WEB HOSTING and HOSTING services

 WHAT IS WEB HOSTING?

        In simple terms, Web hosting is making sure that your website can be accessed on the World Wide Web (WWW). ie, bringing it to life. Or 

" the activity or business of providing storage space and access for websites."    by google dictionary.

This is usually done by paying for hosting with a service provider or you can host it yourself at your own server.

1. Using a service provider

       Using a service provider is the simplest way of hosting a website. You can pay a small monthly fee and rely on the service provider to take care of all your equipment, infrastructure, and other associated needs.


Pros of hosting with a service provider

  • Cheaper
  • Support is readily available
  • No need for hardware maintenance
  • Reliability comparatively higher

  Cons of hosting with a service provider
  • Maybe some service restrictions
  • Fewer choices in hosting locations

Below are some top hosting service providers in the world:


 I.


How to Host a Site Locally

Hosting a website locally means that you’re in essence using your own location to set up a web server from scratch. This means that you are responsible for everything from the hardware and software all the way to bandwidth provision and other infrastructure needs.

Pros of self-hosting

  • Extreme control over your hosting environment
  • Potential for faster service turnaround times
  • Your choice of equipment and service providers

Cons of self-hosting

  • Can be very expensive
  • Not always possible in residential environments

  Caution: Hosting web servers locally is complex and can be very expensive. It is also often less reliable than hosting with a service provider.

1. Select Equipment and Software

Basic server hardware can be very similar to the hardware on your own PC with some slight differences. In fact, technically, you could take your own PC (or even laptop) and turn it into a home web server if you really wanted to.

The key difference is in how reliable you want your webserver to be and the visitor volume it can handle. As with service providers, you will need to keep an eye on the processor, memory, and storage space.

If you opt for high-end server equipment such as rack server, you will also need to ensure that the specialized needs of this equipment are met. This includes space, cooling, and power.

hosting a website at your own server
Sample of an HP SMB Server (source)

If you need the service to be more reliable you will also need to consider redundancy in hardware. For example, running your storage drives in RAID, plus active mirroring of backups onto additional drives.

Your other infrastructure equipment such as routers and modems will also need to be able to handle high loads of traffic.

For software, aside from your operating system, you will need to also focus on your web server platform (at the moment, Apache and Nginx are the most popular on the market). This also means that you need to be responsible for not just configuring the software, but also for licensing.

2. Ensure Sufficient Bandwidth

Internet bandwidth is also vital to running your own server. In many cases, most of us are fine with standard Internet bandwidth since we’re using limited connections to the Internet. Imagine if 30 people were trying to use your home Internet at the same time – that, and perhaps more, is what you might be looking to support.

What also needs to be taken into consideration is your IP address. Most home Internet plans come with dynamic IPs assigned. In order to run a web server, you need a static IP. This can either be handled by a service provider such as DynDNS or by buying the service from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Learn to calculate the bandwidth you need.

3. Develop and Deploy Website

The next part is similar to the experience of using a web hosting provider, except that you don’t get any support. Your web files need to be moved onto your web host in order for your site to start functioning.

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