What You Need To Know Before Starting a Web Hosting Company

The web hosting companies launch your website from their own server and connect you to millions of netizens residing in every nook and corner of the globe. They allot you a share of the webspace wherein you can upload news, bulletins, documents, images, and all possible sorts of files viz. HTML files, CCS files, graphic files, java scripts as well as your own mail server to send and receive e-mails. Hundreds of websites are being launched every second vouching for their share of webspace, so evidently there’s no dearth of work for those seeking to start a web hosting company. But, before one starts a web host company he must be well acquainted with the salient features of a web host company:

Bandwidth or Data Transfer: It refers to the space consumed (in GB or MB) for every transferred from any website.

Diskspace: A measure of the number of files, images, documents or data on any website or in other words the amount of space occupied by the website on your server.

Control Panel: It is required to manage the website- maintain databases, e-mails etc.

Domain Name: The clients may either register their domain name with the company or get it registered with an independent registrar to be transferred to the company later.

FTP: It is required to move all files from the system to any client’s website

E-mail Related Features:

These features determine what kind of e-mails can be sent from or received in the client’s mailboxes and how many e-mails he is entitled to under each plan. POP3 e-mail Account, SMTP Server, Aliases/Forwarder & Auto Responder and webmail are some of the commonly sought after features.

Scripting Technologies:

While ASP (Active Server Pages), MS Front Pages, JSP, Coldfusion, PHP, .Net are scripts readily compatible with Windows hosting, you can opt for CGI script or Chill! Soft if you go for Unix/Linux hosting.

Besides these WAP/WML support, Media streaming, may be offered as add on services under some plans and the error tracker system can be strengthened with RAW log files & Web Statistics and appropriate customer error pages.

Web hosting can in turn be of various types and the client may opt for the plan that best meets his requirements.

Free Web Hosting: Best suited for small sites like family, hobby or personal sites with low traffic. These have limited security options, database and technical support and most often restricts the domain name to the ones handpicked by the web hosts.

Shared Web Hosting: It is Ideal for small business sites with an average traffic flow. While it allows the client to use a self chosen domain name and multiple software solutions, viz. e-mail, database and editing options, it provides limited security due to all sites put on the same server (which predictable makes it cost effective) and restricted traffic volume for the same reason.

Dedicated Web Hosting: Best meant for large business sites, it provides the user with his/her own web server powerful database and e-mail solutions unlimited software support. It requires more technical skill to operate and the most expensive of all plans but can handle high traffic easily.

Collocated Hosting: It locates the client’s web server on the premises of a service provider. Colo provides a high bandwidth, security, up time (the percentage of time the web host is accessible via the internet) and unlimited software options.

Home Server: A system operating from home is used for hosting one or more websites.

Managed Hosting Service: Here the client is provided with his own web server which he is allowed to manage via FTP or other remote management tools.

Reseller Web Hosting: Clients are allowed to become host themselves and a reseller’s account can be enormous in size with their own dedicated server to a collocated server.

Clustered Hosting: It is meant to optimize resource utilization wherein multiple servers host similar content.

Grid Hosting: Here a server cluster as a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Virtual Dedicated Server: Herein servers are divided into virtual servers where each user shares his server with many other users but he feels as if he is on a dedicated server.