Web Site Hosting - An Easy Guide
Web Hosting - Made Simple
What is web hosting anyway? What do I get when I buy a web hosting solution?
To make thing clear from start let’s just say how it all works.
Web pages basically consist of text and images. Generically, the information contained by these files is called content. The look of the web page is called design.
In order to be accessible to online users, all these files must be stored on a web server. You can think of web servers as computers storing the files of tens or hundreds of web sites. These computers are all connected to the Internet through high-speed connection. When you access a web page, your browser connects to the web server that stores that page and downloads it to your computer.
So a web server is a must when you plan to share your web site content with online users via the Internet. There are thousands of web servers in the world, and there are companies that own them. Such a company is called web-hosting provider.
A web-hosting provider can have dozens of web servers hosting thousands of web sites. The web server computers are found usually in large numbers and are all housed in special buildings or sections of buildings called data center. Apart from the high-speed Internet connection, these locations are set up to ensure the optimum operational conditions and security for the web servers. HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning) control, fire protection, virus protection, data backup facility, power backup, even autonomy in case of disaster. Another term for the web servers in the data center is a web farm.
To be able to run your site properly you need a space on the web server to store your data and an Internet connection to it. The amount of data available to you on a web server is simply referred as space and is usually quantified in MB. The Internet connection needed so that your web site can be accessed online is referred as bandwidth and is also measured in MB or even GB.
Having the glimpse of the basics, it must be said that different web-hosting providers offer different space and bandwidth. Space and bandwidth are usually the main characteristics of a web-hosting plan.
The terminology associated with web hosting can be quite dazzling: virtual web hosting, dedicated hosting; co-locating hosting, shared hosting reseller hosting.
Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting or virtual web hosting are two terms for the same thing. Shared web hosting means that on a web server are hosted many web sites that all have a defined quota of HDD space and bandwidth. They all run simultaneously and there can be from hundreds to thousands of web sites on the same web server. Given the high number of web sites should you worry about exceeding the performance of the web server, issue better known as slow server response, meaning that your visitors will have to wait too long for your web pages to load.
That is usually not a real problem when dealing with serious web hosting providers, because the operational parameters of the web servers are monitored and appropriate actions will be taken in order to maintain the level of service contracted.
The greater number of web sites sharing the resources of a web server (HDD space, bandwidth, memory, CPU time), the web hosting provider can afford to offer its services at a lower cost. A minus would be that, even with high level of service, you will have to accept a slower server response time when choosing shared web hosting.
Reseller Web Hosting
When web-hosting providers offer their services, typically with a discount, to a third-party (a reseller that will thus become a web-hosting provider itself) and the latter subsequently offers web-hosting services under his branding. Indeed technically the reseller web hosting is very similar to shared web hosting, as many web sites end up sharing space and bandwidth on the same web server. The resellers usually are web designers or web developers who offer web hosting services as part of their integrated services. As the web-hosting provider offers resellers important discounts, the price they can offer is among the smallest in the industry.
Compared with the shared web hosting, this system has technical support problem. It takes time and communication problems may occur on the course of your problem from the reseller to the web-hosting provider. Unless your site is a personal web site or non-commercial one, this poor support issue is enough to not consider this your primary option.
Continuing this line of thought, how can you distinguish a reseller from a real web-hosting provider? It’s not the professional design of the web site, not even the support contact facilities offered as may resellers might have contracts with the provider on the technical support and the person taking your calls might be working for the provider and identify himself to you as an employee of the reseller. Solid company information is made available usually only by serious providers. The price, that can get as low as under 5$/month is another hint, but you should consider it carefully with prices dropping through the industry.
Dedicated Web Hosting
In dedicated web hosting one single web server is rented to a single customer. Although this is the common belief, web-hosting providers usually divide a single web server computer between up to three customers. On the other hand there are web-hosting providers that actually give an entire web server to a customer. Even with three customers sharing the web server, the dedicated web hosting option offers the customers the option to host more than one web site, configure the software to best meet the needs of his site or scale the available bandwidth.
The high prices combined with the availability of resources recommend this type of web hosting for highly important web sites such as e-commerce sites.
Co-location Web Hosting
Co-locating web hosting is similar with dedicated web hosting. The main difference is that while in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer. The web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer. This gives the customer using co-locating web hosting full control of the web server combined with the security of the data center.
Now you should be equipped with the necessary information to decide on you web hosting. You shouldn’t try and find the lowest price possible, but give some extra thought to the quality of service you are buying and to the support offered by a web host provider.
About The Author
Calin Indre is editor at HostPinPin (http://www.hostpinpin.com
), a Cheap Web Hosting Directory. HostPinPin.com is a resource for webmasters and consumers looking to find a web hosting company. Providing web hosting articles, tips, web hosting reviews, compare web hosting plans and more.
This article may be reprinted or published without the authors consent as long as the “About” and “weblinks” are kept intact.
Tags: Dedicated Web Hosting., hosting guide, reseller web hosting, Shared Web Hosting, web site hostingSTOP - Don’t Buy That Web Hosting Reseller Plan!
Before you pay $24.95 a month or more for that reseller web hosting plan, read this article and at least evaluate all of your options. A reseller plan generally offers you more space and bandwidth then a regular shared hosting plan. However one thing to keep in mind that a reseller plan is still a form of a shared hosting plan. It’s not a dedicated server, and there will be other sites on the same IP address and server as yours. So what other alternatives do you have to host multiple sites for one monthly price?
Interesting enough several of the hosting companies that offer these reseller plans are now offering multiple domain name setup on one shared hosting account. What exactly does this mean?
Let’s go through a scenario, you signup for a shared hosting account at Hostgator.com. At the time of writing this article, Hostgator is offering unlimited sites hosted on the 3 larger plans of the four they offer. So once you’re setup you can login to you cpanel, and through their add-on domains/sub domains link you can begin to add two, three, four or more domains to that one account. Is this a possible feature you can take advantage of?
If you’re not running a small hosting company that needs separate admin panel screens for your users to visit, view stats, setup their own email addresses etc. Then this is definitely something you should consider. If you have several medium to small sites you’re running online you might as well save the money a reseller plan will cost you and go for a multiple site shared hosting plan.
Another feature you may want to look for at the hosting company of your choice is what their upgrade options are. If you start with a shared hosting plan, with 3000 MB of space and 8 GB of bandwidth and you begin to outgrow it after 6 months to a year. Will your hosting provider allow you to upgrade to a larger account? Will they help move the sites to the new server? Always think down the road and where your web sites will be in 6 months, 1 year.
Since you took the time to read this you may have saved yourself $15 too $20 bucks a month; and remember while a reseller plan offers multiple admin panels and domains it’s still a shared hosting plan. So really the only difference between a reseller plan and shared plan is the accessibility to setup your plans, and have separate cpanels. Its kind of a shared plan on steroids, just weigh that info against the price of the plan before you dive in.
Vistit The Web Hosting Hound to search for your next web hosting plan. Search by space, bandwidth, or any other feature important to your business and website.
Tags: reseller web hosting, web host, Web Hosting, web page hosting, webhostingReseller Web Hosting - Helpful Tips And Benefits
One of the great benefits of a web hosting reseller is you can earn some extra money at the same time as having web hosting. You may even end up making a full time income with a web hosting reseller. Some web hosting resellers pay very well.
Choosing The Right Reseller Web Hosting
It is a good idea to know what is the best web hosting reseller for your situation. You will need a reliable web hosting reseller that can provide you with good customer support. A good web hosting reseller will provide you with the tools you need to be successful with their service both for yourself and for the reseller aspects of your business.
What Is Reseller Web Hosting?
Reseller web hosting provides a reseller hosting account to the reseller who resells space and bandwidth to their own clients. There is usually plenty of bandwidth and space for this type of service.
What Is A Web Hosting Reseller?
Web Hosting reseller is a person or a company that acts like an agent to resell the hosting companies products and services. The web hosting reseller can receive commissions and or discounts from the web hosting reseller company. They may even create their own custom web reseller accounts to re-sell to customers.
It is important to realize that when dealing with a reseller web hosting company, some of the control has been taken out of your hands. You will want to make sure the web hosting reseller service is not having problems with downtime. You can end up missing out on important emails and or sales from your valuable customers.
With the right web hosting reseller company, web site developers can be successful with a reseller web hosting service or business. They can provide their customers with web hosting and create web sites at the same time. This is why it is a good idea to find a web hosting company that offers multiple hosting accounts with their web hosting reseller services. A web developer can then host their clients web sites from their own reseller web hosting account.
One of the best things to do before choosing a web hosting reseller company is to get a list of reference sites you can check out to see if they have downtime. With web reseller hosting companies and services you can ask other web site developers about what web hosting resellers they have had good quality service with.
Another important aspect to consider is, does the web hosting reseller have a great list of services and features that you will be able to offer to your customers. This may be the reason you are considering a web hosting reseller in the first place. Take time to shop around for the best web hosting reseller and you will know you have made the right decision.
CY Fok is a webmaster with many years of experience. His latest site is “Information About Web Hosting”: http://www.infoaboutwebhosting.com/
Tags: Budget Web Hosting, cheap web hosting, reseller web hosting, Web Hosting