Web Hosting Service Providers

World Wide Web has revolutionized the concept of space by creating an unlimited space, functioning virtually. Some things, however, do need real life presence. Web Hosting Service provides that functonailty to an individual or a business. Internet hosting service offers web space to real world entities, in the form of dedicated server space.

The hard disk space is termed as data center. This server space is then used by the person in concern. On the other hand, 'colocation' is the term used when connectivity to Internet and provision of data center is offered by the same webhost.

Small and Medium Business Hosting

Some webhosts are dedicated in meeting the requirements of small to medium business. They offer a host of services aimed at the growth of these 'not so big' companies. Offered features are Website Control Panels, Shopping Cart Interfaces and Marketing Programs.

All about Hosting on the Web

For a personal computer to work, it needs the support of the hard disk. A server too needs the hard disk to store information. Internet can be a part of anything ranging from directory, business, information resource, or simply it can be used for sharing of knowledge, data or information among the communities. It is the task of webhosters to dedicate server space to parties in concern, in lieu of a small amount of service charge.
 
Anyone who has a computer and access to the Internet can own his share of space in the virtual world. The space can be utilized according to his preference. The allotted web space can hold documents, data, files, bulletins, and news. It can even host mail servers to act as an online post office. The individual has the right to use the space for business or personal purpose.

It is also possible for an individual to hold space in his name. For that he needs to spend money on buying physical servers with a network connection attached to the Internet backbone. To set up a server, there would be a range of computers working in a LAN (local area network). This would enable the user to send or receive emails around the virtual world of World Wide Web.

However, one of the main problems of owning a private server is the high cost. Owning a direct connection to the Internet backbone requires a lot of money, practically inaccessible to the low and mid range businessmen. Especially the effective cost is out of bound of the typical Internet users. Moreover, a great deal of technical expertise and knowledge is required in setting up of a private server. Even, creation of a simple email back end programming needs advanced programming knowledge.

Every business needs an online footprint to stay competitive and to survive. It has been almost a trademark of the modern society - whether the area of concern is career or any other industry - online or 'e' footprint has become more of a feature of sustenance.

The demand for some space in cyber world has led to the origin of the web hosting companies. These companies make the job of an individual easier. They take up much of the hassles of creating the virtual space and providing Internet 24 x 7.

Web hosts survive on two integrated policies - number of customers and division of the total server space among a group of web hosts. For one customer, there would not be any profitability but for thousands of end-users the profitability factor comes in automatically.

In fact, they have developed a model where they could share server and Internet backbone among various web-hosting companies. These two processes cut down the huge expenditure drastically.

The primary objective of a web-hosting environment is to provide the end-user an address where Internet users all over the world would 'type in' an address to connect to the user in concern. The 'type in' address is truly unique. For example: 'www.someplace.com' is different from 'www.someplace.org' or 'www.someplaces.com'.

Every user is given a unique domain name. Worldwide users would then type in this unique domain name in the 'address bar' of their preferred browser to go to that specific domain. 

Most of the business transactions in virtual world have similarity with their real world counterparts. Before acquiring space in the cyberspace, it is imperative that a member accepts the terms and conditions, laid down by his specific web hosting company.

A real world example would be renting a commercial premise for business. Once the membership agreement is completed, the customer is given access to house and the keys. In the cyber world, the key is in the form of 'user id' and 'password'. Both these elements allow the customer to login to the server and 'up load' files and documents. A number of unique login ids and passwords are created to access various facilities of the web server, including the mail server.

Similar to the real world rooms and floor space, web-hosting environment also provides its share of network transmission and disk space. Usually space in the hard disk is measured in the form of kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB). 1024 KB is 1 MB, and 1024 MB is 1 GB. One character on the keyboard can be compared with 1 KB, so the math goes in accordance. The space determines how much elements can be stored in an individual's account.

However, there is a limit to the amount of data, which can be transferred over the network. It is measured in MB or GB. Some web hosts offer unlimited data transfer over their network. While viewing a web site the whole data from the domain is transferred to the Internet cache (temporary storage of the browser) of the user's browser. The more people access the site, the greater is the amount of bandwidth (amount of data transfer) consumed. Higher bandwidth means more rent. 

Again comparing with a real life environment, the service provided by different web hosts varies a lot. Some homes have swimming pools, gardens, lifts but some do not. Correspondingly, a number of web hosts simply offer the basic structure, but some offer a surfeit of offers to satisfy all kinds of personal and business needs (database integration, web components, processing of script, usable softwares, free templates and others). 

Similar to guards and security personnel, web space also requires security. The information stored in the private servers of the web hosts is invaluable. The support team and the admin team of the web hosts do the background tasks of providing security to the site (from the hackers, phishers, crackers, virus, worms and others)

Without the fundamental ingredients a building cannot be constituted. Likewise, web-hosting atmosphere too entails some prerequisites

Web Server
The Web Server in fact acts as software to accept Hyper Text Transfer Protocol or HTTP requests over Internet and convey Images and Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) pages to the user.

FTP Transfer Server
FTP or File Transfer Protocol is another way of transferring data over the Internet (in and out of the server). One of the easier ways of uploading files (HTML, images, and data) to the web server is via FTP.

Mail Transferring Server
Post Office Protocol (POP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) are two main parts of the mail server. POP is the protocol used to collect the mails in the mailbox, whereas SMTP is used for the mail transaction among mail servers.

Database Server
A database server is used to store data. Mainly, server side scripting is the one, which takes up the database server to store all its programming information. 'Microsoft Internet Information Server' helps the user to use dynamic facilities in their website.
Search, orders, discussion, number of visitors (traffic), feedback, guest book and other script oriented technologies are implemented with the help of database server.

Browser To Surf The Web
For browsing the net, one needs another special kind of software to read the data in the form of web pages, images and others. These are known as Internet browsers. The more popular ones that are dominating the virtual world are Internet explorer, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Konqueror, and Safari. Web hosts provide a primary applet in their servers. This is the control panel popularly known as CP. Various options are provided in the CP, which would reflect the way background tasks operate in a web site. 

Web page/site editor

One of the best tools to edit web pages (web site) is Macromedia Dreamweaver (now it is called Adobe Dreamweaver). Apart from Dreamweaver, Microsoft Office comes bundled with a basic web page editor known as Front Page (now known as Microsoft Expression). These tools enable the users to create the whole web page from scratch.

A basic web page editor gives the page preview option (as it would look in the web site online) for the user to know exactly the addition, subtraction or modification the web page has gone through.

WYSWIG is one of the technologies followed by the popular editors. WYSWIG is the acronym of 'What You See is What You Get' that permits the user to work offline (on his PC). Most of the web hosts allow the utilizations of this technology. However, it is noticed that more hacking and intrusion attempts have been made using this user-friendly facility of the web servers.

Client to Utilize FTP
To handle the FTP transfers there is need of a FTP client. It is used to create liaison between the personal computer and web server. Files, folders and sub-folders of both the computers can be browsed in an easy GUI of the client. Most FTP clients (along with a number of additional facilities) also support drag & drop transferring of files.

Client to Send or Receive Email
Email client is a piece of software to handle incoming and outgoing mails. It can be compared with the 'postman' in the real world. For windows users, one of the most common names is Microsoft Outlook Express. For Linux based operating system it is Eudora. Some popular forms of web-based clients are Yahoomail, Gmail, Rediffmail, and Hotmail.

Database (DB) Administration Client
One of the widespread types of database in vogue is Microsoft SQL Server. As the name suggests, the facility is available on Windows hosting environment only. MySQL is the Linux (and Unix) counterpart.

All the administrative functions (viewing the database, editing the database, backing up data) are possible with the SQL server's default administration client. Due to the 'open source' technology of Linux, a host of MySQL clients are accessible online to shape the database operation.

Choice of a web host depends on the requirement of the client. If some facilities are left unused it is better not to take the option at the first place.

The more one learns about the basic components and functioning the easier it becomes. Cost has always remained one of the primary concerns. Relocation in cyber world is easier than in real life.

To start the journey, local ISP is the best bet. Internet Service Providers, better known as ISP, are the professionals that provide the Internet connection. However, the primary objective of their business is Internet connectivity and not providing web-hosting environment. Hence, the offered package would comprise of basic facilities only (with nominal server space).
When it comes in determining the environment - Windows or Linux - not many differences are there. Both the versions offer almost identical services though Linux hosting is trifle secured than Windows.

Basic cost of web space will not hurt the purse string, as the most general price,  $8 is easily affordable. Some companies, however, even offer $ 3 a month. Though, lower cost translates to advance payment. 

Instances are there, when server failure lead to loss of business. Hence, the user would be well advised to make sure that up time of the server is around 99%. Additionally, the companies should provide 24 x 7 customer support. They should also have the expertise to rectify major problems within hours (if not minutes).

In case the satisfaction level is less, the user can shift loyalty. Possessing domain name and server space is as essential as having an office in the real world.