What Exactly is Shared Hosting?

If you have set up a web site and you wish other individuals to view it, you must copy your web site files to a public web server.

Where to host your site?

Although you can use your own PC as a web server, it is a more conventional practice to let a hosting provider take care of your site. The primary reason for that is the bigger reliability and the better visibility of your web site, because hosting service providers have special hardware and allocate a far greater web traffic allowance, which ensures the faster access to your website from all over the globe.

Shared hosting services

Choose a shared hosting solution, which allows you to register domains and to create e-mail accounts. Many web shared hosting vendors, like us at Enterprise Technology, offer a charge-free domain name registration as a gift if you sign up for a web hosting account.

Hosting your website yourself

Hosting your site on your own web server is surely an option, but only if you have time and the needed experience. There are certain aspects that you have to consider, among them the hardware and software expenses. To develop a genuine, professional-looking web site, you will have to invest in some powerful server hardware, because you cannot anticipate a cheap computer to do the task. You will also need a constant high-speed Internet connection without network downtimes, which usually comes at a pretty steep price. If you are availing of licensed software for your website, you will have to invest cash in the license too. You may also have to cope with bugs and loopholes. You will have to maintain your server constantly running in an environment where "everything could take place". If you do not have the needed technical knowledge, you will have to employ a system administrator to cope with these issues on your behalf, which will make the price of hosting your web site yourself even higher than that of a dedicated web hosting server delivered by a hosting supplier.

A dedicated server provided by a hosting supplier

Leasing a server from a hosting distributor is an appropriate choice if you wish to run a resource-intensive website or a business web page that has very specific security requirements. The most important advantages of using a dedicated server hosting solution are the high-speed Internet connection, the uninterrupted power supply and the very powerful hardware. Certain web hosts, again like us at Enterprise Technology, furnish virtual private servers hosting and semi-dedicated web server hosting services, which are based on very powerful servers that can be divided among several clients. You can also expect them to offer effective server load balancing services and the required data backup servers.

Security and stability

Hosting suppliers are specialized in furnishing web hosting services and because this is what they do for a living, you can expect them to offer uninterrupted network connectivity, the newest software updates and the best anti-virus software, as well as sysadmins available 24-7 to assist you in emergency cases.

Choose your hosting supplier

What you have to take into consideration when choosing your web hosting accounts provider is the dependability of the offered services. Make certain that the web hosting provider of your choice offers a 24x7 support service. Do not put yourself in a situation where you cannot fix critical issues instantly because you must wait till the next working day. Furthermore, if you opt for a shared website hosting package, which features a 24/7/365 technical support service, this implies that there always will be sysadmins available to resolve any critical predicaments as soon as they crop up, which is a very beneficial thing.

Day-to-day backups

Make certain that your web hosting plans provider offers day-to-day data backups with the offered services, otherwise you may forfeit some important data in case of a hardware failure or because you have deleted something by mistake. The availability of day-to-day backups is typically mentioned in the web hosting distributor's TOS.

Bandwidth and hosting server hard drive space

When selecting your hosting packages provider, give specific attention to the traffic volume limitations. Make certain that you won't have to overpay for unforeseen high volumes of web traffic if your website becomes more frequently visited. There are many hosting distributors that offer unlimited web traffic at present, so the most logical step to take is to make certain that you have made the correct choice prior to subscribing.

Content limitations

Give specific attention to the hosting vendor's content limitations. If you would like to post pictures or to stream video or audio, make sure that you can accomplish that. Moreover, most hosting distributors set restrictions when it comes to utilizing their services for file storage purposes, so if you upload too many files that are not related or directly linked to your website, your website hosting account could get deleted. So, double-checking the hosting company's Terms & Conditions, no matter how time-demanding and tedious this might be, is very essential.

Email capabilities

The majority of web hosting vendors today also provide e-mail services with all their website hosting plans. It is a good idea to verify if the hosting provider of your choosing offers such options as well, so as to be sure that you'll obtain all the functionalities that you require in exchange for your cash.