What Does Shared Hosting Represent?

If you have set up a web site and you wish other individuals to view it, you must host your website on a public server.

Where to host your web site?

Even though you can use your own personal computer as a server, it is a more common practice to let a hosting provider take care of your website. The chief reason for that is the greater stability and the uninterrupted availability of your website, since hosting service providers have top-notch hardware and apportion a much larger monthly bandwidth usage allowance, which guarantees the faster access to your web site from all over the world.

Shared hosting services

Pick a shared hosting solution, which enables you to register domains and to set up email mailbox accounts. Lots of web shared hosting providers, like us at ComNetwork, offer a free domain registration as a bonus if you sign up for a web hosting account.

Hosting your website on your own

Hosting your site on your own personal web server is surely an option, but only in case you have time and the necessary ability. There are certain matters that you have to take into consideration, among them the hardware and software costs. To own a "real", proper web site, you will need to invest in some powerful server hardware, since you cannot bank on a low-cost personal computer to carry out the job. You will also require a permanent high-speed connection without downtimes, which usually is offered at a rather steep price. If you are making use of licensed software for your web site, you will need to pay for the license too. You may also need to cope with bugs and malicious software. You will need to keep your web server running all the time in an environment where "everything could happen". If you do not possess the needed technical experience, you will have to hire a sysadmin to deal with these things for you, which will make the price of hosting your site on your own even higher than that of a dedicated server provided by a hosting supplier.

A dedicated server supplied by a web hosting distributor

Leasing a dedicated server from a web hosting vendor is an excellent decision if you would like to make a data-heavy site or a business page that has very precise security requirements. The most important advantages of using a dedicated hosting solution are the high-speed Internet connection, the uninterruptible power supply and the very powerful hardware. Some web hosts, again like us at ComNetwork, offer virtual private servers hosting and semi-dedicated server hosting services, which are based on extremely powerful physical servers that can be divided among several customers. You can also anticipate them to offer efficient server load balancing services and the required data backup servers.

Security and reliability

Hosting providers are specialized in delivering hosting solutions and since this is what they do to make a living, you can expect them to offer continuous network uptime, the newest software updates and the best anti-malware software, as well as system administrators available 24x7x365 to aid you in emergency situations.

Pick your web hosting vendor

What you have to take into consideration when selecting your web hosting services provider is the stability of the offered services. Make sure that the hosting solutions provider of your choosing provides a 24x7 client support service. Do not put yourself in a position where you cannot resolve serious issues immediately because you must wait till the next working day. Besides, if you select a shared hosting plan, which features a 24-7-365 customer service, this means that there constantly will be system administrators available to solve any urgent problems as soon as they arise, which is a very desirable thing.

Routine backups

Make sure that your hosting packages provider offers routine backups with the offered services, otherwise you may forfeit some important content in case of a hardware failure or because you have erased something accidentally. The presence of everyday data backups is typically mentioned in the hosting vendor's Terms of Use.

Bandwidth and server storage space

When choosing your web hosting services provider, give specific attention to the bandwidth usage quota limitations. Make sure that you don't have to pay a fortune for unforeseen high volumes of web traffic if your site becomes more frequently visited. There are many hosting distributors that offer unlimited bandwidth at present, so the wisest step to take is to make sure that you have taken the correct decision prior to opening an account.

Content limitations

Pay particular attention to the hosting provider's content limitations. If you intend to publish pictures or to broadcast video or audio, make certain that you can do that. Additionally, most hosting firms impose restrictions when it comes to using their services for file storage purposes, so if you upload too many files that are not related or directly linked to your web site, your web hosting account could get erased. That is the reason why double-checking the web hosting vendor's TOS, regardless of how time-swallowing and tedious this might be, is extremely important.

E-mail capabilities

The majority of hosting vendors today also offer e-mail services with all their website hosting packages. It is not a bad idea to check if the web hosting accounts provider of your choosing offers such functionalities too, so as to confirm that you'll get all the features that you require in exchange for your cash.