Web Hosting Uncovered

You have a conception that you want to transform into a website? Your first step should be to keep your inspiration and find a place for your website on the World Wide Web so that it will be constantly accessible to the whole world.

Where should you host your web site?

Since the number of web sites on the web has grown exponentially over the last couple of years, the demand for web hosting services has also lead to the birth of countless web hosting vendors. These are firms that offer you content storage space for your own web site on their web servers.

Sorts of web hosting services

The reach of hosting services fluctuates immensely, so do the requirements of the web site possessors. The most basic type of web hosting is the small-scale file hosting solution, where files can be uploaded using File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a web-based hosting Control Panel. Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer this service free of charge. Personal web page owners and companies can also obtain web hosting services from different web hosting vendors. Personal website hosting services are usually either free, ad-sponsored, or affordably priced. Business website hosting services usually are more expensive, but due to the enormous rivalry on the hosting marketplace, an increasing number of web hosting service providers, like us at Nova Webhosting, distribute business website hosting services at reduced prices and with flexible invoicing intervals.

Sorts of sites and their requirements

The free website hosting platform is normally sufficient for personal sites like portfolios or online blogs. A more complex website, like a social networking website or a corporate website, needs a more advanced website hosting platform that offers database support and web application development platforms (for example PHP). If you would like to establish an e-shop, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) must be supported by the hosting supplier of your choice. At present, Secure Sockets Layer certificates are offered by the majority of hosting distributors.

The hosting Control Panel

The hosting accounts provider normally also offers a Control Panel user interface for handling your files, email boxes, mailbox aliases, domain names, DNS records, etc.

Service uptime

When choosing a hosting services provider, service uptime is a very essential aspect. The availability of a web site is calculated on a yearly basis by taking into account the time when the web site is publicly accessible and visible on the Internet. Network and service uptime guarantees, therefore, should be mindfully taken into account when signing up for a website hosting service. The best thing to do is double-check the service-level agreements and the Terms of Use of the hosting vendor of your choice in advance. Reading reviews from existing customers is also a pretty reasonable move before you choose to register.

The shared web hosting solution

The most widely used and modestly priced type of web hosting service is the shared web hosting solution. It includes 24x7 client support, which is an enormous benefit for clients who do not want to cope with server maintenance procedures, but could also hinder clients who want to exert more control over the hosting server. For such clients, a virtual private servers or a dedicated web hosting would be more appropriate. Most standard applications and scripts work alright on a shared hosting web server. In addition, the shared hosting solution is cheaper than other kinds of hosting solutions, like the dedicated web hosting, because the web hosting solutions provider splits the shared hosting web server among numerous clients. The shared hosting platform typically includes system resource usage limitations that guarantee that the separate clients do not intervene with each other and that the server remains stable.

Managing your shared hosting account

Shared website hosting plans normally offer a web-based Control Panel GUI, like cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk, etc. The majority of the large-sized web hosts, again like us at Nova Webhosting, avail of their very own custom-made hosting Control Panel user interface.

Server maintenance

With the shared website hosting platform, the web host is responsible for managing the web and email servers, for installing server software, security updates and patches, and for offering technical support to its customers. Most web servers are based on the Linux Operating System. The host's system administrators are responsible for maintaining the OS up to date, unless you have a dedicated hosting web server and full server root access.