| With all the features and options available
in the web hosting industry today, it comes as little surprise that
many web hosting beginners feel a bit overwhelmed. I personally
was a hosting beginner not too long ago, and can clearly recall
thinking that I would never be able to gain the knowledge necessary
to create and launch my site, however, after spending a bit of spare
time reading up on the industry, I came to the conclusion that it
really wasn't web hosting wasn't nearly as difficult as it appeared
to be. After all, if some snotty little 8-year old kid can make
a nice-looking, fully functional personal homepage, how hard can
it be? For the hosting beginner, mastering the technical terms of
the web hosting industry is nowhere near as important as understanding
what kind of host is the right kind for your particular web site.
Generally speaking, web sites can be divided
into one of three large categories: Personal/Small Business Homepages,
E-Commerce Web Sites, and Information Providers. The type of host
you choose depends a great deal on what category your site falls
into. The next section is dedicated to discussing each of these
three major categories, and which type of host is best suited to
each category.
| Personal Homepage/Small Business
Website
A personal homepage or small business website
is generally the smallest and most basic type of web site,
and does not require a lot of disk space or bandwidth. As
a result, you have one of two plausible options when choosing
the type of web host for your site, Virtual Hosting or Free
Hosting. |
| E-Commerce Website
If you plan to offer goods for sale on
your website, your site will be far more complex, and also
need to be able to handle more traffic and data transfer.
For E-Commerce sites, there are three viable solutions: Co-location,
Dedicated Server, and Virtual Hosting. |
| Information Provider
Information Providers are generally the
largest types of sites on the web, and must be designed to
handle a lot of traffic. That being the case, Information
Providers usually must take a more serious, and more costly
approach to web hosting. If you are going to be creating a
larger site that will be used as a source of information to
users around the world, consider either investing in your
own server equipment, choosing a Co-location Server, or a
Dedicated Server.
| Virtual Hosting
Virtual Hosting is a type of hosting
where you "rent" space in a large server, and share
that server with other web sites. The advantages of
Virtual Hosting are that it is extremely cost efficient,
and offers a variety of functions and options to suit
nearly any site. The disadvantages of Virtual Hosting,
however, are that you are at the complete mercy of the
server. If you happen to pick a bad server, your site
could be down for long periods of time, costing you
lots of potential visitors that will not come back a
second time.
Free Hosting
Free Hosting is a type of hosting
where you get space in a larger site for free, provided
that you allow the site to advertise on your homepage.
The advantages of Free Hosting are that it costs nothing,
and therefore requires no investment other than a little
bit of time. Free Hosting programs also do provide a
number of good options for your site, and allow you
to create a fully functional, attractive web site for
free. Although it does have a number of advantages,
Free Hosting also has an equal number of disadvantages.
With nearly all free hosts, users can not use an individual
domain name, but typically are forced to use something
like this www.theirname.com/yourname. In addition, Free
Hosting packages offer limited space and file transfer,
and do not offer options like email.
Co-location
Co-location hosting is a type of
hosting that uses your server equipment located in a
secure, state of the art facility in another location.
The most significant positive aspect of Co-location
hosting is that it provides you with the ultimate in
control over the speed and reliability of your site.
With Co-location, your site is basically as good as
you want it to be. The most significant negative aspect
of Co-location is that it is rather expensive. Servers
do not come cheaply, nor do the technicians that you
will need to look after it. As a result, Co-location
is the least attractive option based on the high initial
cost, but is an excellent alternative for extremely
serious or financially-free webmasters.
Dedicated Server
Dedicated Server hosting is a type
of hosting where you rent an entire server, and is a
good solution for serious webmasters lacking the initial
startup capital to purchase their own server. Dedicated
Server hosting offers a high degree of control, and
offers a lot of disk space and file transfer. Because
your site is the only one being served by your dedicated
server, you can also count on a fast connection. The
advantages of Dedicated Server hosting is that it offers
everything you need to get top quality service, without
having to purchase a server. The disadvantages are that
it is significantly more expensive than Virtual Hosting,
and does not offer the same levels of control that are
available with Co-location hosting. |
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Low Cost
