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Article : Types of Shared Web Hosting
Shared website
hosting is where multiple websites are hosted on the
same server; each website is contained within its
own folder or location on the server to keep it
separate from other websites which are hosted on the
same server. Shared hosting is seen as the most
economical type of website hosting since the cost of
server maintenance as well as other server related
costs are spread across a large amount of customers,
meaning that the cost of hosting for each customer
is low; generally the more customers that can be
fitted onto a high performance server, the less the
website hosting package or packages will cost.
Shared hosting is normally where most webmasters
begin, and then work their way up the chain to
eventually owning a dedicated server; this is
because shared hosting packages are generally every
cheap, and the amount of skilled needed to begin
with is very low. Shared hosting is normally only
available on two different types of operating
system: Linux and Windows; this is because most web
applications are built to suite either one of these
platforms, and hosting control panels are only
mainly made for Linux and Windows. One thing to note
though is that there are a few hosts who do offer
shared hosting on BSD based systems, although BSD
operating systems are only normally available on
dedicated servers.
Types of Shared Web Hosting
There are different types of shared website hosting,
which can cover different areas and services that a
site may require to be able to run. The owner of a
website might choose to disperse the hosting of the
services which they require for their website for
extra redundancy; in most cases this is done because
the website is ‘mission critical’ and they want to
minimize the amount of downtime as much as they
possibly can - but might not be able to afford a
dedicated server or a clustered website hosting
package. These different types of shared hosting
also allow for people to only host what they need to
host; for example a customer might only require
email hosting, and not actual website hosting - this
means that all they have to do is choose a shared
email hosting plan that matches their
specifications. One thing to note is that most
shared hosting plans, whatever the type, provide
some sort of DNS hosting in some way or another;
without the use of a DNS server or servers, any
service related to your website won’t be able to run
- for example, you won’t be able receive any emails
without the use of DNS because the email servers for
your domain won’t be findable since your MX (mail
exchanger) DNS records can’t be found since you
don’t have any DNS servers attached to your domain.
Examples of different types of shared website
hosting are the following sections.
Application Specific Web Hosting
Application specific web hosting is the term that is
given to web hosting which caters for specific
website applications, or categories of website. In
most cases, application specific web hosting covers
categories such as blogging, image and video
(multimedia) hosting, and in some cases specific
applications have their own web hosting packages.
This type of shared hosting can be of benefit for
those who are looking to host a website which makes
use of one of the three categories that are hosted
for; those with little technical knowledge on how to
get their website running with certain applications
might also find themselves interested in application
specific website hosting. Application specific can
also take the form of free web hosting as well as
paid web hosting; for example Blogger is an online
service that allows you to create and write your own
blog - it allows you to do this for free, on the
other hand there might be a web host that is
offering a hosting plan which has Wordpress already
installed on it so that the customer is able to
start their blog straight away. Both the free and
paid types have their advantages, but the free
versions tend to have adverts plastered all over
them which can spoil both the environment and look
of your website.
Game Server Hosting
Game server hosting is used by players to host
league table matches; most games that are played
over the internet require a connection to some sort
of game server. Game server hosting rarely comes as
a type of shared web hosting because of the
bandwidth and CPU requirements of a game server to
allow it to run; in most cases a host would advise a
customer to go with a dedicated server to allow them
to host their online gaming community. Game servers
are also referred to as ‘listen servers’ and are run
of the same machine as the gaming client; the server
is normally shut down when the client is since both
are hosted together. The gaming server has software
built into it to limit the number of players that
are allowed to play on the server at one time; this
is because of the bandwidth and CPU restraints that
even face a game server that is hosted on a
dedicated server. Game servers that are hosted
within a shared environment are normally placed on a
server cluster; this can help ease the strain on
both the CPU and bandwidth of each server and can
ensure that the game can be played effectively
without any problems. Game server providers, such as
eUKhost, offer many titles for their customers to
choose from when ordering their dedicated gaming
server; this game will then be installed for them on
receipt of the server so that they can get on with
the thing that matters to them most straight away -
gaming.
File Hosting
File hosting is a common type of shared hosting
which people use mainly to backup data either on
their home PC or that which is contained within
either their shared hosting account, or on their VPS
or dedicated server. File hosting normally doesn’t
require the user to have a domain since the file
transferring is done either through a web based
control or via FTP (file transfer protocol). The
amount of storage that you are assigned for hosting
your files in is normally measured in gigbytes (GB)
because of the size of files that we wish to store
of backup these days; a few years ago the amount of
space allocated to you would have been measured in
megabytes (MB). With backup or file storage
solutions that have been designed for use by large
corporations or people who need to access the files
whenever without any trouble, caches are normally
deployed; caches ensure that the data can still be
accessed even if there are bandwidth or connection
problems on the host’s network. Open file hosting
services are ones which don’t require users to
register before they are able to upload any type of
file - instead they only have to visit one page of
the website and they are able to upload any file
more or less instantly, services which take this
form are normally free but plastered in adverts;
this kind of service is preferred by people such as
shareware authors since they are able to host the
files for their free products without having to pay
a penny - millions of people are also able to
download the files in most cases, although with some
premium services may have a restriction on something
like this. File hosting is sometimes referred to as
‘off-site backup’; this is because the files are
being backed up from the server and then transported
over to the file hosting service where they are then
stored - or in other words, backed up.
E-Mail Hosting
Email hosting is standard shared hosting, but
without the ability to host a website; instead it
only allows you to setup and configure email
accounts for the domain which you have purchased the
hosting for. Email hosting is normally purchased by
a user who doesn’t require a website but needs
email, or if the customer wants to host their
website somewhere else for more redundancy. Another
reason for the uptake of separate email hosting
might be to take advantage of extra mail services
provided by another company which aren’t available
on your current hosting plan; for example someone
might take up separate email hosting so that they
could use Exchange Server 2007 email services which
their current host doesn’t provide - however, this
scenario is highly unlikely since if a business did
need to take advantage of an enterprise email system
such as Exchange server then they would most likely
have it installed on their own servers. If you don’t
need a website at the time you purchase your domain,
then email only hosting will be perfect for you
since the DNS servers will be provided for you to
point your domain to, and you will be provided with
a control panel which you can use to setup and
configure email accounts for your domain; any good
host will allow you to upgrade your account to one
which does have support for a website at a later
stage. There are already some free separate email
hosting services that are available for you to use;
two of the best known ones are based on the GUIs of
two of the worlds most popular webmail interfaces -
GMail and Windows Live Mail. Both Microsoft and
Google have developed their own systems to allow
members of the public to utilize the company’s
services under their own domains; this has been a
blow for the email hosting market since these
systems also incorporate other enterprise class
features such as calendar and contact sharing, as
well as document storage.
DNS Hosting
DNS stands for domain name system and is the name
which generally brands the technical working of
domains; each domain has its own ‘zone’ on a name
server which it has been delegated to, this zone
contains all the data which other computers and
servers on the internet use to communicate with the
servers that host the domain in question to allow
people to view a website and to allow for email to
be delivered. DNS hosting is a type of shared
hosting only the DNS records for a domain are held,
and no other services such as the hosting of a
website or email are involved. A DNS zone hold the
DNS records for a domain, which control the location
of the website as well as where the email for the
website is routed to. One may choose to you separate
DNS hosting to ensure extra redundancy in the
current DNS setup, or so that they are able to
control their DNS zone without having to be stuck to
one host if they want to have all their hosting
services dispersed amongst several different
companies. DNS hosting is normally provided by
domain registrars to allow their customers to take
control of their domain without having to purchase a
hosting account with them, and to allow them to
utilize hosting that they might already have with
another company; there are also some free services
out there which can provide you with free DNS
hosting if you are not able to provide your own or
are not satisfied with the DNS hosting which is
provided by your hosting provider or domain
registrar. Your current DNS setup may not be that
reliable, so you might choose to use an external DNS
hosting company to ensure that if the DNS service
with your web host does pack up, you have backup to
ensure that your website is still reachable. If you
have your hosting and DNS with one host, then the
chances of your website going down are highly
likely; if the DNS service on the server fails then
your website will be completely inaccessible, and
since most host’s use the single point of failure,
they will have no backup which your domain can use -
one thing to note though is that other services such
as email and web services might still be running. If
you utilize another DNS provider then your website
will still be accessible if it is only the DNS
service that had failed on the server, other
services such as email might not be affected either.
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