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Choosing the
Type of Host Best Suited for Your Needs
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.
We were web hosting beginners not too long ago, and can clearly
recall thinking that we would never be able to gain the knowledge necessary
to create and launch a web site, however, after spending a bit of spare time
reading up on the industry, we came to the conclusion that
web hosting wasn't nearly as difficult as it appeared to be. After all, if
some 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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