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WEB HOSTING Basics and Options, Hosting Companies Compared, Domain Registration Explained
- Sections:
- Hosting Basics
- Dedicated, Semi-Dedicated & VPS Servers
- Shared Hosting Facts
- Domain Registration
- Shared Hosting Comparison
- Website Promotion Tools
Website Hosting Basics:
So, you've gone and invested in a top-notch website creation program and have started churning out awesome websites! But, where are they going to be hosted? Every publicly viewable website must be located, or "hosted" on a computer that is running a software program known as a web server, and which is connected through various devices to the Internet (World Wide Web). This is true whether the web server is located on the owner's premises (common with large companies, or geeky individuals), or hosted remotely by a web hosting company (like the majority are). Web hosting companies are responsible for maintaining, patching and securing their web servers for their clients, who rent shared or dedicated space to host their websites. Web hosts also provide and maintain the DNS (Domain Name Server) that allows searchers to find your website by your Domain Name, or by it's numerical address.
A web server is a specially built computer that has the sole purpose of "serving" web pages and web scripting content upon request, from web browsers or FTP clients. To accomplish these tasks web servers run various software applications such as an HTTP Server, FTP Server, E-Mail Server, SendMail, Perl/CGI Modules, PHP Interpretor and DNS Binding. Hide details
A dedicated hosting service, or dedicated server, is a type of Internet hosting where the client leases, or pays to co-locate a personal web server (an expensive, high performance computer) that is not shared with anyone else (unless you have your own clients). The hosting company that owns, or provides connections to the server usually manages it on the lessee's behalf (known as managed hosting service). Websites that generate a very large amount of daily traffic, or that run huge databases are better served by a dedicated server of their own. Rates for managed dedicated and co-location servers vary from one provider to the next, but usually start at around $59.00 a month and go up from there.
Some of the companies that are compared further down this page also offer dedicated servers.
Semi-dedicated servers are shared among a small number of non-related customers, all of whom have higher than normal usage patterns, disqualifying them from regular shared hosting boxes, but not high enough to justify leasing their own dedicated servers. Rates for semi-dedicated servers start around $60 /month and some of the companies listed below offer this type of service.
There is another type of hosting that bridges the gap between dedicated and semi-dedicated, known as VPS, meaning "Virtual Private Server." Virtual private servers or Virtual dedicated servers are a form of virtualization that splits a single physical server's hard drive into multiple virtual servers, each with it's own completely independent server management console, resources and root access. VP Servers act like semi-dedicated servers, in that they are on a shared computer, but what one client does with his server does not affect the rest. VPS web hosting is based upon technologies such as VMware, Xen, FreeBSD Jail, User-mode Linux, Linux-VServer, FreeVPS, OpenVZ, and Virtuozzo. There are many hosting companies that are getting into using this technology and I have seen prices of $19.95 a month for a VPS account. Some of the companies in the shared hosting list below are also leasing VPS web space.
Finally, there is a brand new type of hosting service, known as a Cloud Server. This hosting provides a virtual server/computer that is delivered to a customer as a metered service. This computing power is encapsulated within a server "instance." Each server instance runs on top of a "hypervisor" within a cloud computing infrastructure. A cloud server has a specific amount of computing (CPU & memory) and storage resources that can support an operating system and applications.
Cloud servers offer you the ultimate in scalable and flexible hosting. You can add or resize servers instantly through an easy-to-use web control panel, and just pay by the hour for only what you use. Cloud servers are ideal for highly scalable web hosting or on-demand capacity for batch processing, development/test and disaster recovery.
Shared web hosting accounts are housed on a web server that hosts other accounts belonging to many other customers. The number of accounts on one shared server can vary widely. Some servers host from under one hundred to a few hundred, while others have thousands of sites hosted on one server (depending on hard disk capacity and web space allotment per account). With shared hosting all of the accounts share the same CPU(s), RAM, HTTP Server (Resources) and IP address. Shared hosting is best suited to people who need low cost web hosting solutions and don't exceed the usage limits set by the hosting company, or require a static IP address.
Shared web hosting companies, also known as "web hosts," have the headaches of maintaining and securing the web servers and providing support to their clients, who only have to deal with creating and maintaining their own websites. Because all of the accounts on a shared hosting server are using the same operating system, CPU, RAM and server software, hosting companies usually enforce limits on how much CPU or RAM can be utilized by any one client in a given short period of time and may temporarily suspend accounts that exceed those limits. It is not uncommon for shared servers to be slowed down to a crawl by the actions of a few clients who are running applications that consume too many resources at a steady rate, or have so many simultaneous hits (or are under a DDoS attack), that the HTTP server stops responding.
Shared web hosting accounts can be had for as little as $4.95 to as much as $29.95 a month. The competition is strong in the shared hosting field, and there are many companies offering ridiculous amounts of disk space and bandwidth for very low monthly or yearly rates. Many even allow clients to have multiple domains hosted under one account, some for free, others for low add-on rates. Many web hosts now allow unlimited add-on domains (as separate websites) and with claims of huge or unlimited disk space, why not take advantage of their offer? For people who own several domains, wanting separate websites for each one, these multiple add-on domain accounts may be exactly what they need, at a price that almost anybody can afford. I recommend contacting the sales department of the hosting company you are interested in to find out if each add-on domain gets its own email server.
Many web hosting companies are currently overselling the actual capacity of their servers, if every account was to use the full amount promised to them. Ditto for the huge amounts of bandwidth (data transfer out of the server, in bytes) being advertised. There is only so much bandwidth available for any given server, based on it's method of connection to the Internet, and once it is reached all further requests for content will be throttled down until demand drops below the available limits. Rarely does every account use their full space and bandwidth allotment, so overselling works to the benefit of the hosting companies, and they are able to offer incredibly low rates for shared hosting accounts.
The really important things to look for when choosing a shared web hosting company includes whether they offer a money back guarantee of at least 30 days (and a pro-rata refund of annual payments withing 6 months), if they offer 24/7/365 rapid technical support (in a language you can understand), over the phone, or by an online chat window (in case you live in a different country, or phones are not manned), and by email trouble ticket, and how much server (not just network) uptime is guaranteed per month. Note that 99.99% uptime is not 100% and allows for servers to be down for about 43 minutes per month without violating their end of the contract. It is also wise to read the TOS and see if server uptime and other guarantees and refunds are clearly spelled out.
Many web hosts have their own user support forums, staffed by company employees, or somebody may be independently running a user forum about the hosting company you are looking into. It is a good idea to read the questions and complaints from members and prospective members of a company you are interested in joining and see how they are dealt with by representatives of those companies, or other knowledgable responders.
Most shared hosting companies offer to throw in a free domain name with new accounts. That is great if you never move to another web host, but can lead to you forfeiting that domain when you move, unless you pay them a certain amount to release it to you. Check into the buyout policy for free domains with hosting, to avoid being blind-sided if you do change hosts. I personally recommend that you obtain your domains from an independent domain registrar, like Dotster, mentioned below.
Before you can have a public website that can be located by your own Domain name (.com, .net, .org, etc.) you must first register that name with, or through an ICAAN accredited Domain Registrar. While most web hosts also offer Domain name registration services (either as Registrars or as resellers), I recommend using an independent ICAAN accredited Registrar. That way, if you have to change web hosts you won't have any additional hassles about getting them to release control over your Domain name (this happens).
Website promotion and search engine marketing tools
After you register a domain, create a website and obtain hosting for it, you may want to think seriously about advertising/promoting it through a paid search engine marketing company, like Google's AdWords. This is much faster than waiting to be indexed by search engines and hoping people will find your website listed on the first few pages of search results, among the potentially millions of others.
Most popular shared web hosting accounts offer their customers a coupon worth $50, or so, to get them started with the Google AdWords program. You pay per clickthrough on a price bid basis.
In addition to AdWords for advertising your website you can join the Google AdSense program and have targeted ads displayed on your web pages. There is no cost to join and you can start earning a commission on sales and leads generated through those links (WARNING: DO NOT click on your own AdSense ads!).
If you need a custom website designed, updated, or maintained, contact me on my Webmaster contact page. Read about the Webmaster services I perform and see some of my clients.