What is web hosting / dedicated servers?
A
web host is a place where you store the files (information)
of your web site so that it may be accessed by anyone
with an internet connection. This is often a
computer with storage space and a permanent connection
to the internet. Your web site is no good on
your computer unless it is permanently connected
to the internet for all to see.
What is the difference between hosting spaces?
There
are two main types of hosting spaces. Dedicated
Servers and Shared Web Hosting. Free
web space which is often a type of shared
hosting. There is a significant difference in the
features included with your web space. Connection
speed is also a important issue for ecommerce and
a websites ability to gain repeat visitors. A single
server can only process so much information and
transmit it per second, to the Internet so it is
important your web hosting provider does not over
sell their servers. Price is not always a guide
to quality especially if you want to make money
with your website. You also have a choice of operating
systems e.g. Linux/Unix or Windows NT/Server
A closer look at dedicated servers.
A
dedicated server is a single computer that is
permanently connected to the internet, kept and
maintained by the hosting company. You may be
able to configure the storage capacity and may have
the flexibility to configure the software
on the computer to suit your needs. The server can
be used as a single large web site or split up into
various smaller web sites depending on your requirements.
You can add as much software as you see fit to do
server-side scripting i.e.. automatically generate
web pages, databases, e-commerce etc. or resell
portions of the server to others.
A closer look at web hosting.
A
shared web host is part of a dedicated server.
The websites share the resources on the computers
with multiple users. The more web sites on the host
causes the host computer to do more work if all
web sites are highly active it will make the server
go slow or have connection problems. Issues of reliability
come into play when shared servers are not managed
right, that is why we offer advanced web hosting.
Our target is webmasters that seek fast loading
web pages and superior performance. Shared web hosting
is often a lot cheaper than a dedicated
servers. Some high quality shared hosts often have
a limit on web sites per server and contain just
as many features as dedicated hosts.
About free web space with your dial-up account
(ISP).
Free
web hosting is a type of shared web hosting. Due to
the large amount of subscribers to ISP's, a dedicated
server is fragmented to provide each of its clients
with their free web space. 1000's of websites may
be running on one server constantly maxing out each
accounts limits and slowing down the server. Most
also have strict content and script restrictions that
will cause issues later on. This free web hosting
is suitable for only the most basic of web sites that
have no concern for a professional image. Attaching
a domain name to the site may not be possible as well.
Here
is rounded off statistics on what webmasters used
in 2002:
- Free
Web Hosting - 7.6%
- Shared
Web Hosting - 33.7%
- Dedicated
Servers - 30.1%
- Co-location
- 13.2%
- In-house
Server - 3.7%
- Doesn't
apply - 9.4%
