What is?

Web Hosting Service

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website 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. Web hosts 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 web hosting services vary widely. The most basic is webpage and small-scale file web 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 free to their subscribers. People can also obtain webpage hosting from other, alternative service providers. Personal website hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap. Business website hosting often has a higher expense.

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

The host may also provide an interface or control panel for managing the web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. 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 web 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.

Web Hosting Reliability and Uptime

Web 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 web hosting environment.

A common claim from the popular web 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 (SLA). Service Level Agreements (SLA) may or may not include refunds, or reduced costs if performance goals are not met.

Colo web hosting has a backbone powered by Level 3 ™ and Internap. Level 3 ™ has built an advanced fiber-optic network utilizing Internet Protocol (IP) based technology. The Level 3 ™ network combines both local and long distance networks connecting customer’s end-to-end. The company has 92 markets in service; 72 in the United States and 20 in Europe.

The Internap P-NAP Network backbone, Colo’s web hosting service also provides, uses it’s patented technology and the existing Internet network infrastructure, Internap created an innovative way to route data and avoid the Internet's points of congestion. Rather than provisioning traditional single Internet Service Provider(ISP) network access, Performance Internap P-NAP service intelligently routes across up to 8 integrated Network Service Providers (NSP) networks in the Internap Private Network Access Points (P-NAPs). This insulates your traffic from the risk of network outages, providing reliable, stable and predictable connectivity.

Unlike our competition, Internap approaches customer service and support proactively. Through constant network monitoring and management, we are able to alert our customers to network issues and correct them efficiently. Internap has purposefully defined our Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to lead the industry, so customers get reliable performance supported with proactive service and crediting - that's why our agreement is a guarantee.

Guaranteed North American performance metrics includes: 100% network availability,less than 45 milliseconds latency, less than 0.3% packet loss, and less than 0.5 millisecond jitter. In case there is ever a problem with the service, we provide 24x7x365 direct access to certified networking engineers in our Network Operations Centers (NOCs), not ticket takers. Our certified network engineers have the expertise and visibility into all major Internet backbones to see and resolve issues quickly and effectively.

Colo provides a secure full service network operation center with 24-7-365 on location remote hands to keep your business' mission critical services online. You can read further about Colo’s Web Hosting Features here or Contact our team of web hosting specialists, we’re ready to help. We’ll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Call toll free at 1-866-316-2656 or email us through our request a call back form on this page (top right).

Types of Web Hosting

The following are web 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 web hosting.
• Shared web hosting service: one's website is placed on the same server as many other websites, 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 web 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 web 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 web 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 web 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 File Transfer Protocol (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 colocation server; the web 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 computer, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colocation web hosting, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center onsite to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
• Clustered web hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated web hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution.
• Grid web hosting : this form of distributed web hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
• Home server: usually a single computer placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more websites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built computers or more commonly old PC's.

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) actively attempt to block these servers by disallowing incoming requests to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port 80 of the user's connection and by refusing to provide static Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. A common way to attain a static Internet Protocol (IP) address is by creating an account with a dynamic Domain Name System (DNS) service. A dynamic Domain Name System (DNS) service will automatically change the Internet Protocol (IP) address that a URL points to when it changes.

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

• File web hosting service (web hosts not webpages but files)
• Image web hosting service
• Video web hosting service
• Blog web hosting service
• One-click web hosting
• Shopping cart software

Obtaining Web 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 web hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most web 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 web hosting 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 web 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. These Web Content Management systems are great for the average user, but for those who want more control over their website design, this feature can sometimes be a nuisance rather than a feature.

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

Colo is a full service web hosting and networks operation center and provides its clients a wide variety of secure web hosting and server services. You can read further about Colo’s Web Hosting Features here or call toll free at 1-866-316-2656 and we will help you select the services that best meets your needs. You can also email us through our request a call back form on this page (top right).

• Back