One-click hosting generally describes web services that allow internet users to easily upload one or more files from their hard drives (or from a remote location) onto the one-click host's server free of charge.
Most such services simply return a URL which can be given to other people, who can then fetch the file later on. As of 2005 these sites have drastically increased in popularity, and subsequently, many of the smaller, less efficient sites have failed. Many internet forums exist in order to share such links; this type of file sharing has, to a degree, taken over from P2P filesharing services[2].
The sites make money through advertising or charging for premium services such as increased downloading capacity, removing any wait restrictions the site may have or prolonging how long uploaded files remain on the site. Some sites implement a CAPTCHA to prevent automated downloading.
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 customers for a profit. A certain portion of hard drive and bandwidth is allocated to the reseller account. The reseller may rent a dedicated server from a hosting company, or resell shared hosting services. In the latter 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, and 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. It should be noted that being a profitable reseller firm usually involves extensive advertising to get customers. While the monthly fees with major hosts are only a few dollars a month, it's a low margin business, and resellers must devote large advertising budgets to compete with established competitors. However, web hosting is one of the biggest online businesses, because every website needs hosting.
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, and 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. It should be noted that being a profitable reseller firm usually involves extensive advertising to get customers. While the monthly fees with major hosts are only a few dollars a month, it's a low margin business, and resellers must devote large advertising budgets to compete with established competitors. However, web hosting is one of the biggest online businesses, because every website needs hosting.
Hosting Environment
Hosting Environment is a term used in telecommunication and Internet businesses.
Hosting is a relatively new form of business between a vendor and a telecom operator.
The vendor normally sells equipment and services to a telecom operator. The equipment and services sold are used to provide a consumer service, like picture mail or download of ring back tones.
Due to the changing telecommunications business and a burst of a very large number of new consumer services, new business models are being created. The common two are revenue share and managed service hosting. This is where the term Hosting Environment comes from.
Hosting environment is the physical environment where hosting services are offered from. Typically hosting environment in telecommunication terms would be a Network Operating Centre (NOC) housing the equipment needed to host a service.
This can be broken down to include all hardware, including servers, routers and their cabinets. In most cases the equipment would be rack mounted and connected through one or more LANs. In order to provide security and allow multiple operators to use the same infrastructure, firewalls and sub-LANs may be used. The hosting environment would also include support systems like billing, and provisioning systems as well as Operation and maintenance system.
Further this environment would provide connectivity to one or more telecom networks through gateways. The gateways in a hosting environment would indicate which telecom networks or systems can use the hosted services. As an example if the gateway is connected to a GSM MSC through an E1 connection then this hosting environment would provide hosted services to a GSM network. Similarly if the gateway has connectivity for CDMA or WCDMA then the hosting environment would have services for CDMA and 3G networks as well.
The quality of hosting environment would depend on the level of redundancy and high-available configurations. In best of environments, perhaps a remote site is configured in case of disaster. In simpler environment, one may not even have mirrored disks. The same goes for O&M equipment and alarm handling. Companies offering telecom grade hosting environment will certainly provide more than 99.99% availability, redundant LANs and a robust SAN (Storage Area Network).
An operator would have the greatest of interests to find out about the hosting environment of a vendor before making managed service hosting deal.
Hosting is a relatively new form of business between a vendor and a telecom operator.
The vendor normally sells equipment and services to a telecom operator. The equipment and services sold are used to provide a consumer service, like picture mail or download of ring back tones.
Due to the changing telecommunications business and a burst of a very large number of new consumer services, new business models are being created. The common two are revenue share and managed service hosting. This is where the term Hosting Environment comes from.
Hosting environment is the physical environment where hosting services are offered from. Typically hosting environment in telecommunication terms would be a Network Operating Centre (NOC) housing the equipment needed to host a service.
This can be broken down to include all hardware, including servers, routers and their cabinets. In most cases the equipment would be rack mounted and connected through one or more LANs. In order to provide security and allow multiple operators to use the same infrastructure, firewalls and sub-LANs may be used. The hosting environment would also include support systems like billing, and provisioning systems as well as Operation and maintenance system.
Further this environment would provide connectivity to one or more telecom networks through gateways. The gateways in a hosting environment would indicate which telecom networks or systems can use the hosted services. As an example if the gateway is connected to a GSM MSC through an E1 connection then this hosting environment would provide hosted services to a GSM network. Similarly if the gateway has connectivity for CDMA or WCDMA then the hosting environment would have services for CDMA and 3G networks as well.
The quality of hosting environment would depend on the level of redundancy and high-available configurations. In best of environments, perhaps a remote site is configured in case of disaster. In simpler environment, one may not even have mirrored disks. The same goes for O&M equipment and alarm handling. Companies offering telecom grade hosting environment will certainly provide more than 99.99% availability, redundant LANs and a robust SAN (Storage Area Network).
An operator would have the greatest of interests to find out about the hosting environment of a vendor before making managed service hosting deal.
Disadvantages of Shared web hosting service
Name-based virtual hosts have some disadvantages:
* 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://192.0.2.0/ (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. Therefore most hosters offer an alternative access method like http://192.0.2.0/~virtualhostname to provide access in such cases.
* 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.) Since nearly every webbrowser that is currently used supports the HTTP/1.1 protocol and thus also virtual hosting, this is not a real issue.
* Improperly configured file permissions with shared file systems might give other (compromised) users or processes system-wide access to these files, such as credential files for database access or modification of existing files.
* 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://192.0.2.0/ (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. Therefore most hosters offer an alternative access method like http://192.0.2.0/~virtualhostname to provide access in such cases.
* 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.) Since nearly every webbrowser that is currently used supports the HTTP/1.1 protocol and thus also virtual hosting, this is not a real issue.
* Improperly configured file permissions with shared file systems might give other (compromised) users or processes system-wide access to these files, such as credential files for database access or modification of existing files.
Shared web hosting service
A shared web hosting service or virtual hosting service or derive host refers to a web hosting service where many websites reside on one web 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.
File hosting on free webhosts
Many free web hosting services discourage the use of their free web hosting services for file or image hosting only in which no web page is established or setup resulting in the use of bandwidth due to hot linking of files with no revenue gain to the service provider in the case of advertising supported services. As a result, hot linking or remote linking or inclusion of many image, media and download file formats is disabled or not permitted on many free web hosting services.
Other common limitations on file hosting limits on free hosts are limits on file size, for example no files over 5 MB or file types such as programs or large media files such as MP3.
This has resulted in the growth of free hosting services dedicated to image hosting, video hosting and general file hosting which permit remote hotlinking of files and larger file formats.
Other common limitations on file hosting limits on free hosts are limits on file size, for example no files over 5 MB or file types such as programs or large media files such as MP3.
This has resulted in the growth of free hosting services dedicated to image hosting, video hosting and general file hosting which permit remote hotlinking of files and larger file formats.
Methods of giving out web hosting
A few methods of giving out Free Webhosting to people by Webhosts
Instant Activation
Due to the risks of illegal, inappropriate and abusive websites, many free web host services have switched from instant activation to mail confirmation or other means of verifying the account details prior to actually providing service to the user. Some services which have opted to stay with instant activation usually provide lower storage limits and bandwidth allowance among other limitations such as features available due to the risks associated with instant activation.
Free web hosts which provide instant activation are usually the primary targets of link spamming sites, phishing sites and other malicious activity due in part to the ease of account creation.
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 contains advertising as the hosts way of making a profit.
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.
Instant Activation
Due to the risks of illegal, inappropriate and abusive websites, many free web host services have switched from instant activation to mail confirmation or other means of verifying the account details prior to actually providing service to the user. Some services which have opted to stay with instant activation usually provide lower storage limits and bandwidth allowance among other limitations such as features available due to the risks associated with instant activation.
Free web hosts which provide instant activation are usually the primary targets of link spamming sites, phishing sites and other malicious activity due in part to the ease of account creation.
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 contains advertising as the hosts way of making a profit.
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.
Profiting from free webhosting
The majority of 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 a few 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.
* Resell Hosting - This is where someone starts up a hosting company, attracts lots of visitors, then sells the hosting company to someone else once it can no longer support itself. Once sold, this individual uses the money to start up multiple hosting ventures and sells each in turn.
Some hosting companies are using hybrid approaches that mix these tactics.
* 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.
* Resell Hosting - This is where someone starts up a hosting company, attracts lots of visitors, then sells the hosting company to someone else once it can no longer support itself. Once sold, this individual uses the money to start up multiple hosting ventures and sells each in turn.
Some hosting companies are using hybrid approaches that mix these tactics.
Free web hosting service
A free web hosting service is a web hosting service that is free, usually advertisement-supported. Free web hosts will usually 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). Many free hosts do allow use of separately-purchased domains. Rarely, a free host may also operate as a domain name registrar.
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 as the 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.
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 as the 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.
Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service providers
* File hosting service: hosts files, not web pages
* Image hosting service
* Video hosting service
* Blog hosting service
* One-click hosting
* Pastebin Hosts text snippets
* Shopping cart software
* E-mail hosting service
* Image hosting service
* Video hosting service
* Blog hosting service
* One-click hosting
* Pastebin Hosts text snippets
* Shopping cart software
* E-mail hosting service
Types of hosting
Internet hosting services can run Web servers; see Internet hosting services.
Hosting services limited to the Web:
Many large companies who are not internet service providers also need a computer permanently connected to the web so they can send email, files, etc. to other sites. They may also use the computer as a website host so they can provide details of their goods and services to anyone interested. Additionally these people may decide to place online orders.
* Free web hosting service
* Shared web hosting service
* Reseller web hosting
* Virtual Dedicated Server
* Dedicated hosting service
* Managed hosting service
* Colocation web hosting service
* Cloud Hosting
* Clustered hosting
* Grid hosting
* Home server
Hosting services limited to the Web:
Many large companies who are not internet service providers also need a computer permanently connected to the web so they can send email, files, etc. to other sites. They may also use the computer as a website host so they can provide details of their goods and services to anyone interested. Additionally these people may decide to place online orders.
* Free web hosting service
* Shared web hosting service
* Reseller web hosting
* Virtual Dedicated Server
* Dedicated hosting service
* Managed hosting service
* Colocation web hosting service
* Cloud Hosting
* Clustered hosting
* Grid hosting
* Home server
Web hosting service
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease 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.
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