Web Hosting

Web hosting involves the placement of a web site or many web sites on a server that is connected to the Internet. The web hosting server is located off site at a web hosting company that leases the use of the server. The web hosting company should have two or more separate connections to the Internet for redundancy. Since very few web hosting systems need the throughput available on the Internet connection, the connections are shared to reduce cost. There are two primary web hosting methods, virtual web hosting and dedicated web hosting.

Virtual Web Hosting

Virtual web hosting is where many web sites from different companies are placed on one server and the server is controlled by the hosting company. This is the least expensive way to have a web site as you only are paying to lease a small portion of the web hosting server. However, a virtual web hosting server tends to be less reliable and the available bandwidth is shared among hundreds of companies.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated web hosting is where only one company places its web site on a server and that company controls the administration of the server. Dedicated web hosting is much more reliable than virtual web hosting and much more flexible. Since you control how the server is used you can configure it to your exact business needs. A dedicated web hosting server is more expensive to use, but for companies that rely on the Internet for their business it is normally a better value. A dedicated web hosting server also can be part of a cluster to increase throughput and reliability even further.