Archive for September 2011
Hosting Your Website – Dot It Yourself in 7 Easy Steps
First, let me clarify something. There are many reasons why you would want to have your website professionally hosted. However, people in certain situations are better off hosting their site themselves. For example, if you are starting a new business or playing with an idea that you are not sure will work, you might not want to pay a hosting company to host your site, at first. Hosting the site yourself will allow you to save money that you can use to grow your business. Once your business starts growing and your site starts getting a lot of visitors, then you will find it necessary to pay a web hosting company to host it for you, but until then, you need to test the waters.
If you have a computer and a high speed internet connection (DSL/Cable) you can host your own website. You will need to keep your computer on and online 24/7, which should be no big deal. Besides this, you need only to follow the 7 steps I describe below, to make your website available to users on the internet:
1) Install a web server: Most Windows operating systems either come with a web server, or one can be downloaded for free depending on the version of Windows. The web server is the program that runs in the background on your computer listening to requests from people on the internet. It’s the software that finds your pages in your computer and sends them to the users requesting it.
2) Configure the web server: In this step you simply tell your web server where to find your website that is sitting somewhere in your computer.
3) Get a domain name: In this step you decide on the name that you want for your site and buy it from a provider. Domain names are cheap and you pay the fee only once a year.
4) Configure DNS: This is where you associate your website name with the IP address of your computer so users are transferred to your computer when typing the name of your website.
5) Configure your router: Your router needs to know about the computer that has the web page so it knows where to forward users to.
6) Dynamic IP solution: Most people have a dynamic IP address given to them by their ISP. This means the IP address of your computer might change. This is a problem because DNS needs to know the IP address of the computer that people need to be forwarded to when typing a domain name. There is a way to solve this problem without having to pay your ISP more money for a static IP. There are applications that will automatically update DNS when your IP changes.
7) Securing your server: The last step is to make sure your computer is protected from malicious programs on the internet by having the necessary software installed and configured.
Different Types of Server Hosting
There are many different types of internet server hosting services that would help you in maintaining and improving your website. However, there are only two basic classifications of servers. They are the free web and the commercial or paid hosting. The free hosting services offered by many companies have advantages and disadvantages of their own. The client need not make any investments whatsoever. But the utilities and services are very limited when compared with paid services and this means that the chances of improving your website are very low.
When you talk about paid hosting services, there are many which are highly useful for the build-up and the popularity of an internet website. However, the most popular, or in other words, the most preferred forms of paid services of them all are only a few. The names of such popular services are the shared web-hosting, reseller web-hosting, dedicated servers and managed servers. In shared web-hosting, the client will hire a server from a provider on a rental basis (Monthly rentals). This is slightly better than the free server hosting as it has many features like better bandwidth, larger space etc. However, it is not as good as many of the other paid services because it has lot of disadvantages like insecurity, inability to handle big traffic. But the option of a shared server hosting service is very good if you are opening a relatively new website and if it does not have large space and sensitive information. Moreover, shared web hosting does not require much of an investment.
A reseller web server is nothing but you buy and distribute a server. For example, you buy an account in any server provider (Say for $25 per month). You then divide this server into many smaller units and sell them separately to other people who are in need of servers. This is actually a business oriented approach where you can earn lot more than you spend on a monthly basis. This is recommended for all those who want to earn some healthy money through online if they feel that they are not good enough to handle and maintain a website of their own.
Dedicated web server is the server bought to run and maintain your website. This is in fact the best form of hired server service because all the powers of controlling the server are vested in your hands. Dedicated servers are best suited for clients who own a big website or for organizations that deal with lot of online customers.
There are many other server hosting services which require special mention. They are the Virtual Dedicated Server, managed Hosting service, Cloud, Colocation Web, Grid, Clustered, Homer server, FFmpeg hosting service etc. There are also other forms of web server hosting services provided by different providers which includes File Hosting, Blog, Shopping Cart Software, E-mail, Video, One-click and Image Hosting Services respectively.
Dedicated Server vs Shared Server Hosting
Any website that is located on the internet is viewable by anyone who comes to it. To be able to have your website on the internet, you need a service provider. It is like a location for you to have your website in the internet. The kind of service that allows you to do that is called the web hosting service. There are many kinds of web hosting services available out there and 2 of the most common or mostly used is the shared hosting or the dedicated hosting.
Obviously there is difference in these 2 types of hosting. To put it in simple words, each has a different control given to the user to manage their website. Therefore, we need to know what the differences are before we choose the kind of web hosting we want.
For a shared hosting, its name already gives you a clear idea on what it offers. Shared means multiple websites hosted in the same location. So, in a server, there are multiple websites sharing the space, bandwidth and so on. This type of hosting is ideal for small business as well as new webmasters who are trying out for the first time. Over an all, it is very usable but it has some limitations in its resources.
As you are paying for the service, the provider will provide you with software, security, maintenance and support. As for the users, they will get a certain level of control with the control panel of their choice.
Shared hosting provides control panels like Cpanel PLeask and VDeck. With these control panels, users can really manage their websites. As for the serve, it is maintain or manage by more complex control panel like Helm and DirectAdmin. However, there are also some shared hosting that uses Linux web hosting and they will use either Windows or FreeBSD control panel. A Linux system is know to be compatible with most of the current control panel and therefore making it more acceptable in the market.
Due to the fact that shared hosting is shared, you can guess that the price required owning a website with this kind of web hosting would be more affordable. The fact that it is cheaper is the reason why many people turn to it. They can still get multiple database, management tools and many other service when they choose shared hosting. Even though that they know that it is more likely to face security issue and probability of their website occurring downtime, this is something that the are willing to accept.
On the contrary, a dedicated hosting is a hosting that only hosts one website in the entire server. Therefore, the user has total usage over the server. They do not have to share space, bandwidth or any other feature with any other website. It is most suitable for websites that expect a heavy amount of traffic. With more bandwidth, they have nothing to worry about. Users of dedicated hosting also have the power to choose the type of software that they want to use in the website. They also have the same capability of having multiple domains.
To sum it all up, a user of a dedicated web hosting service will have total control over their website. This provides them with freedom but they themselves have to make sure of the stability of the operation of their website. This is not something complex but very simple. All the skills that the user needs are at an administrative level. Users must also make sure that their website is monitored constantly to maintain security. However, if the user no knowledge about the technical requirements, the hosting provider does provide additional support and service to help users of the dedicated hosting.