Hosting Definition

If you have developed a web site and you wish other people to check it out, you must host your web site on a publicly accessible web server.

Where to host your web site?

Even though you can use your own personal computer as a server, it is a more common practice to let a hosting service provider host your web site. The primary reason for that is the greater reliability and the uninterrupted availability of your website, because web hosting service providers have special hardware and offer a much higher monthly traffic allowance, which guarantees the easier access to your web site from all over the globe.

Hosting solutions

Select a hosting solution, which enables you to register domains and to create e-mailboxes. Many web hosting providers, like us at Lime Server, offer a free-of-cost domain name registration as a bonus if you open an account.

Hosting your site yourself

Hosting your website on your own web server is certainly an option, but only if you have time and the necessary experience. There are some issues that you need to take into consideration, including the hardware and software costs. To have a "real", proper website, you will have to spend money on some powerful server hardware, because you cannot bank on a low-priced computer to perform the job. You will also need a permanent breakneck-speed Internet connection without outages, which usually comes at a pretty high price. If you are utilizing licensed software for your website, you will have to spend money on the license too. You may also have to deal with bugs and adware. You will need to maintain your server running all the time in an environment where "everything could happen". If you do not possess the needed technical expertise, you will need to engage a system administrator to tackle these things on your behalf, which will make the price of hosting your web site yourself even higher than that of a dedicated server offered by a web hosting vendor.

A dedicated web server supplied by a web hosting supplier

Renting a hosting server from a web hosting solutions provider is an appropriate decision if you want to create a resource-demanding site or a corporate portal that has very stringent security requirements. The most significant upsides of utilizing a dedicated server web hosting solution are the high-speed connection, the uninterruptible power supply and the extremely powerful hardware. Certain hosting providers, again like us at Lime Server, provide VPS hosting and semi-dedicated web server hosting services, which are based on very powerful physical servers that can be divided among several users. You can also anticipate them to provide effective load balancing services and the needed data backup servers.

Security and stability

Web hosting distributors are specialized in offering web hosting services and because this is what they do to earn a living, you can expect them to offer continuous Internet access, the latest software patches and the best anti-virus software, as well as system administrators available 24x7 to support you in the event of an emergency.

Choose your web hosting supplier

What you need to take into account when picking your web hosting solutions provider is the reliability of the offered web hosting services. Make sure that the web hosting services provider of your choice provides a 24/7/365 customer support service. Do not place yourself in a position where you cannot resolve critical problems immediately because you must wait till the next working day. Furthermore, if you select a shared website hosting package, which includes a round-the-clock customer support service, this implies that there always will be sysadmins available to solve any urgent predicaments as soon as they show up, which is a very advantageous thing.

Daily data backups

Make certain that your hosting services provider offers daily backups with the offered services, otherwise you may lose some precious content in case of a hardware failure or because you have erased something by mistake. The availability of routine backups is usually mentioned in the web hosting company's ToS.

Bandwidth and hard disk storage space

When choosing your web hosting provider, give special attention to the bandwidth volume restrictions. Make certain that you don't have to pay a fortune for unpredicted high traffic volumes if your web site becomes more frequently visited. There are many web hosting distributors that offer unmetered web traffic nowadays, so the most logical step to take is to ensure that you have made the right choice prior to registering.

Content limitations

Pay specific attention to the web hosting vendor's content restrictions. If you want to publish images or to broadcast live video or audio content, make sure that you can achieve that. Moreover, the majority of web hosting firms set limitations when it comes to using their services for file storage purposes, so if you upload too many files that are not connected or directly linked to your website, your website hosting account could get erased. For that reason, examining the hosting supplier's Terms & Conditions, no matter how time-devouring and tedious this might be, is very essential.

Email capabilities

The majority of hosting providers nowadays also provide email services with all their hosting plans. It is not a bad idea to double-check if the hosting plans provider of your choice offers such features too, so as to be certain that you'll receive all the features that you require in return for your money.