Web Page Hosting - How Hosting Pages on the Web Works
Web page hosting is something that every single web page on the internet has to have since web hosting services are required to have your site seen on the internet. If you want to host a web page on the internet, you will have to wade through thousands of hosting companies in order to find one to suit your needs.
If you are not armed with knowledge of web hosting terminology and technology, how can you possibly make an educated decision on which company should host your web page?
First, you should learn about the different types of web page hosting that are available on the internet. There are a lot of different kinds of web hosting but there are the most common ones used by web pages on the internet.
Shared Web Hosting
With shared web page hosting, numerous web pages are hosted on the same web server. All of these pages will share the same resources available on the server such as internet connection, hard drive space, CPU speed, RAM, etc.
While this is the most common kind of web hosting, it can be dangerous for a professional business because of the sometimes unreliable nature of shared web page hosting.
Virtual Dedicated Server
Virtual dedicated servers are also called virtual private servers. With this type of web hosting account, you are still sharing a server with other web pages but this time you have your own piece of the server's resources that are dedicated to your web page.
In all other aspects, it functions just like a dedicated server where you generally have your own IP address, can host numerous web pages, and have root access to your server.
Dedicated Server Hosting
A dedicated server hosting account is where you have an entire web server that only you get to use and you do not have to share anything with any other web pages.
Dedicated web hosting servers are offered in a number of different formats to suit the needs of a client. You usually get to choose the server specifications depending on your budget.
Colocation dedicated servers are purchased instead of leased servers that are maintained, connected to the internet and stored by a web hosting company.
Dedicated servers are generally assumed to be leased servers where you make a monthly payment to the web page hosting service to have use of the web server.
Managed dedicated servers are higher priced leased servers that are managed and controlled by a web hosting company similar to the way a shared hosting account would be managed. Managed dedicated servers do not receive root access but will keep you from landing in a situation where you have messed up a server setting by playing around with something you didn't have the knowledge to be doing.
Unmanaged dedicated servers are for webmasters that have the knowledge to maintain and even perform software updates to their own web server. This is the cheapest web server leasing option available but you will be responsible for your own machine.
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Web Page Hosting Technologies
It is also important that you have a thorough understanding of web page hosting technologies before you proceed with purchasing your web hosting account. Again, this is not a complete listing of the different technologies used by web servers and web page hosts, but they are the most important features that you should know about when choosing a web host.
Web Hosting Control Panels
There are actually quite a few different control panel software systems being used by hosting companies these days. Some of these control panels are designed by the companies using them so they can limit access to certain features of their choosing. Other control panels are widely used, powerful pieces of software that give you full control over your web page and the newest technologies available.
It is essential that you select a web page hosting service that will give you full access to your site or else you may find yourself needing features that are not available to you. This is especially true when you start trying to install software scripts on your site.
CPanel is probably the most widely used web hosting control panel and is the recommended control panel that you should look for when selecting a hosting service provider.?
Web Page Programming Languages and Databases
It is absolutely essential that you are aware of what programming languages and databases you may want to use before you choose a web page host. Different scripts that are used for sites on the internet may only be compatible with specific versions of programming languages and databases.
Once you have determined what programming languages and databases you will need, you can search out a web host that can provide you with what your web page will need to run properly. Different web servers will have different versions of programming languages and databases installed on them, so you want to be sure that you will have access to the versions that you need.
All web pages use some sort of HTML and possibly CSS as well. HTML tells the web browser what to show the user while CSS will add style to various elements on the web page.
Javascript, PHP and ASP are some of the most common programming languages used by web pages. If you are going to be running a script written in ASP, you want to be sure to get a web page hosting company that can offer you the windows operating system because ASP does not run under Linux.
MySQL is generally viewed as being the best and most widely used database software. It can handle enormous amounts of information and is used by some of the largest, most popular web pages on the internet such as Wikipedia, Facebook and even Google.
Web Hosting Operating Systems
While you may be inclined to choose a windows web hosting account because you use windows on your home computer, you may want to reconsider unless you are going to be running scripts written in ASP. Linux is the dominating operating system on the internet and most scripts will work best under that environment. Many people also argue that Linux servers produce a faster loading web page than windows servers.
Web Page Hosting Bandwidth and Hard Drive Limits
A lot of web page hosting service providers are offering unlimited disk space and bandwidth these days, but it is still important to make sure that is what you are signing up for before you select a web host.
Almost all brand new web pages will not have to worry about exceeding bandwidth and hard drive space limits at first, but it is something that you want to be sure to pay attention to because your web page hosting account can be suspended if you reach these limits. If your site is suspended, all web traffic to it will be blocked.
Are you confident enough with your web page hosting knowledge to select your own hosting company now?
Read more in depth information on Squidoo about small business web hosting and web page hosting technologies.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com
