Unlimited Web Hosting

At the moment it can be very difficult ascertaining a good hosting provider from another as the Internet is now full of biased reviews, rubbish testimonials and paid blog posts. With the advent of unlimited hosting packages, it has made the task even harder to find a reputable provider. More and more companies are offering unlimited hosting packages, but are they really unlimited? And are they reliable?

Unlimited Hosting

When a company uses the term ‘unlimited hosting’ it generally means to convey unlimited data transfer, the ability to add multiple domain names and unlimited disk storage. In short they ‘offer’ the ability to host as many websites as one can think of at a reasonable price (typically less that $15 a month). But before you jump the gun and package such a package, it’s important to know a few things first.

With the invention of the internet we had to learn a whole new, but the word ‘unlimited’ sounds fairly straight forward, or so you would think. Internet speak for ‘unlimited’ is not really ‘unlimited’ as we know it to be in the real world. Unlimited hosting can’t actually be unlimited, computers do not have the ability to host unlimited data, and computer speeds can never be unlimited. It real terms it’s actually impossible to offer unlimited hosting, as hosting can never be unlimited. There is and will always be limitations to anything in this world.

But web hosting providers are in the business to make money and sometimes require outlandish statements to make sales. Unlimited hosting plans can offer more freedom than most common web hosting packages but they’re really not an all you can eat package. “You can eat as much as you want, well, not really, we have to make money”. “You can have unlimited web sites and disk storage as part of unlimited hosting package, but make sure you do over do it, because we’ll charge you for it”. Unlimited hosting customers are usually limited by provider constraints of disk storage or by the number of MySQL databases or by size of FTP uploads or by scam protection measures. It’s not ‘unlimited’.

But on the brighter side of unlimited web hosting packages, they do offer far more freedom at a generally better price than common packages provided by most internet providers. And some unlimited hosting providers do have an honorable reputation; companies such as Hostgator are providing a good service with raving real testimonials. Their servers remain reliable and stable, and their customer service is excellent. The company seems to be run by a good management team as this seems to be a good indicator of how steady and reliable the hosting provider is. Before you purchase any hosting package it’s recommended you talk to their customer service team as it will generally indicate whether the company is well managed or not. There seems to be parallels between good management practice and customer service. In any case, do your homework and research before you purchase any unlimited web hosting package as more likely than not, your research will help determine who are scammers and who are good providers!

Shared Web Hosting

Shared hosting is in fact web hosting but differs because the hosting server provides different pages for multiple and unique websites, each containing a different Internet domain name, all from a single web server. Most web hosting providers support shared hosting. Shared hosting is a little more cost effective and cheaper for companies to create and manage a web presence. This method however is typically not sufficient to handle high volumes of traffic. High volume traffic generally requires a dedicated web server either provided by a web hosting company or via in house means. In general terms shared hosting can be inappropriate for customers requiring extensive software development and or intense data driven web applications. Shared hosting generally has usage limitations allowing multiple web services to run inhibited and most hosting providers have extensive and well protected reliability features. Typically all applications meant to run on a standard web server will run on a shared hosting platform.

Facilities of Shared Hosting

Shared hosting facilitates the use of a web based control panel or application such as cPanel, DirectAdmin, H-Sphere, InterWorx an Ensim and others. Some larger hosting providers use a custom produced control panel thought to help best serve the needs of its clients. Controversy does sometimes surround the web hosting industry as some companies claim that others have duplicated their own control panel software technology. And lawsuits and litigation over patient infringement are quite common.

With respect to the day to day maintenance and management of the servers, which includes the installation of security updates, technical support, and server software upgrades it is generally the responsibility of the hosting provider. Most web hosting servers are run on open based operating systems such as Linux or Lamp. Some hosting providers do offer the ability to run their servers on Microsoft Windows based operating systems.

World wide there are many shared hosting providers and they number in the tens of thousands. The small providers can range from Mom and Dad corner store providers who have 2 or 3 customers to large multinational companies with hundreds of thousands of customers. A large majority of the shared web hosting market is provided by affiliate programs or pay per click advertising. Shared hosting can also be achieved privately through the sharing of a running server located in a collocation center. This method of shared hosting is called cooperative hosting.

The process of shared web hosting can be accomplished in one of two ways: IP-based or name based. Some server control panels allow a mix of both methods on the same platform. Name based virtual hosting or Shared IP hosting has virtual hosts which allow the ability to serve multiple hostnames on a single platform with a singular IP address. In IP-based shared hosting platforms, each virtual host has different IP addresses on the same physical platform. The hosting server software knows to show the desired web site by using the connection of the IP address of the client. The reason to use a dedicated IP address is to allow authentication by an SSL certificate as opposed to a shared certificate which has the same level of security.

Dedicated Servers

A dedicated server or a dedicated hosting server can be leased directly from a hosting company.  A dedicated server is usually leased by a commercial outfit or businesses who wish to retain total control over one server.  Server administration or maintenance is generally provided as an add on cost by the web hosting company.  Dedicated servers are generally located at independent data centers that are powered by redundant power services.  Most commercial enterprises and businesses wish to have dedicated servers because they provide a larger return on investment and also less overhead costs.  Unlike collocation, the actual hardware of the server is owned by the hosting company or provider.  In many cases they will also help provide support for the applications and or operating system.

Dedicated Web Hosting

The operating system of a dedicated server largely depends on a number of factors such as price and all its associated costs, employee familiarity, and availability of the operating system.  Open source operating systems such as Linux are typically loaded onto the server at no cost.  Commercial operating systems such as Microsoft Windows Server and the commercial version of Linux namely Red Hat Enterprise can be chosen as an option as the designated operating system for the desired dedicated server.

Operating system support on these dedicated servers generally depends on the management level offered with a specific dedicated server plan.  Support which may include the latest security updates or patches, fixes and operating system security and vulnerability resolutions.  Other updates to the core operating system on the dedicated server can include kernel upgrades, application and service packs, and important security patches which help maintain and secure the server from malware or a hacker attack.  This type of support often relieves the heavily reliance of server management for a dedicated server owner.

Dedicated server providers will often promote and utilize heavy security measures which are used to protect any data stored on the server network and operating system.  Typically server owners will utilize many methods to protect the data from spammers, hackers, trojans, crashers, worms and other various sorts of viruses.  Both Linux and Windows as operating systems use different types of software to protect their systems.

Web Hosting providers will generally charge a fixed monthly fee for the dedicated server which will more often than not, also include use of a software package.  Operating systems or software vendors soon realized that it was quite profitable to bundle their software with a dedicated server.  Hosting providers will also often offer the ability for businesses or commercial enterprises to choose which software package they would like as their operating system installed on their dedicated server.  This choice of operating system will largely depend on what requirements are needed.  Some examples include specific application and database requirements and their relevant performance parameters.  It should be noted that dedicated servers and relevant software packages can be tailored and customized to suit the requirements of the business or commercial enterprise.  And most companies or businesses do in fact require such customization.

Web Hosting History

Prior to 1991 web hosting as we know it did not in fact, exist. In fact prior to 1991 the internet did not exist. The internet as we know it today contains over 50 million websites, all of which are web hosted. Without these websites, what would one search for on the internet? For the internet to have flourished like it has today, websites and more importantly, web hosting, have both been required in order to have transformed the world of communications. And to have created the Internet as we know it in modern times. Web hosting history and at a greater level, the Internet has spawned one of the biggest technological revolutions, arguably more impactful than the inventions of the radio and television.

The history of web hosting

But where did the history of web hosting start? The original idea of the internet was attributed to a gentleman by the name of J.C.R Licklider who nearly 50 years ago wrote a number of papers in which he envisioned a broad network of connected computers where data and information in general, could be accessed. Licklider headed up the Advance Research Projects Agency located at MIT where he promoted the idea of a computer network, the facilitation requirements for web hosting, to his bosses.

Thomas Merril and Lawrence Roberts invented the first computer in 1965. And in 1969 they helped invent the first computer network linking computers located at the University of California, the University of Utah and the Stanford Research Institute. These were the first ‘web hosts’ and in the following years they would go on to add a following 19 more hosts and 13 different nodes to their small network.

Later that decade the creation of TELENET occurred which formed the basis for the first commercial Internet service provider or an ISP. Over the next 15 years saw a massive increase in the development of the soon to be network that of the Internet. In 1991 the National Science Foundation thought it best to lift the commercial restrictions on the Internet which allowed budding entrepreneurs to believe there could be future profits to be made particularly in the fields of web hosting and commerce. Web Hosting history had begun well and truly.

The Internet transformed into an entity of itself, were university professors and developers started to believe that the Internet could provide an unparalleled amount of value to those that sought both knowledge and commerce. It became no longer a network for computer tech heads, but businesses and individuals who started to see the viability for commercial endeavors.

Web pages and websites began to pop up, with web hosting providers beginning to advertise and promote their viability to those that sought innovation by providing their services or information on the World Wide Web. Web Hosting was still quite expensive at this point as most people were beginning only just to accept the technology and commercial viability. In recent times, web hosting has become quite cheap and inexpensive which has allowed the masses to jump on board and help create the 50 or so million websites that now exist. The web hosting history is a long one, but it has helped the Internet rise to where it has today