WEB HOSTING NZ

Web Hosting - Defined

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that provides individuals, organizations and users with online systems for storing information, images, video, or any content accessible via the Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their 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 servers they do not own to be located in their data center.

Web Hosting Service Scope

The scopes of web hosting services vary widely. The most basic is web page and (small) file web hosting, where files can be uploading and downloading|uploaded via File Transfer Protocol|FTP or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many Internet service provider|ISPs offer this service for free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Web page hosting is typically free, advertisement sponsored, or cheap. Web page hosting is generally sufficient only for Personal Web Site|personal home pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java platform|Java, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like internet forum|forums and content management|content management. For electronic commerce|e-commerce, SSL is also required. The web host may also provide a Web interface (e.g. Cpanel, Helm, Plesk) for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Some web hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a web hosting company.

Web Hosting Reliability and Uptime

Web Hosting uptime is the time while the host is accessible. Web Hosting providers aim for 100% uptime but there are always server restarts and maintenance, so 100% uptime is almost impossible. A standard claim these days is '99% or 99.9% server uptime' but the difference between these 2 regular statements is 80 hours of downtime each year. 99% uptime means the server is unavailable for 87 hours a year.

Types of Web Hosting

Internet web hosting services can run web servers; see Internet web hosting services. Web hosting services limited to the web: * Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is extremely limited when compared to paid web hosting. * Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as several hundred other sites. * Dedicated web hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user does not own the server. * Colocation centre|Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the server; the web hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. * Virtual Dedicated Server: slicing up a server into virtual servers. each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. * Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. * Clustered web hosting having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization Some specific web hosting services: * File web hosting service: hosts not web pages but files * Image web hosting service * Video web hosting service * Blog web hosting service * One-click web hosting

Obtaining Website Hosting

Website hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services. A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of web hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most web hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP (software bundle)|LAMP platform: Linux, Apache HTTP Server|Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python (programming language)|Python. Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System, so the end-user doesn't have to worry about the more technical aspects.

Web Hosting Reviews

Best Web Hosting Ratings - Offering a guide for web hosting reviews submitted by users.

Compare Hosts - Offers comparisons of web hosting providers.

Epinions.com: Web Hosts - Reviews written by Epinions.com members. Allows searching by operating system, scripting language, and database type.

Host Detective - Offers users reviews of various web hosting providers.

Hosting Comparison - Reviews and ranks of the top Unix, Windows, and dedicated server web hosts.

Hosting Handbook - Unbiased reviews of web hosts and a full directory of the top web hosting companies world-wide.

Lowest-Price-Web-Hosting.com - Compares 5 web hosting companies and provides articles.

Nephost - Web Hosting reviews and search, guides and ratings about web hosting.

tophostrankings.com - Reviews and rankings of web hosts.

Web Host Reviews - Offers reviews, ratings and insights from the people.

Web Host Zone - Web hosting reviews and ratings.

Web Hosting Jury - User reviews of web hosting providers.

Web Hosting Testimonials - Helping webmasters distinguish between which web hosting companies have lived up to customer expectations, and which have not.

Web-Hosting-Reviewer.com - Top 10 Web Hosts and reviews by Justin Tyler.

Web-Hosting-Top.com - Reviews and ranks the top 10 Unix, Windows web hosting companies.

Webmastersneed.com - Are doing review or summarize web hosting companies offering hosting.