Almost everyone in today’s world knows how to use internet. How to open their favourite website? Be it Google, FaceBook or YouTube. But there are only few people (webmasters), who actually know how the internet works? Have you ever wondered, how the website works, what to do if you want to host your website?
So, today’s article helps you understand basics of web hosting. The first word which we come across as soon as we think of website is “hosting”.
Basically there are three kinds of hosting:-
- Shared hosting
- VPS
- Dedicated Hosting
Shared:
As name suggest in shared hosting, large number of sites are hosted on a single server (generally with low traffic), thus sharing all the server resources. For example on server 1 we can host multiple sites, site1,site2,sites3 and so on.
Basic features:
i) Shared Resources(RAM, Diskspace and CPU)
ii) cheap , service starts as low as $4USD/mo
Disadvantages:
i) If the load on particular site increase, other sites hosted on the same server will suffer ; for example a college website, on the day of announcement of results, traffic will suddenly increase; eating all the resources(CPU,RAM,Disk) available on the server. As a result other websites on that server would run slow with high latency.
ii) No Control over server configuration; hence we can’t install or change software ouselves.
Dedicated:
It’s a physical server with real hardware. Basically for websites which have to handle high number of visitors.
Basic features:
i) The client allotted an individual server with all the resources.
ii) Full control over server.
Disadvantages
i) It’s not cost effective as most of the server resources end up unused.
ii) Since costs are high, not everybody can afford it
Advantages
i) Client’s website is unaffected by any other random website
ii) No sharing of resources. Client has full rights over the server.
Virtual Private Server (VPS):
Based on the advancement in virtualization technology, VPS have been developed to provide the perfect ground between shared & dedicated servers. In layman terms, in a VPS a powerful dedicated server is divided in terms of resources (RAM, CPU, Disk) into small mini-servers which are called Virtual Machines. In Virtualization terms, virtual machines are referred as “guest” who has their OS with full control and base machine is called as “Host”.
Advantages:
i) Cost effective, Inmotion has vps web hosting plans starting $39.90USD with free Cpanel. Anyone looking for VPS should give them a try
ii) Burstable Memory: VPS provides burstable memory, which is extra memory apart from your guaranteed quote.
iii) Scalability: you can start small (1 small site) and further grow too many sites handling huge visitors without changing/upgrading machines. As long as host has resources
Suitable For:
i) sites with large databases, E-commerce sites like EBay etc.
ii) Sites with high traffic, but not high enough for a dedicated server.
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Nice article i was unaware of VPS.