Understanding Shared Hosting

Almost everyone has “surfed” the Internet or World Wide Web, and has enjoyed the millions of pages of information, entertainment and activity possible on such a universal technology. Because of the global ability of the Internet, there are millions of people who want to create their own websites and web pages. How do they do this? It requires a server or web hosting company to deliver access to the Internet.

Where can a consumer or company go to get a server? Not many people can afford their own servers, or maintain them in a stable and secure manner. Because of this there are millions of web hosting companies with their own servers operating around the clock. Servers, however, are used in a variety of ways to provide an individual or company with the services they need. Generally, they are “dedicated”, “shared” or “virtual” servers.

The determination of whether a consumer requires a dedicated or a shared hosting provider usually depends upon their budget and their needs. A shared server provides the client with a segment of the server, and requires them to share an IP address with the other sites on the same server. This is generally not a problem, but shared hosting can make it difficult for certain pages to appear, such as those with the HTTPS prefix, or secured pages. Additionally, shared hosting may prevent a site from using its own SSL certificate, which may prevent certain users from accessing the site.

Why do people use shared hosting? It is significantly less expensive to use a shared server than a dedicated one, and if a company or individual would like to provide information, commentary, news or other information only, then shared hosting is probably their best method. If a great deal of e-commerce, data base or other secure information will be handled on a daily basis a dedicated server may make the process simpler.

Where do you find shared hosting? There are literally millions of providers around the world, but the best will have guaranteed services, such as security, technical support and allow for numerous operating systems to be employed by their various clients. For example, shared hosting companies should be able to work with Linux as well as Microsoft Windows.

Visitors to CompareWebHosting.com can find a comprehensive listing or directory of both dedicated and shared hosting companies. All of the companies have been screened for reliability, security and a high level of customer satisfaction. They narrow down the list of shared hosting providers to only those guaranteed to deliver the best services available and provide direct links to each of the companies mentioned.