27 June 2009

What a Webmaster Should Know about a Hosting Account

By Jack Spencer

Designing or owning websites is an exciting type of business but there is some specified knowledge that you are going to need in order to move forward effectively. This is especially true whenever it comes to hosting, and you should understand the various types of hosting and options that are available to you. If you overlook any of these options, your business may suffer as a result.

Although there are almost an endless number of hosting companies that are available online, they really can be broken down into three separate types of hosting that are available. These types are shared hosting, virtual private servers and dedicated servers. Understanding the difference between the two can help you to grow your business slowly and to move up as necessary.

The most common type of server that is available is a shared hosting account and most individual webmasters or businesses get their start on one of these types of servers. It is the same as any other type of server but the real difference is that you will be sharing the physical box with a number of other webmasters. You will still have your own little chunk of the box that nobody else will be able to access, but there may be thousands of other websites that are available on the same server. This can cause some problems.

Hosting companies rarely ever let you know how many other websites are on one of their servers. The difficult part about this is the fact that any one of those websites could be running scripts or run into other difficulties that would grind the entire server to a halt. Although it is rare that this happens with a reliable shared server company, there are times when ever it rears its ugly head.

A virtual Private server, or VPS, is basically the same thing as a shared hosting account but the main difference is that you will be sharing it with far fewer other webmasters. In the case of a shared server, you might be splitting it with thousands of websites but with a virtual Private server, you will only be splitting it with about half a dozen other people. This gives you a larger chunk of resources and your websites will typically run smoother and faster as a result.

If your business continues to grow and the resources that you are using grow along with it, you will eventually need to get a dedicated server for yourself. Moving on to a dedicated server can be a little bit difficult, especially if you are not technical minded. The thing that you need to keep in mind, however, is that a dedicated server is not all that different from any other type of server. The main difference is the fact that you will have all of the resources for yourself and your websites will run better as a result.

One of the interesting things about the virtual private servers and dedicated servers is the fact that you are able to upgrade various components that exist on the server. For example, you can pay additional money every month for a larger physical disk or for additional memory and bandwidth. This allows you to grow, even within a hosting platform that is at its upper limit.

If you're just starting out, more than likely you're going to be starting with the shared hosting account and moving up from there. It's an excellent way for you to be able to get your feet wet but don't overlook the possibility of moving up once your business grows.

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