Reseller Web Hosting

Hosting web sites on the internet can be a lucrative business venture. However trying to setup a web hosting company from scratch can be quite a bit of work and also quite a bit of money.

One of the biggest problems of trying to start a web hosting company right now is that much of the address space on the internet has already been taken. If you own a company and you need to buy an IP address block, then you might have a chance of getting a few IP addresses, but getting enough space to create a web hosting company on your own is very hard to do.

One alternative to trying to start a web hosting company from scratch is to become a reseller web hosting company. Many companies on the internet offer to resell address space to companies so they can become a reseller web hosting company. Becoming a reseller web hosting company has many advantages including the availability of address space, specialized tools, and built-in control panel support.

Many reseller web hosting companies offer quite a bit of space so that you can host many different web sites on your own. Most of the time this space is very hard to come by if you are not buying the space from a reseller web hosting company. Also these companies usually offer many tools to help your clients build their web sites. Some of these companies offer Front Page extensions so that your clients can use Front Page to build their web sites. Other companies offer different pre-made PHP scripts to help your clients build their web sites as well.

Another important tool is the ability for your clients to use a MySQL database to store information and authenticate against on their web site. The best advantage of using a reseller web hosting company is the built-in control panel support that is supplied by many of these companies. You usually have a management control panel to help create different web sites for your clients, and then your clients also have a control panel to help administer their web sites. This makes it much easier for anyone, even someone with limited technical knowledge, to create a web site.

how to find cheap web hosting

All webmasters will at some point face one question: how will I find a good and cheap web hosting provider?

The web hosting business is saturated with web hosting companies competing for your business. You'll find everything from huge companies hosting hundreds of thousands of web sites, to the small reseller operating out of Mom's garage. So how can you make an educated decision with all those options?

All web site hosting companies tend to have some similarities, although their main sales arguments are normally focused on two things; cost and bandwidth. A lot of the time people go for a sales pitch like that. Getting something that's inexpensive is desirable to most folks, and if it seems to come with some great extras too, then all the better!

So if you are choosing between a web hosting company that's offering a cheap web hosting plan with 50GB bandwidth for $10 per month, and a different hosting company that promises you a hosting plan with 500GB a month for five dollars, a lot of people will foolishly pick the second option. However, it is this type of logic that leads to disaster for many web hosting clients.

Sure, it's great to save a few bucks - although do you believe a web hosting company is going to give great support and reliable service when you pay them almost nothing? The old saying "You get what you pay for" is very truthful, and the complete truth is you're far more apt to receive great service if you keep clear of the really cheap web page hosting packages.

That being said, it is also true that the service quality can differ a lot between web site hosting companies in the same price range. In truth, the one way of making sure you keep clear of the bad apples is to do a little of your own research. Check out places such as Web Hosting Talk to find out for yourself what real customers feel about the web hosting provider they use.

While there isn't a web hosting company that will be liked by everybody, you will find that some have a lot more complaints than others. I have done extensive research on this and learned that while some web hosting providers may have mostly good reviews, other providers have mostly negative reviews. In conclusion: when looking for an affordable web hosting service, keep clear of the cheapest offers and do some research before you sign up.

Web hosting service

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Webhosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

Service scope

The scopes of hosting services vary widely. The most basic is webpage and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service for free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap. Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.

Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. For e-commerce, SSL is also required.

An example of "rack mounted" servers

The host may also provide an interface control panel (e.g. cPanel, Plesk or others) for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Recently, Web.com holds many patents it claims cover broad methods for website building and web control panels. Hostopia, a large wholesale host, recently purchased a license to use that technology from web.com for 10% of retail revenues. Web.com recently sued Go Daddy as well for similar patent infringement .

Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company. To find a web hosting company, there are searchable directories that can be used. One must be extremely careful when searching for a new company because many of the people promoting service providers are actually affiliates and the reviews are biased.

Hosting reliability and uptime

Multiple racks of servers, and how a datacenter commonly looks.

Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. Many providers state that they aim for a 99.9% uptime, but there may be server restarts and planned (or unplanned) maintenance in any hosting environment.

A common claim from the popular hosting providers is '99% or 99.9% server uptime' but this often refers only to a server being powered on and doesn't account for network downtime. Real downtime can potentially be larger than the percentage guaranteed by the provider. Many providers tie uptime, and accessibility, into their own Service Level Agreement, or SLA. SLAs may or may not include refunds, or reduced costs if performance goals are not met.

Types of hosting

Types of hosting

A typical server "cage," commonly seen in colocation centres.

Internet hosting services can run Web servers; see Internet hosting services.

Hosting services limited to the Web:

• Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
• Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
• Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
• Virtual Dedicated Server: dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS.
• Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
• Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
• Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
• Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization.
• Grid hosting : this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service providers:

• File hosting service: hosts not web pages but files
• Image hosting service
• Video hosting service
• Blog hosting service
• One-click hosting
• Shopping cart software

Obtaining hosting

Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.

A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP platform: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python. The webhosting client may want to have other services, such as email for their business domain, databases or multi-media services for streaming media. A customer may also choose Windows for its hosting platform. The customer still can choose from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or Classic ASP.

Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System, so the end-user doesn't have to worry about the more technical aspects.

One may also search the Internet to find active webhosting message boards that may provide feedback on what type of webhosting company may suit his/her needs.

Small Businesses Web Hosting

If you are planning to have better web presence and visibility for your small business then you would probably need to have a good web hosting provider that would be hosting your website. It would not make much of a difference if you are just an individual looking to share your unique hobby to everyone or a big and high-profile company that requires e-commerce applications to be able to sell your merchandise to online consumers. You would still require a web hosting provider so that your website would be available on the internet.

Presently, there are thousands upon thousands of web hosting service providers that are all competing to get your business and this could make the selection of web hosting company a hard and confusing task. Here are a couple of aspects that you would need to contemplate on to choose one that would be best for your small business.

First would be the kind or type of website you will be setting up. This would greatly affect the choice you make for your web host. For example, if you would be launching a website that has less than a hundred pages and would not be putting any multimedia content like streaming videos and others, then a standard hosting plan which is entry-level would probably do just fine. These entry-level plans are available for less than $5 a month and there are a lot of companies that provides this kind of service.

Another option to consider for a small business would be shared web hosting, as this hosting type would be affordable - these are available for lower than $10 a month and most shared hosting providers are able to provide good features, as well as sufficient storage space and bandwidth.

Some other considerations would be the bandwidth and of course, the disk space. Although it is quite impossible to compute exactly how much bandwidth you would require, you could make an estimate by assessing the average size of the pages of your website and then multiply that by the number of page views that you are expecting.

Want to host your site with that perfect web host who can give good uptime and prompt custom support? Look no further. We highly recommend hosting your sites, forums and blogs with hostgator or bluehost. If you have not registered your domain name yet, you can do it for cheap with godaddy

Shared web hosting service

A shared web hosting service or virtual hosting service where many websites reside on one refers to a web hosting serviceweb server connected to the Internet. Each site "sits" on its own partition, or section/place on the server to keep it separate from other sites. This is generally the most economical option for hosting as many people share the overall cost of server maintenance.

Description

The hosting service must include system administration since it is shared by many users; this is a benefit for users who do not want to deal with it, but a hindrance to power users who want more control. In general shared hosting will be inappropriate for users who require extensive software development outside what the hosting provider supports. But on the other hand, shared hosting is cheaper than other types of hosting such as dedicated server hosting.

Shared hosting typically uses a web-based control panel system, such as cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk, InterWorx, Helm, H-sphere, Ensim, Sphera or one of many other control panel products. Control panels and web interfaces have been causing some controversy lately as Web.com claims that it holds patent rights to the hosting technology with its 19 patents. Hostopia, a large wholesale host, recently purchased a license to use that technology from web.com for 10% of retail revenues. Web.com recently sued abtinfo.net as well for similar patent infringement.

In shared hosting, the provider is generally responsible for management of servers, installation of server software, security updates, Technical support and other aspects of the service. The majority of servers are based on the Linux operating system - LAMP (software bundle), which is driven by the low cost of open source software. But some providers do offer Microsoft Windows-based or FreeBSD-based solutions. For example, the Plesk and Ensim control panels are both available for two operating systems, Linux and Windows. Versions for either OS have very similar interfaces and functionality, with the exception of OS-specific differences (for example, ASP.NET or Microsoft SQL Server support under Windows, and typically greater security and stability under Linux).

There are thousands of shared hosting providers in the United States alone. They range from mom-and-pop shops and small design firms to multi-million-dollar providers with hundreds of thousands of customers. A large portion of the shared web hosting market is driven through Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) or Affiliate programs.

Shared web hosting can also be done privately by sharing the cost of running a server in a colocation centre; this is called cooperative hosting.

Implementation

Shared web hosting can be accomplished in two ways: name-based and IP-based, although some control panels allow a mix of name-based and IP-based on the one server.

Name-based

In name-based virtual hosting, also called shared IP hosting, the virtual hosts serve multiple hostnames on a single machine with a single IP address.

When a web browser requests a resource from a web server using HTTP/1.1 it includes the requested hostname as part of the request. The server uses this information to determine which web site to show the user.

IP-based

In IP-based virtual hosting, also called dedicated IP hosting, each virtual host has a different IP address. The web server is configured with multiple physical network interfaces, or virtual network interfaces on the same physical interface. The web server software uses the IP address the client connects to in order to determine which web site to show the user. The primary reason for a site to use a dedicated IP is to be able to use its own SSL certificate rather than a shared certificate.

Disadvantages

Name-based virtual hosts have some disadvantages:

• They will not work with browsers that do not send the hostname as part of requests. This is true for older HTTP/1.0 browsers that have not retrofitted the host field feature from the HTTP/1.1 protocol. (The "Host" header that distinguishes between various DNS names sharing a single IP address was optional in HTTP/1.0; it is mandatory in HTTP/1.1, issued in 1999 as RFC 2616.)
• They do not properly support secure websites (HTTPS). All name-based virtual hosts using the same IP address must share the same digital certificate. This is because the SSL/TLS handshake takes place before the hostname is sent to the server. Thus the server doesn't know which encryption key to use when the connection is made. An extension to the TLS protocol, part of RFC 3546 - Transport Layer Security (TLS) Extensions, specifies a way for the client to provide the requested host name as part of the handshake, but it is not yet widely implemented. Some of the shared hosting providers require their customers to get Unique IP in order to properly set up HTTPS.
• If the Domain Name System is malfunctioning, it is harder to use a name-based virtually-hosted website. Ordinarily, in this case, the user could fall back to using the IP address to contact the system, as in http://127.0.0.1/ (invalid IP for example only). However, the web browser doesn't know what hostname to send to the server, but a name-based virtual host requires it. In this case, the default web host is sent back to the browser for that IP address.

Advantages

An advantage of shared web hosting service is when trouble occurs, within minutes many customers complain and the problem is brought to management's attention often sooner and more with more force than with other hosting situations.

Dedicated hosting service

A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting where the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. Server administration can usually be provided by the hosting company as an add-on service. In some cases a dedicated server can offer less overhead and a larger return on investment. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to colocation facilities, providing redundant power sources and HVAC systems. In contrast to colocation, the server hardware is owned by the provider and in some cases they will provide support for your operating system or applications.

Operating system support

Availability, price and employee familiarity often determines which operating systems are offered on dedicated servers. Variations of Linux (open-source operating systems), are often included at no charge to the customer. However, Microsoft requires additional license fees on all their products, thus increasing the monthly cost of a dedicated server running a Windows operating system. Commercial operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server, provided through a special program called Microsoft SPLA. Red Hat Enterprise is a commercial version of Linux offered to hosting providers on a monthly fee basis. The monthly fee provides OS updates through the Red Hat Network using an application called up2date. Other operating systems are available from the open source community at no charge. These include CentOS, Fedora Core, Debian, and many other Linux distributions or BSD systems FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD.

Support for any of the operating systems above typically depends on the level of management offered with a particular dedicated server plan. Operating system support may include updates to the core system in order to acquire the latest security fixes, patches, and system-wide vulnerability resolutions. Updates to core operating systems include kernel upgrades, service packs, application updates, and security patches that keep server secure and safe. Operating system updates and support relieves the burden of server management from the dedicated server owner.

Bandwidth & Connectivity

Bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate or the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period (usually a second) and is often represented in bits (of data) per second (bps). For example, visitors to your server, web site, or applications utilize bandwidth as the traffic moves from your server to the Internet and vice versa. Connectivity refers to the “access providers” that supply bandwidth, or data transfer rate, through various connection points across a network or footprint to one or multiple data centers where dedicated servers are housed.

Bandwidth measurements are defined (per telecom standards) as the following:

• First – 95th (measured using average bits and speed of transfer)
• Second – Unmetered (measured in speed or bits)
• Third – Total Transfer (measured in bytes transferred)

95th Method: Line Speed, billed on the 95th percentile, average or peak usage, refers to the speed in which data flows from the server or device. The measurement can be compared to mph (Miles Per Hour), or how fast something travels. Line Speed is measured using bits per second, kilobits per second, megabits per second, and gigabits per second.

Unmetered Method: The second bandwidth measurement is Unmetered service where providers cap or control the “top line” speed for a server. Top line speed in Unmetered bandwidth is the total Mbit/s allocated to the server and configured on the switch level. For example, if you purchase 10 Mbit/s Unmetered bandwidth, the top line speed would be 10 Mbit/s. 10 Mbit/s would result in the provider controlling the speed transfers take place while providing the ability for the dedicated server owner to not be charged with bandwidth overages. Unmetered bandwidth services usually incur an additional charge.

Total Transfer Method: Some providers will calculate the Total Transfer, the measurement of actual data leaving and coming from the server, measured in bytes. Measurement between providers varies and includes one of the following equations:

• Method 1: IN TRAFFIC + OUT TRAFFIC = TOTAL TRANSFER
• Method 2: IN TRAFFIC = TOTAL TRANSFER
• Method 3: OUT TRAFFIC = TOTAL TRANSFER

One of the reasons people choose to outsource dedicated servers is the availability of high powered networks from multiple providers. As dedicated server providers utilize massive amounts of bandwidth, they are able to secure lower volume based pricing to include a multi-provider blend of bandwidth. To achieve the same type of network without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth, a large investment in core routers, long term contracts, and expensive monthly bills would need to be in place. The expenses needed to develop a network without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth does not make sense economically for hosting providers.

Many dedicated server providers include a SLA (Service Level Agreement) based on network uptime. Some dedicated server hosting providers offer a 100% uptime guarantee on their network. By securing multiple vendors for connectivity and using redundant hardware, providers are able to guarantee higher uptimes; usually between 99-100% uptime if they are a higher quality provider. One aspect of higher quality providers is they are mostly likely multi-homed across multiple quality uplink providers, which in turn, provides significant redundancy in the event one goes down in addition to potentially improved routes to destinations.

Bandwidth consumption over the last several years has shifted from a per megabit usage model to a per gigabyte usage model. Bandwidth was traditionally measured in line speed access that included the ability to purchase needed megabits at a given monthly cost. As the shared hosting model developed, the trend towards gigabyte or total bytes transferred, replaced the megabit line speed model so dedicated server providers started offering per gigabyte.

Prominent players in the dedicated server market offer large amounts of bandwidth ranging from 500 gigabytes to 3000 gigabytes using the “overselling” model. It is not uncommon for major players to provide dedicated servers with 1Terabyte (TB) of bandwidth or higher. Usage models based on the byte level measurement usually include a given amount of bandwidth with each server and a price per gigabyte after a certain threshold has been reached. Expect to pay additional fees for bandwidth overage usage. For example, if a dedicated server has been given 3000 gigabytes of bandwidth per month and the customer uses 5000 gigabytes of bandwidth within the billing period, the additional 2000 gigabytes of bandwidth will be invoiced as bandwidth overage. Each provider has a different model for billing. As of yet, no industry standards have been set.

Management

To date, no industry standards have been set to clearly define the management role of dedicated server providers. What this means is that each provider will use industry standard terms, but each provider will define them differently. For some dedicated server providers, fully managed is defined as having a web based control panel while other providers define it as having dedicated system engineers readily available to handle all server and network related functions of the dedicated server provider.

Server management can include some or all of the following:

• Operating System Updates
• Application Updates
• Server Monitoring
• SNMP Hardware Monitoring
• Application Monitoring
• Technical Support
• Firewall Services
• Anti-Virus Updates
• Security Audits
• Backups and Restoration
• Disaster Recovery
• DNS Hosting
• Load Balancing
• Database Administration
• Performance Tuning
• DDOS Protection and Mitigation
• Software Installation, Configuration
• Intrusion Detection
• User Management
• Programming Consultation

Dedicated hosting server providers define their level of management based on the services they provide. In comparison, fully managed could equal self managed from provider to provider.

Administrative maintenance of the operating system, often including upgrades, security patches, and sometimes even daemon updates are included. Differing levels of management may include adding users, domains, daemon configuration, or even custom programming.

Dedicated server hosting providers may provide the following types of server managed support:

• Fully Managed - Includes monitoring, software updates, reboots, security patches and operating system upgrades. Customers are completely hands-off.
• Managed - Includes medium level of management, monitoring, updates, and a limited amount of support. Customers may perform specific tasks.
• Self Managed - Includes regular monitoring and some maintenance. Customers provide most operations and tasks on dedicated server.
• Unmanaged - Little to no involvement from service provider. Customers provide all maintenance, upgrades, patches, and security.

Note: The provider will continue to maintain security on the network regardless of support level.

Security

Dedicated hosting server providers utilize extreme security measures to ensure the safety of data stored on their network of servers. Providers will often deploy various software programs for scanning systems and networks for obtrusive invaders, spammers, hackers, and other harmful problems such as Trojans, worms, and eggdrops (see "Limitations" below). Linux and Windows use different software for security protection. Below is a list of security software and services based on the operating system installed on a dedicated server:

Linux Dedicated Servers

• Port Sentry
• Connect scans
• SYN Scans
• FIN Scans
• NULL Scans
• XMAS Scans
• FULL-XMAS Scan
• UDP Scan

Windows Dedicated Servers

• Trend Micro

Software

Providers often bill for dedicated servers on a fixed monthly price to include specific software packages. Over the years, software vendors realized the significant market opportunity to bundle their software with dedicated servers. They have since started introducing pricing models that allow dedicated hosting providers the ability to purchase and resell software based on reduced monthly fees.

Microsoft offers software licenses through a program called the Service Provider License Agreement. The SPLA model provides use of Microsoft products through a monthly user or processor based fee. SPLA software includes the Windows Operating System, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint and shoutcast hosting, and many other server based products.

Dedicated Server Providers usually offer the ability to select the software you want installed on a dedicated server. Depending on the overall usage of the server, this will include your choice of operating system, database, and specific applications. Servers can be customized and tailored specific to the customer’s needs and requirements.

Other software applications available are specialized web hosting specific programs called control panels. Control panel software is an all inclusive set of software applications, server applications, and automation tools that can be installed on a dedicated server. Control panels include integration into web servers, database applications, programming languages, application deployment, server administration tasks, and include the ability to automate tasks via a web based front end.

Most dedicated servers are packaged with a control panel. Control panels are often confused with management tools, but these control panels are actually web based automation tools created to help automate the process of web site creation and server management. Control panels should not be confused with a full server management solution by a dedicated hosting provider.

Limitations

Many providers do not allow IRC (eggdrops, clients or daemons). This is due to rogue IRC users triggering DDoS attacks against the provider, which may overwhelm their networks, lowering service quality for all customers.

Adult content is disallowed by many providers as it may either be of questionable legality or consume large amounts of bandwidth.

Spam is usually prohibited by the provider's Acceptable Use Policy.

ISP web hosting

An Internet service provider (abbr. ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a business or organization that provides consumers or businesses access to the Internet and related services. In the past, most ISPs were run by the phone companies. Now, ISPs can be started by just about any individual or group with sufficient money and expertise. In addition to Internet access via various technologies such as dial-up and DSL, they may provide a combination of services including Internet transit, domain name registration and hosting, web hosting, and colocation.

History

The internet started off as a closed network between government research laboratories and relevant parts of universities. It got popular and then universities and colleges started giving more of their members access to it.

As a result, commercial Internet Service Providers emerged to provide access for mainly those who missed their university accounts.

From their claims The World in 1989 was the 1^st commercial ISP. Telerama founded in 1991 claims to be the world's 3^rd ISP.

ISP connection options

ISPs employ a range of technologies to enable consumers to connect to their network. For "home users", the most popular options include dial-up, DSL (typically ADSL), Broadband wireless access, Cable modem, and ISDN (typically BRI). For customers who have more demanding requirements, such as medium-to-large businesses, or other ISPs, DSL (often SHDSL or ADSL), Ethernet, Metro Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Frame Relay, ISDN (BRI or PRI), ATM, satellite Internet access and SONET are more likely. With the increasing popularity of downloading music and online video and the general demand for faster page loads, higher bandwidth connections are becoming more popular.

Typical home user connection

• Dial-up
• DSL
• Broadband wireless access
• Cable modem
• ISDN

Typical business connection

• DSL
• SHDSL
• Ethernet technologies

How ISPs connect to the Internet

Just as their customers pay them for Internet access, ISPs themselves pay upstream ISPs for Internet access. In the simplest case, a single connection is established to an upstream ISP using one of the technologies described above, and the ISP uses this connection to send or receive any data to or from parts of the Internet beyond its own network; in turn, the upstream ISP uses its own upstream connection, or connections to its other customers (usually other ISPs) to allow the data to travel from source to destination.

In reality, the situation is often more complicated. For example, ISPs with more than one point of presence (PoP) may have separate connections to an upstream ISP at multiple PoPs, or they may be customers of multiple upstream ISPs and have connections to each one at one or more of their PoPs. ISPs may engage in peering, where multiple ISPs interconnect with one another at a peering point or Internet exchange point (IX), allowing the routing of data between their networks, without charging one another for that data - data that would otherwise have passed through their upstream ISPs, incurring charges from the upstream ISP. ISPs that require no downstream and have only customers and/or peers, are called Tier 1 ISPs, indicating their status as ISPs at the top of the Internet hierarchy. Routers, switches, Internet routing protocols, and the expertise of network administrators all have a role to play in ensuring that data follows the best available route and that ISPs can "see" one another on the Internet.

Virtual ISP

A Virtual ISP (vISP) purchases services from another ISP (sometimes called a wholesale ISP or similar within this context) that allow the vISP's customers to access the Internet via one or more point of presence (PoPs) that are owned and operated by the wholesale ISP. There are various models for the delivery of this type of service; for example, the wholesale ISP could provide network access to end users via its dial-up modem PoPs or DSLAMs installed in telephone exchanges, and route, switch, and/or tunnel the end user traffic to the vISP's network, whereupon they may route the traffic toward its destination. In another model, the vISP does not route any end user traffic, and needs only provide AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) functions, as well as any "value-add" services like email or web hosting. Any given ISP may use their own PoPs to deliver one service, and use a vISP model to deliver another service, or, use a combination to deliver a service in different areas. The service provided by a wholesale ISP in a vISP model is distinct from that of an upstream ISP, even though in some cases, they may both be one and the same company. The former provides connectivity from the end user's premises to the Internet or to the end user's ISP, the latter provides connectivity from the end user's ISP to all or parts of the rest of the Internet.

A vISP can also refer to a completely automated white label service offered to anyone at no cost or for a minimal set-up fee. The actual ISP providing the service generates revenue from the calls and may also share a percentage of that revenue with the owner of the vISP. All technical aspects are dealt with leaving the owner of vISP with the task of promoting the service. This sort of service is however declining due to the popularity of unmetered internet access also known as flatrate.

Virtual private server

A virtual private server (VPS, also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server or VDS ) is a method of partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted.The practice of partitioning a single server so that it appears as multiple servers has long been common practice in mainframe computers, but has seen a resurgence lately with the development of virtualization software and technologies for other architectures

Overview

The physical server boots normally. It then runs a program that boots each virtual server within a virtualization environment (similar to an emulator). The virtual servers have no direct access to hardware and are usually booted from a disk image.

There are 2 kinds of virtualizations: software based and hardware based. In a software based virtualization environment, the virtual machines share the same kernel and actually require the main node's resources. This kind of virtualization normally has many benefits in a web hosting environment because of quota incrementing and decrementing in real time with no need to restart the node. The main examples are Virtuozzo (a product of swsoft.com), HyperVM (a product of lxlabs.com), Vserver, and OpenVZ which is the core kernel of both virtuozzo and hypervm.

In a hardware based virtualization, the virtualization mechanism partitions the real hardware resources. In typical implementations, no burst and/or realtime quota modification is possible; the limits are hard and can only be modified by restarting a virtual machine instance^{[citation needed]}. This kind of environment is potentially more secure in the sense that it is less subject to "Quality of Service crosstalk" between VM instances^{[citation needed]}; on the other hand, its security is typically dependent on the correctness of a larger and more complicated Trusted Computing Base^{[citation needed]}. It is more commonly used in enterprise/commercial deployments^{[citation needed]}. Examples include Microsoft Virtual Server, VMware ESX Server, and Xen.

Uses

Virtual private servers bridge the gap between shared web hosting services and dedicated hosting services, giving independence from other customers of the VPS service in software terms but at less cost than a physical dedicated server. As a VPS runs its own copy of its operating system, customers have superuser-level access to that operating system instance, and can install almost any software that runs on the OS. Certain software does not run well in a virtualized environment, including firewalls, anti-virus clients, and indeed virtualizers themselves; some VPS providers place further restrictions, but they are generally lax compared to those in shared hosting environments. Due to the number of virtualization clients typically run on a single machine, a VPS generally has limited processor time, RAM, and disk space.

Due to their isolated nature, VPSes have become common sandboxes for possibly-insecure public services or update testing. For example, a single physical server might have two virtual private servers running: one hosting the production-level (live) website, and a second which houses a copy of it. When updates to crucial parts of software need to be made, they can be tested in the second VPS, allowing for detailed testing to be conducted without requiring several physical servers.

Virtual private servers are also sometimes employed as honeypots, allowing a machine to deliberately run software with known security flaws without endangering the rest of the server. Multiple honeypots can be quickly set up via VPSes in this fashion.^{[citation needed]}

Virtualization software

There are several different pieces of software that handle the task of virtualization.

• User-mode Linux
• VMware
• Microsoft Virtual Server
• qemu
• VDSmanager
• Virtualbox
• xensource
• Parallels
• OpenVZ
• HyperVM
• Virtuozzo
• FreeVPS
• FreeBSD jail
• Solaris Containers (Zones)

Free web hosting service

A free web hosting service is a web hosting service that is free, usually advertisement-supported and of limited functionality. Free web hosts will either provide a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yourname). In contrast, paid web hosts will usually provide a Second-level domain along with the hosting (www.yourname.com). Some free hosts do allow use of separately-purchased domains. Rarely, a free host may also operate as a domain name registrar, but their registry services are usually more expensive than others.

Features and limitations

A few free web hosts offer basic package for free and enhanced packages (with more features) for a cost. This allows users to try the service for an initial trial (see how it performs compared to other hosts), and then upgrade when (and if) needed.

Free hosting may have the following limitations:

• Limitation on the size of each hosted file
• Very small bandwidth per month compared to paid hosting
• Prevents hotlinking of files
• Do not allow certain file types (for example MP3, MPEG, ZIP etc.)
• Compulsory placement of the Webhosts' Banner or Popup ads into all web pages
• Do not provide any uptime guarantee
• Do not allow Custom URLS Such as domain.com it has to be Provider.com/domain

Some free host may provide these extra features:

• A web based control panel
• File transfer via FTP
• Scripting languages: PHP, ASP, Perl etc.
• Relational databases such as MySQL
• Scheduled processes, known as cronjobs
• Free email accounts for the domain or subdomain hosted
• Other features such as guestbooks (e.g. Bravenet)

Monetizing Free Webhosting

The majority of the the hosting companies use free hosting to introduce their services, and as an entry point to their more expensive offerings. Generally they recoup their costs in one of two ways:

• Advertising - Selling online advertising on the customer sites is generally considered a fair trade - the reasoning is that high traffic sites are more expensive to host, but the additional traffic allows for additional ad impressions therefore covering the cost. For the web master, it can be a good trade if the advertising is of good quality and non-competitive. This is one of the main reasons that businesses do not use free hosting for their website. The majority of free hosting companies use this method.

• Referrals - Using a simple form of viral marketing, these providers rely on the users to spread the offer. The ratio of free to paid accounts is known, and by having each free user refer a number of friends, the hosting provider is able to get enough paid accounts to cover the cost.

Some hosting companies are using hybrid approaches that mix both tactics.

Methods of giving out Webhosting

A few methods of giving out Free Webhosting to people by Webhosts

Instant Activation

Hosts with Instant Activation usually give very little storage space and bandwidth allowance, and have lots of limitations. The webhosts usually either require the users' web pages to display their banner ads, textlink ads, or popups; or else the users' files to be uploaded through a web-based file manager that display ads to the user uploading files.

Hosts with Instant Activation are often abused by spammers, which upload pages to these hosts to use for Link spamming

Approved Activation

Hosts with approved activation offer good space and Bandwidth but low on features. Approved applications are processed by administrators hired by the free hosting company who validate the applications depending on the details provided by the users. The main objective behind manual approval is to prevent spam and phishing websites.

Activation time can be as low as few minutes or as long as a week. Different hosts have different policies for Approval and Activation.

Post for Hosting

Some free hosts require posting in a forum. Forum-based free hosting requires users to either reach a certain amount of posts before getting a free hosting account, or be an active contributor in the forum. Forum-based free hosting often work on a system of points where posts give points to a user and can be used as credits toward getting a hosting account or more resources. Typically, the forum where users have to post contain advertising as the hosts way of making a profit.

A typical example of this system would be to post to gain "credits" (points). Perhaps every credit is equivalent to 24 hours or a day. So, if you make a post and get 7 credits, Your hosting account would be active for 7 days. While some hosts allow these credits to be distributed, others do not. However, when they are allowed to be distributed, they might be used as a currency in exchange for services.

Forum Applications

This method is popular, as the hosts can decide which applications to deny and allow. This is common when a popular forum has free hosting as an add-on service, rather than the other way around.

File hosting on Webhosts

Most free web hosts discourage using their services for file or image hosting only, with no web page, since advertising is displayed on the web page. Because of this, hotlinking is usually disallowed on free hosts. Some free webhosts will also disallow files over a certain size (for example, 5 MB). However, there are free file hosting services which allow large files as well as hotlinking.

Co-Branding and Resellers

Some services offer co-branding services. These let you brand fixed plans with your own company. Other services, offer WHM or panel reselling. This allows the client to develop his or her own Web Hosting] plans and business.

Reseller web hosting

Reseller hosting is a form of web hosting wherein the account owner has the ability to use his/her allotted hard drive space and bandwidth to host websites on behalf of third parties. The reseller purchases the host's services wholesale and then sells them to his customers for a profit. The certain portion of hard drive and bandwidth is allocated to reseller account. In order to achieve this the reseller may rent a dedicated server from a hosting company or resell shared hosting services. If the latter is the case the reseller is simply given the permission to sell a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth to his own customers without renting a server from a web hosting company he signed for a reseller account with.

The typical web hosting reseller might be a web design firm, web developer or systems integrator who offers web hosting as an add-on service. Reseller hosting is also an inexpensive way for web hosting entrepreneurs to start a company. Most reseller hosting plans allow resellers to create their own service plans and choose their own pricing structure. In many cases, resellers are able to establish their own branding via customized control panels and name servers.

Reseller hosting does not require extensive knowledge of the technical aspects of web hosting. Usually, the data center operator is responsible for maintaining network infrastructure and hardware, and the dedicated server owner configures/secures/updates the server. A reseller is responsible for interfacing with his/her own customer base, but any hardware, software and connectivity problems are typically forwarded to the server provider from whom the reseller plan was purchased.

Through point and click "Control Panels" (as listed below), resellers can set up and manage customer accounts via a web interface. In addition, the ModernBill software is popular among resellers, as it automates account creation and billing. Most of the reseller hosting companies offers different reseller hosting plans as cpwebhosting proposes five of the its reseller hosting plans: 1. Starter Reseller Hosting 2. Beginner Reseller Hosting 3. Professional Reseller Hosting 4. Prime Reseller Hosting 5. Professional Reseller Hosting

Well-known Control Panels List:

• WHM/cPanel (Unix)(Windows version coming soon)
• Plesk (Windows/Unix)
• DirectAdmin (Unix)
• Webmin (Unix)
• Ensim Pro (Windows/Unix)
• Helm (Windows)

Clustered hosting

Clustered hosting technology is designed to eliminate the problems inherent with typical shared hosting infrastructures. This technology provides customers with a “clustered” handling of security, load balancing, and necessary website resources.

A clustered hosting platform is data-driven, which means that no human interaction is needed to provision a new account to the platform.

Clustered hosting "virtualizes" the resources beyond the limits of one physical server, and as a result, a website is not limited to one server. They share the processing power of many servers and their applications are distributed in real-time. This means that they can purchase as much computing power as they want from a virtually inexhaustible source, since even the largest customer never consumes more than a fraction of a percent of the total server pool. Customer account changes (to add new resources or change settings) are propagated immediately to every server in the cluster. This is different from typical shared hosting architectures that usually require changes to a configuration file that becomes live after the server is rebooted during off hours, or are pushed on a cyclic basis every few hours.

Multiple tiers of security are integrated into the clustered hosting platform. In a typical hosting environment, the security layer is usually not integrated in the platform. The stock solutions used for shared hosting do not solve core issues around integrating security between the application and the operating system. At best, most typical hosts will implement a firewall solution, and weaknesses inherent with the operating system will remain exploitable to those that penetrate the firewall.

Clustered hosting network layer protections employ intelligent routing, redundant switching fabric and built in firewall and proxy technology. Clustered hosting provides considerable advantages over traditional hosting architectures in mitigating denial-of-service attacks and other network attacks because such attacks can be dispersed over a large pool of servers, and if individual hardware components are impacted by such attacks, they automatically fall out of traffic handling during the attack.

DNS hosting service

A DNS hosting service is a service that runs Domain Name System servers. Most, but not all, domain name registrars include DNS hosting service with registration. Free DNS hosting services also exist. Almost all DNS hosting services are "shared"; except for the most popular Internet sites, there is no need to dedicate a server to hosting DNS for a single website. Many third-party DNS hosting services provide Dynamic DNS.

DNS hosting service is better when the provider has multiple servers in various geographic locations that minimize latency for clients around the world.

DNS can also be self-hosted by running DNS software on generic Internet hosting services.

Free DNS

A number of sites offer free DNS hosting, either for second level domains registered with registrars which do not offer free (or sufficiently flexible) DNS service, or as third level domains (selection.somedomain.com). These services generally also offer Dynamic DNS. In many cases the free services can be upgraded with various premium services.

History of web hosting

The history of web hosting. Before 1991 web hosting as you know it today did not exist.

Then again, you probably wouldn’t recognize the internet before 1991, either. But to look at the history of website hosting, you have to look at the history of the internet itself. The internet may be the greatest media advancement since radio and television, but the internet as we know it today is powered by nearly 50 million websites forming its central nervous system.

Without websites, where could you go when you when you went online?

The Early Days The original concept of the internet has been attributed to J.C.R. Licklider in August of 1962 at MIT. Licklider wrote a series of articles where he envisioned a “Galactic Network” concept based on the idea of a series of globally interconnected computers where resources and information could be accessed from any site.

Sound familiar?

Licklider was soon to head up ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), the Computer Sciences program at MIT. There he would convince his successors the importance of his ideas about computer networking.

Interestingly enough, ARPA was developed by the military at the same time as NASA to find a way for the Americans to catch up to the U.S.S.R. in the space race after the launch of Sputnik. The early work on computer networking revolved around a concept known as “packet switching”, based on the idea that network data could be sent through phone lines as tiny packages instead of the traditional solid circuit lines of the day.

That way, the connections would only be used as long as there were packets of information running through them, freeing up space on the line or “bandwidth” for more computer activity. Later, while working on a way to allow telecommunications systems survive a nuclear war, Paul Baran would develop the actual “Hot Potato” design of networking that would lay the foundation for what would one day be the internet. The next step was to get the computers to actually talk to each other.

Is There Anybody Out There? In 1965, Lawrence G. Roberts and Thomas Merril connected the TX-2 computer located in Massachusetts with the Q-32 computer in California via a dial-up telephone line supplied by AT&T and the first computer network was born. However, the computers were agonizingly slow, communicating at a steady 2.4 kbit/s.

The lack of speed convinced Roberts and Merril that the solid circuit-switching of the AT&T phone system was terribly inadequate and Baran’s packet switching method was the only way to go. Amazingly, it was soon discovered that the same work on packet theory had been taking place in three separate places simultaneously without any of the researchers aware of each other.

In 1966 Roberts unveiled his plans for “ARPANET”, the first wide-area network ever developed. In 1969, those ideas turned into a reality when they successfully linked computers at UCLA, The Stanford Research Institute, The University of California Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. Each computer was a “host” or node in the connection, making them all able to interact with one another. Over the next 2 years, they would add 19 more hosts and 13 nodes to their little network.

The internet was a healthy baby, but it still had a lot of growing to do.

You’ve Got Mail! In 1971 Roy Tomlinson wrote the first basic e-mail program, and it was quickly broadened by Lawrence G. Roberts. With this, researchers could finally send and receive messages over their network.

This would prove to be the biggest development in the internet’s short history; e-mail use has become the backbone of internet communications and is used by hundreds of millions of people every day to connect with each other.

When the researchers integrated the popular program into ARPANET, they made several design modifications before deciding on the “@” symbol for e-mail addresses.

The ‘70s also saw the birth of TELENET, the first commercial version of an internet provider, as well as several other networks. Also, TCP was officially split into TCP/IP in an attempt to unify all of the budding networks that were springing up in North America and around the globe.

TCP/IP stands for Transmissions Control Protocol and Internet Protocol. TCP is the host to host connection used by computers and IP passes the individual packets of information between computers.

The internet was growing, but it was still a very different animal than what we know today.

Coming of Age The eighties saw rapid growth and development in the computer sciences field. Specifically, the TCP/IP format was first used to tie the ARPANET system to several other networks. The format allowed the networks to access each other while operating individually. Officially, it was the first definition of the term “Internet”, meaning a series of networks linked together by the TCP/IP format.

With all of these new networks and the growth of the old networks, it became necessary for scientists to be able to disseminate between the various sources and institutions. In 1984 the introduction of the Domain Name System, or DNS, became a standard for computers to be able to differentiate themselves from one another. Six domains were introduced: edu (Education), gov (Government), mil (Military), com (Commercial), net (Network Resources), and org (Organization). On March 15, 1985, Symbolics.com became the first registered domain name.

Welcome to the World Wide Web 1991 was an important year in the development of the internet. Already an entity in its own right, it was about to get a lot bigger. It started with the National Science Foundation (NSF) when they decided it was time to lift commercial restrictions on the web. This in turn opened the internet up to limitless commercial possibilities. Electronic commerce was born, and with it came companies who were starting to think there might be a future in website hosting services.

Later that year, the folks at CERN unleashed the World Wide Web (www) onto the world, which incorporated Tim Berner-Lee’s new HTML computer Language. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and uses specifications for Uniform Resource Locators URLs).

Aside from giving the world a mouthful of new abbreviations to memorize, it also became the universal standard for locating website addresses.

The internet was no longer simply a playground for universities and computer enthusiasts. With each new addition to its format, it became easier to use and easier to explain. At the same time, it grew in complexity. The business world saw the potential of the medium and seized on their chance.

Website hosting, once expensive and complicated, is now cheap and only somewhat complicated. It began with large companies renting out extra space on their servers and has now become big business in itself. There are at least as many companies that offer web hosting as there are companies that provide internet service.

As computers continue to evolve, the internet itself evolves. And with each new change come new changes to the way the business of website hosting is packaged to potential customers.