website,
so you don't need to
worry about downtime.
Dedicated server is most secure & reliable.
Cloud
Hosting: In cloud hosting technique, multiple servers are connected to each other. This is based
on “Service on Demand”. You can use only resources which are
required for your website. You can add more resources at any time
when expect higher traffic. This is very cost effective way. Cloud
computing based on “Pay as you go”. It means, hosting provider
will
charge
you only for
what computing
resources you use. It
also offers great ability to handle high traffic.
So,
these are commonly used
web hosting services in web hosting industry. You can choose any
hosting platform for your business as
your convenience.
If you small or personal website, you can select shared hosting or
cloud hosting. If
you have medium sized business then you can go for VPS hosting. If
you have e commerce website or large traffic website, you should
choose dedicated hosting.
Linux
& Windows Web Hosting:
Windows
& Linux are most popular operating system on which server runs.
Linux is an
open source operating
system. Linux OS supports scripting languages like perl, python, PHP
& MySQL database. While windows OS supports scripting languages
such as ASP,
ASP.NET & MSSQL database. Linux
hosting is very popular among different size of
businesses because its
cost is less than windows hosting. Window
hosting is more user friendly than linux hosting. Website
which designed to be hosted on linux server can be hosted on windows
server. But linux
hosting is not compatible with Microsoft technology.
Both
windows & linux offer equal security for your website. You
can choose windows & linux hosting according to your website's
need. If website needs
windows application then you have to choose windows hosting.
nice blogt
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