A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service
that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via
the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server
owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity,
typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and
connectivity to the Internet for other servers located in their data center,
called colocation, also known as Housing in Latin America or France.
The scope of web hosting services varies greatly. The most
basic is web page 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 minimal processing.[1] Many
Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service free to subscribers.
Individuals and organizations may also obtain Web page hosting from alternative
service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free,
advertisement-sponsored, or inexpensive. Business web site hosting often has a
higher expense.
Single page hosting is generally sufficient 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, ColdFusion, or ASP.NET). These facilities allow customers to write or
install scripts for applications like forums and content management. Also,
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is typically used for e-commerce.
The host may also provide an interface or control panel for
managing the Web server and installing scripts, as well as other modules and
service applications like e-mail. Some hosts specialize in certain software or
services (e.g. e-commerce), which are commonly used by larger companies that outsource
network infrastructure.
Types of hosting
A typical server "rack" commonly seen in
colocation centres
Internet hosting services can run Web servers.
Many large companies that are not internet service providers
need to be permanently connected to the web to send email, files, etc. to other
sites. The company may use the computer as a website host to provide details of
their goods and services and facilities for online orders.
Free web hosting
service: offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes
supported by advertisements, and often limited when compared to paid hosting.
Shared web hosting
service: one's website 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. The features
available with this type of service can be quite basic and not flexible in
terms of software and updates. Resellers often sell shared web hosting and web
companies often have reseller accounts to provide hosting for clients.
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 reseller. Resellers'
accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual
dedicated server to a colocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly
identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and provide the
technical support themselves.
Virtual Dedicated
Server: also known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS), divides server resources
into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not
directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources
based on a one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualisation may be
done for a number of reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container
between servers. The users may have root access to their own virtual space.
Customers are sometimes responsible for patching and maintaining the server.
Dedicated hosting
service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it
(user has root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the
user typically does not own the server. One 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 server, which means the
client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated
server.
Managed hosting
service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full
control over it (user is denied 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.
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 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. Formerly, many
colocation providers would accept any system configuration for hosting, even
ones housed in desktop-style minitower cases, but most hosts now require rack
mount enclosures and standard system configurations.
Cloud hosting: is
a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and
reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing.
A cloud hosted website may be more reliable than alternatives since other
computers in the cloud can compensate when a single piece of hardware goes
down. Also, local power disruptions or even natural disasters are less
problematic for cloud hosted sites, as cloud hosting is decentralized. Cloud
hosting also allows providers to charge users only for resources consumed by
the user, rather than a flat fee for the amount the user expects they will use,
or a fixed cost upfront hardware investment. Alternatively, the lack of
centralization may give users less control on where their data is located which
could be a problem for users with data security or privacy concerns.
Clustered hosting:
having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource
utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability
dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution. A cluster may
separate web serving from database hosting capability. (Usually Web hosts use
Clustered Hosting for their Shared hosting plans, as there are multiple
benefits to the mass managing of clients).
Grid hosting: this
form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is
composed of multiple nodes.
Home server:
usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one
or more web sites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can
be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PCs. Some ISPs actively attempt
to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the
user's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A common way
to attain a reliable DNS host name is by creating an account with a dynamic DNS
service. A dynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP address that a
URL points to when the IP address changes.
Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service
providers:
File hosting
service: hosts files, not web pages
Image hosting
service
Video hosting
service
Blog hosting
service
Paste bin
Shopping cart
software
E-mail hosting
service
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