Introduction to Web Hosting

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Neo
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Introduction to Web Hosting

Post by Neo » Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:22 am

Who are Web Hosts?
Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server for hosting a website. They own large space on the server, which they share it to their customer's providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data centre.

Scope of Web Hosting
The most basic is webpage and small-scale file hosting service, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web . Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service for free to their subscribers and also obtain such hosting cheaply. Web page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal homepages. Complex website uses more comprehensive package to provides database support and forum's etc. These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. For e-commerce, SSL is also required. The host also provides a Web interface control panel ( e.g. cPanel, Hosting Controller, Plesk) for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail.

Hosting Reliability and Uptime
Hosting Reliability and Uptime is very important. The Uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. Many hosting providers state that they provide 99.9% uptime. If the server goes down the website will not be accessible through internet. There may be server restarts or maintenance in any web hosting environment which affects the Uptime.

Types of hosting

Free web hosting service
This is free hosting mostly advertisement-supported web hosting. It is extremely limited when compared to paid hosting.

Shared web hosting service
In shared web hosting Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites. It may range from a few to hundreds or thousands websites. All domains share a common server resources, such as RAM and the CPU and IP.

Reseller web hosting
Reseller web hosting allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers are those who take affiliate with as a provider and serve as web host.

Virtual Dedicated Server
Here a server is sliced into virtual servers. Each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users.

Dedicated hosting service
In dedicated web hosting, the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it. The user gets the root or administrator access according to Linux or Windows hosting.

Colocation web hosting service
It is similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the server. The hosting company provides physical space for the server and takes care of the server.

Clustered hosting
Clustered hosting uses multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. This make the website easily accessible and fast.


Specific Web services

File hosting service
Hosting service to hosts files not web pages.

Image hosting service
Hosting service to hosts images only.

Video hosting service
Hosting service to hosts video only.

Blog hosting service
Hosting service to hosts blogs.

Windows Web Hosting
Windows hosting is the hosting service provided on a Windows platform. Windows hosting server uses the operating systems like Windows 2000 or Windows NT.

The main features provided by Windows web hosting are:
  1. Allows the use of Microsoft tools such as ASP, ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL on your web pages.
  2. Provides above 200 MB disk space.
  3. Use database like MS Access.
  4. User friendly Control Panel.
  5. FTP access.
Choosing Windows hosting depends according to your needs. The hosting depends mainly on which language your website is programmed in. If you are using ASP, .NET or MS Access , it will be ideal for you to select Windows Web hosting.

Linux Web Hosting
Linux hosting is the hosting service provided on a Linux platform. Linux hosting servers uses the operating systems like Linux or Unix. There are many flavours of Linux operating system that are used in Linux web servers.

The main features provided by Linux web hosting are:
  1. Linux hosting is more secure.
  2. Provides above 200 MB disk space.
  3. Linux Hosting provides Perl, PHP, MySQL and Apache.
  4. Ideal for users who are looking for affordable hosting.
  5. FTP access.
  6. Frontpage extensions.
  7. Multiple email accounts.
  8. User friendly Control Panel ( CPanel ).
  9. Shell access ( ssh access ).
Choosing Linux hosting also depends according to your needs. If you are using Perl, PHP or MySQl , it will be ideal for you to select Linux Web hosting.

Linux servers are more Stable, high performance, scalable, compatible and cheap than windows web hosting. It will be ideal for small business and private websites to select Linux web hosting.

Ruby on Rails Hosting
Ruby on Rails is a web application framework written in Ruby. Ruby on Rails is now widely used to develop robust web applications. Rails frameworks runs both on windows and Linux servers. Hosting Rails applications on such servers is know as Ruby on Rails Hosting.

Advantages of using Ruby on Rails:
  1. Requires less lines of code
  2. Save lots of time
  3. It uses the MVC ( Model - View - Controller ) Architecture, so its easy to handle
  4. Can integrate AJAX functions
  5. Easy to develop database-driven application
  6. Neat code and can get the work done faster
  7. It uses object-oriented programming
  8. Can add plugins to your application in future

The main features you need to look for hosting Ruby on Rails:

In addition to the normal features provided by web hosting company, you should look for the following.
  1. Shell access ( SSH )
    You will need SSH access, to get to the command prompt and run certain application.
  2. Latest versions of both Ruby and Rails
    You should make sure that your hosting company updates both Ruby and Rails version regularly.
  3. PostgreSQL and SQLite Databases
    Mysql is provided by all web hosts. It will be good if your hosting company provide PostgreSQL and SQLite along with Mysql Database.
  4. Gems
    Check for the Pre-installed Gems on the server.
  5. Subversion and Trac
    Check if Subversion and Trac is installed on the server.
  6. Rails support
    The support staff should know rails and should be able to help you with your queries.
Web Host - Features / Services
Web Hosts provide different plans and services. While searching for the right web host, select the plan and service that you need the most. List of few services provided by Web Hosts.
  1. Domain Registration
  2. Sub Domains
  3. Databases
  4. Third party software's
  5. FTP Access
  6. Hot Link Protection
  7. Bandwidth
Features and Services provided by Web Hosts

Domain Registration
Almost all web hosting providers provide domain registration. Few hosting providers domain registration free with the hosting account.

Sub Domains
Sub domains is used to create second-level domain names under your primary domain name. The sub domain will point to a folder inside your public _html directory. Eg: if you are using a forum for your website, you can create a sub domain http://forum.buytiptop.com. Using this link the visitors can directly reach the forum page.

Databases
Databases are used to implement forum, customer orders etc. If you need to implement most of these items you need more number of database support for your domain. The most common database available for web servers is MySQL. MySQL is a free database. The other databases include MSSQL, PostgreSQL and GNU SQL. In windows server Ms Access is also used.

Third party software's
Most of the web hosts provide Free Third party software's like phpbb, fantastico, etc. The website owners can use these software's for there website.

FTP access
There is mainly 2 types of FTP access to the web server. Commonly FTP access is used by web masters to upload files to there website. It will ask for the username and password to connect to your server. After the connection is set, you can add your files to the server.

Anonymous FTP is an other type of FTP access. This is mainly used to post files to the public access directories. Password is not needed for Anonymous FTP.

Hot Link Protection
Hot Link Protection is used to protect your files and images. This will protect your files and images from others to link directly to your web server. Hot Link Protection will prevent others from using your bandwidth.

Bandwidth
Each access of your website will send the data from your web server. This is measured in terms of bandwidth. If you have a large number of visitors, you will need high bandwidth. The website will get automatically suspended if the website cross the bandwidth limit. To prevent this check your bandwidth usage regularly. If need go for a better plan.

DNS propagation delay
Every domain undergoes this "DNS propagation delay" during the initial stages of it's set up. Continue reading to learn what is DNS propagation and how DNS propagation delay occurs?

About DNS propagation delay
You might have heard this term "DNS propagation delay" from your hosting providers, during the initial set up of your website. Have you ever wondered what is this DNS propagation delay?

Normally you come up with this issue, when you have recently registered your domain name, payed for web hosting account and uploaded your files to the server. You try your domain on your web browser, you can't get your web page. Why? This case is normally discussed as DNS propagation delay. So let learn what is DNS propagation delay?

When you register your domain, the domain registrar (the company which registered your domain) will point your domain name to your web host DNS server. Then when you set up your website with your hosting provider, they create the Master DNS record in their Domain Name Servers for your domain.

The back end procedure while accessing your website.
When you try to access your website from your browser, it first needs to know the DNS authority for the domain. Then you will be redirected to visit your hosting provider's DNS server and finds the IP address for your domain name. Finally you will visit your website.

If this is the procedure to find your website, why you can't access it?
To speed up the internet, Internet Server Provider (ISP) caches their DNS records. They create their own copy of the master record, and access it locally to search for website, each time someone tries to view it. This procedure speeds up the internet, reduces the traffic and thus help ISP work faster.

Each ISP caches DNS record and update it every few days. Each ISP have there own standard time frame to update the cache DNS record. This delay from your ISP will prevent you from viewing your website. This process is know as DNS propagation delay. The slow updating of the server cache is called propagation. The DNS information for your domain gets propagated across all server's on the web. After this propagation completes your website will be accessible to all. Normally the DNS propagation time may take 36 to 72 hours to be in effect.

Wildcard DNS / sub domains - Wildcard Hosting
Consider your hosting company allows you to use only 3 sub domains.
But as your website grows, you might need more number of sub domains. What you will do?
Or
Consider you want to set up https for all your sub domains.
For each sub domain you will have to buy an SSL certificates. This is costly. In such cases, you can use wildcard subdomains.

Create a wildcard sub domain. Buy 1 SSL certificate and use it for all your sub domains. It is also refer this as Wildcard hosting.

** Note **:
As a regular user, you will not be able to accomplish this task.
Contact your website hosting company for support.

The following steps are involved in Wildcard Hosting:
  • Adding the DNS entries.
  • Setting up the Apache entries.
  • Redirecting sub domain to the correct folder.

Wildcard DNS / sub domains and its implementation

Adding the DNS entries
If you have privilege to edit the DNS zone, you will have to add the following entries.
Example:
*.domain-name.com. IN A 121.0.0.1

Once the DNS propagation gets completed. You can try digging any sub domains.
Example:
test.domain-name.com
abc.domain-name.com
123.domain-name.com

All the above sub domain will point to the server.

Setting up the Apache entries
Now all the sub domains are pointing to the server. But there is no virtual
host entry for it. So you will get the Apache page.
You just need to edit the virtual host entries for that particular domain. Add a ServerAlias " *.domain-name.com ".

Example:
<VirtualHost IP:443>
ServerName domain-name.com
ServerAlias *.domain-name.com
DocumentRoot /home/user/public_html/
....................
.............
</VirtualHost>

The restart Apache.
Now accessing any sub domains will give up the main website page.
This is not what you are looking for. You want the sub domains to point to its respective folder.

Example:
Accessing " test.domain-name.com ", should point to the test folder under " public_html " directory.
To get this done, we can use Rewrite conditions.

Redirecting sub domain to the correct folder

To make each sub domain redirect to its correct folder, you can use the
rewrite rules.
Open the .htaccess file under " public_html " and add the below given entries.

Example:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.domain\.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ([^.]+)\.domain\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.domain.com/%1 [L,R]

Difference between Addon Domain, Sub Domain and Parked Domain
You might have heard of Addon Domain, Sub Domain and Parked Domain while you approached your web host for hosting your website. These domains are very important and they should be know by a webmaster.

Addon Domain
An add-on domain is just like having a separate web site. The add-on domain will be hosted or pointed to a folder in your public_html folder of your main-domain. The Add-on domain should be already registered and the nameservers for the add-on domain should be pointing the same nameserves as your main-domain.com.

[ consider your addon domain name as addondomain.com ]
There are 3 ways of accessing an addon domain:
  1. addondomain.com
  2. main-domain.com/addondomain
  3. addondomain.main-domain.com
Accessing the addondomain.com will display that very domain name in the address bar of their browser, so its similar to a separate web site. An add-on domain use the space and bandwidth available to the main domain. An add-on domain will have its own CGI and FTP access, its own email accounts and web stats.

Sub Domain
A sub domain utilises the existing main domain name. It does not have its own domain name. A sub domain points to a folder in your public_html directory of your main-domain. Consider you main domain " main-domain.com" and you have a folder "shop" under your public_html directory. You can create a sub domain "shop.main-domain.com ". You can directly reach the shop page by accessing "shop.main-domain.com". You might have seen "mail.yahoo.com", " mail.google.com". These are sub domains for yahoo.com and google.com.

Parked Domain
A parked domain is one which simply points to an existing domain. It is an other domain which is parked on to the main domain. Consider a domain " parked.com" which is parked on the "main-domain.com". If we access parked.com it will be directed to the main-domain.com and you will get the same page as you see while accessing main-domain.com. The parked domain should also point to the same nameservers as the main-domain.com. The park domain name should be registered.

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