Web hosting service
A
web hosting service is a type of
Internet hosting service that provides individuals, organizations and users with online systems for storing information, images, video, or any content accessible via the . Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their 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 servers they do not own to be located in their data center.
The scopes of hosting services vary widely. The most basic is
web page and (small) file hosting, where files can be
uploaded via
FTP or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many
ISPs offer this service for free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Web page hosting is typically free, advertisement sponsored, or cheap.
Web page hosting is generally sufficient only for
personal home pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides
database support and application development platforms (e.g.
PHP,
Java, and
ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like
forums and
content management. For
e-commerce,
SSL is also required.
The host may also provide a Web interface control panel (e.g.
Cpanel,
Helm,
Plesk) for managing the
Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Control panels and web interfaces have been causing some controversy lately as
Web.com claims that it holds patent rights to the hosting technology with its' 19 patents. Hostopia, a large wholesale host, recently purchased a license to use that technology from web.com for 10% of retail revenues (
source). Web.com recently sued
Godaddy as well for similar patent infringement (
source).
Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company.
Hosting
uptime is the time while the host is accessible. Hosting providers aim for 100% uptime but there are always server restarts and maintenance, so 100% uptime is almost impossible. A standard claim these days is '99% or 99.9% server uptime' but the difference between these 2 regular statements is 80 hours of downtime each year. 99% uptime means the server is unavailable for 87 hours a year.
Internet hosting services can run
web servers; see
Internet hosting services.
Hosting services limited to the :
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Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is extremely limited when compared to paid hosting.
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Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as several hundred other sites.
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Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user does not own the server.
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Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the 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 the web hosting service.
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Virtual Dedicated Server: slicing up a server into virtual servers. each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users.
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Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves.
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Clustered hosting having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization
Some specific services:
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File hosting service: hosts not web pages but files
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Image hosting service*
Video hosting service*
Blog hosting service*
One-click_hostingWeb hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.
A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and
operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the
LAMP platform:
Linux,
Apache,
MySQL, and
PHP/
Perl/
Python.
Web hosting packages often include a
Web Content Management System, so the end-user doesn't have to worry about the more technical aspects.
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Hosting uptime monitoring*
Web Hosting, List of Providers
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Open Directory List of Free Web Hosts*
Open Directory List of (all) Web Hosts*
Open Directory Hosting Reviews
