What Is Web Hosting

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and
organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are
companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as
providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center
space and connectivity to the Internet for other servers located in their data center,
called colocation, also known as Housing in Latin America or France.
The scope of web hosting services varies greatly. The most basic is web page and small-scale file
hosting, where files can be uploadedvia File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The
files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with minimal processing. [1] ManyInternet service
providers (ISPs) offer this service free to subscribers. Individuals and organizations may also
obtain Web page hosting from alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is
typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or inexpensive. Business web site hosting often has a
higher expense.
Single page hosting is generally sufficient for personal web pages. A complex site calls for a
more comprehensive package that providesdatabase support and application development
platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, Ruby on Rails, ColdFusion, or ASP.NET). These facilities allow
customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management.
Also, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is typically used for e-commerce.
The host may also provide an interface or control panel for managing the Web server and
installing scripts, as well as other modules and service applications like e-mail. Some hosts
specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce), which are commonly used by larger
companies that outsource network infrastructure.
Many large companies that are not internet service providers need to be permanently connected
to the web to send email, files, etc. to other sites. The company may use the computer as a
website host to provide details of their goods and services and facilities for online orders.

1. Free web hosting service: offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes
supported by advertisements, and often limited when compared to paid hosting.
2. Shared web hosting service: one's website is placed on the same server as many other sites,
ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common
pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of
service can be quite basic and not flexible in terms of software and updates. Resellers often
sell shared web hosting and web companies often have reseller accounts to provide hosting
for clients.
3. Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could
function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting,
depending on who they are affiliated with as a reseller. Resellers' accounts may vary
tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and
provide the technical support themselves.
4. Virtual Dedicated Server: also known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS), divides server
resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not
directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources based on a
one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualisation may be done for a number of
reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container between servers. The users may have
 root access to their own virtual space. Customers are sometimes responsible for patching and
maintaining the server.
5. Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control
over it (user has root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user
typically does not own the server. Another type of dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or
Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for dedicated plans. The user has full
administrative access to the server, which means the client is responsible for the security and
maintenance of his own dedicated server.
6. Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full
control over it (user is denied root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows);
however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools.
The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by
not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The
user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
A good web hosting company will provide at least the following services:

 24/7 support
 24/7 FTP access (so you can update your website)
 A number of email accounts (i.e. [email protected])
 Online control panel for managing your website
 Online traffic statistics (so you can see how much traffic your website receives)
 A robust database management system, such as MySQL or MS SQL. This is so you can
add your own database if required

Web site publishing

You create your web site on your hard drive, but you will place or publish your files on a
web server so they will be accessible via the web. This means that you will have to
arrange with a company that has a web server to accept or host your site.

Your ISP

One source of hosting that may be available to you is your Internet Service Provider
(ISP). Many ISPs include hosting of web sites as part of their agreement with their
clients. Typically, they provide about 5 MB of disk storage. You will need to talk with
your ISP about the particulars of their hosting.

Free Web Sites

There are companies that provide free hosting for web sites. In return for their giving you
free hosting, you give them permission to place advertisements on your site (there are a
few sites that do not put ads on your site). The amount of disk storage included with the
hosting varies with the company.
Before you sign up, read their policies so you'll know what your agreement is
with them. Some companies claim intellectual ownership of all material you post
on their site, so be careful!
Many of the free web sites have templates that make it easy to build your site. For a list
of free web sites, go to the hosting page of my web design site.

Paid Web Sites

 If you want a site that is free of advertisements, you'll probably have to pay for site
hosting. For around $5 to about $10 per month, you can have your site hosted without
advertisements, and your web address will be a sub-directory off the domain of the
hosting company. The amount of hard disk storage, and the amount of traffic your site
will be allowed varies with the hosting company. A search on "web hosting" will give
you many links to hosting companies. Before you sign up, read the contract carefully.
The web site I use for my hosting is 1AND1.

Your Own Domain

If you want your web address to be a domain that is unique for you, you will need to have
your own domain and have your site hosted on the Internet. For example, General Motors
has its own domain, gm.com, and its web address ishttp://www.gm.com/.
Domains are obtained from companies that are authorized to give out domains. The
company that I use is 1AND1. In choosing your domain name, try to include one that
contains your most important keyword, because some search engines use the domain
name as a source of keywords. 1AND1 also does inexpensive hosting of your domain.

Publish Your Pages

To publish your web site, you move the files (pages and graphics files) to the server you
are using. Once your files are on the server, they are "on the net" and are available to
others.
You will need special software to publish your files. Companies that host your web page
will provide this software, and they provide instructions how to move the files to your
site.

Before publishing a Web site

1. Check the configuration of your original site and make note of any settings that need to
exist at the remote location. Specifically, check settings such as connection strings,
membership settings, and other security settings.
2. Check the configuration of your original site and make note of any settings that need to
be changed on the published Web site. For example, you might want to disable
debugging, tracing, and custom errors after you publish your Web site.

Because configuration settings are inherited, you might need to look at the
Machine.config file or the root Web.config file in theSystemRoot\Microsoft.NET\
Framework\version\CONFIG directory as well as any Web.config files in your
application. If you do not have permission to view the root configuration files, you can
output a file that contains a complete list of configuration settings for your Web site,
formatted as a proper configuration file, using the code example in How to: View
Inherited and Local Configuration Settings Programmatically.

For definitions of configuration settings, see General Configuration Settings

(ASP.NET) and ASP.NET Configuration Settings.

To publish a Web site

1. On the Build menu, click Publish Web Site.

2. In the Publish Web Site dialog box, click the ellipsis button (…) to browse to the
location to which you want to publish the Web site.
 You can write the Web site output to a local or shared folder, to an FTP site, or to a Web
site that you access with a URL. You must have Create and Write permissions in the
target location.

3. To be able to change the layout (but not the code) of .aspx files after publishing the Web
site, select the Allow this precompiled site to be updateablecheck box.
4. To name strongly named assemblies using a key file or a key container, select the Enable
strong naming on precompiled assemblies check box, and then click OK.

Publishing status is displayed in the taskbar. Depending on the connection speed, the size
of the site and the types of content files, publishing time can vary. When publishing is
completed, the status of Publish succeeded is displayed.

5. Make any configuration changes that are necessary for your site. For more information,
see How to: Configure Published Web Sites. You might also want to encrypt specific
configuration settings. For more information, see Encrypting Configuration Information
Using Protected Configuration.