Here’s a Simple Guide To Web Hosting

Web hosting is what allows websites to become accessible on the internet. The files that make up your website can exist unconventionally. These files are only accessible to the public if you put them on a server that is properly connected. A website actually refers to a collection of files and folders that are connected and work together. These are used to render a web-page. Depending on the intricacy and the functionality of the website, this can be built from one to thousands of files.

A simple website, built with HTML, can be rendered on your computer. However, a complex site built with PHP or ASP can only be viewed on a web server. Alternatively, it can also be viewed using a software that will create the essential setting on your computer.

 

Different Types of Web Hosting

1. Shared Hosting: Several web hosting customers share the same computer. All of the websites of all the different accounts are stored in the same drive. They are processed by the same CPU, and delivered by the same web server. It’s easy to see why this is less costly than other options.

2. Dedicated Server Hosting: With this you have complete control over an entire server. Though advantageous, it is however, more expensive and complicated. Direct and complete access to the server that is running your website gives you added advantage. With a dedicated server, you can install any kind of niche software you like. You can make changes to the operating system or language interpreters, and tweak configuration settings.

Somewhere between shared hosting and dedicated hosting, there is…

3. Virtual Private Server (VPS): In this model, you have your own dedicated server. However, the server is a virtual machine, not a physical one. This provides a mix of the benefits (and disadvantages) of both shared and dedicated hosting plans. With VPS hosting, you have complete control over the environment, just as you would with a dedicated server.

4. Dedicated hosting: When purchasing a dedicated hosting account, we are renting the whole web server. That includes all the resources, bandwidth and storage. The cost of a dedicated server can start from $120 per month. Although, this excludes the setup and other software licensing fees. Although the dedicated server is very expensive, it gives its users fully customize and optimized server for their own needs. It also provides the highest security, performance and flexibility.

5. Cloud hosting: is a “new” type of hosting, which has become very popular in the last few years. Here, uploading a website’s files into the cloud actually means clustering those files to different servers located world-wide. We can then access those files from anywhere by connecting to our cloud hosting account. This type of hosting is mostly used to store non-sensitive information.

Also, there is…

6. Managed hosting: This is mostly chosen by webmasters who do not have the time and technical knowledge of server administration. In the case of managed web hosting, besides renting the server, you will also get support from the hosting provider. They will also take care of software upgrades as well the security of the web server. Most web hosting accounts, which come with pre-installed software such as cPanel are managed. So, you don’t have to specially look for this type of service, when searching for a hosting plan.

 

Ready to have your own website?

Below is a simple infograph that will run you through things you need to know. It will help you in getting your own website running and successful…

 

Infographic source: asocoupons