1. Introduction: An
Internet hosting service is a service that runs Internet servers, allowing
organizations and individuals to serve content to the Internet i.e. it allows
individuals and organizations to keep their files in a computer that is
connected 24 X 7 X 365 and make it accessible to the whole world via the World
Wide Web. Web
hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by
clients and the clients can run anything they
want. Hosting services are most often used for hosting
Websites but can also be used for hosting files, images, photos, videos and
other similar content.
2. Criteria for Choosing a Hosting Account: The following factors can be considered in choosing a
hosting account-
a) Reliability and Speed of Access: The web host should be reliable and fast, it should
guarantee its uptime at least to 99% though 99.99% is considered as the good
one. A web server should not be slow to
respond when someone wants to access the website, or when you are uploading the
pages to the server. Again, when lots of visitors together accessing the
website it should not be slow to respond.
b) Bandwidth Allotment:
The bandwidth or data transfer or traffic is the amount of bytes transferred
from your website to visitors when they browse your website. It is difficult to
recommend a specific minimum amount of bandwidth, since it depends on how you
design your website, your target audience, and the number of visitors you’re
able to attract to your website.
c) Amount of Web Space:
Your server space needs will vary, depending on how many image, photo, audio,
video files your pages might use. So, you have to ask yourself, how much
storage space is provided by your web host company? Does it have enough space
for your needs?
d) FTP Access:
FTP is the most common method used by people to transfer their web pages and
other files from their computer to their web host’s computer. FTP access, or at
the very least, the ability to upload your pages by Email or browser, is very
much needed.
e) File Type and Size Limitations: Check what kinds of files are allowed and what not, what
is the maximum file size that can be uploaded to the server and what is the
maximum number of files you can upload to the server.
f) Control Panel:
Control panel allow you to manage different aspects of your web account
yourself. It allows you to add, delete, and manage your files, change passwords
for your account and so on. You web hosting should comes with a control panel
to empower you to do all necessary jobs.
The
other factors that need to be considered is technical support, Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) if you are selling any goods or service through the website, backup
capabilities and so on.
However, when you choose a hosting
service provider, if possible kindly select the same company from which you
have purchased your domain. It will make your task a lot easier when you try to
link your domain to your hosting account.
3. Types of Hosting Account: Based
on the cost factor, the hosting may be of the following types-
a) Free Web Hosting: Free
web hosting service comes with limited services when compared to paid hosting
and sometimes supported by advertisements. Example includes Blogger
(http://www.blogger.com), Google Sites (http://sites.google.com), Jimbo (http://www.jimdo.com), uCoz.com (https://www.ucoz.com), Webnode.com
(https://us.webnode.com), Weebly.com (https://www.weebly.com), Yola.com (https://www.yola.com/), Wix (https://www.wix.com), etc. A
detailed comparative study of various service providers can be had from the
website FreeWebSpace.net (http://www.freewebspace.net), which eases the selection process of free web
hosting.
In
case of free hosting account, your website address will include the name of
your free web hosting service provider. In such cases the address would look
like http://badan-barman.blogspot.com where blogspot (Blogger) is the free
hosting and subdomain service provider. The address of the website is also
known as Uniform Resource
Locator (URL).
b) Paid Web Hosting:
Paid web hosting is available on payment and is
advertisement free (the company will not display the ads, however you can do it
in your own) and will provide the facilities to integrate your domain with the
hosting (like www.lislinks.com). Example: GoDaddy (http://www.godaddy.com).
Based
on the features available in the paid web hosting, the web hosting can be of
the following types. However, kindly note that they are named differently by
different hosting companies.
i) Individual /
Economic / Shared / Mini Hosting:
The terminology can be different from company to company but these are the most
affordable options for the starter or small websites. Typically, this type of
hosting provides hosting support for a single domain only and limits the
features, bandwidth and data storage. In this type of hosting, the webmaster
share space on hosting servers with other webmasters. The cost can ranges from
Rs. 2,000 to Rs.6,000 in an annum.
ii) Reseller Web
Hosting: Reseller web hosting allows
clients to become web hosts themselves. Many resellers provide a nearly
identical service to their provider’s shared hosting plan and provide the
technical support themselves. The cost ranges from Rs.5,000 to Rs.30,000 per
annum.
iii) Virtual Private
Hosting: Virtual server is a notion,
which stands somewhere between shared and dedicated hosting. Here, one physical
server is divided into several independent virtual servers. A VPS runs its own
copy of an Operating System (OS), and customers have super user-level access to
that operating system instance, so they can install almost any software that
runs on that OS. The cost ranges from
Rs.20,000 to Rs.1,00,000 per annum.
iv) Dedicated
Hosting: Dedicated hosting means an
entire server is leased and reserved for a single Website. This plan will cost
more, usually ranges from Rs. 70,000 to Rs.3,00,000 per annum.
4. Hosting Service Provider:
One needs to get four important pieces of information from the web hosting
Service Company. They are –
i) Account name
sometimes also called as username or user id;
ii) Password;
iii) FTP address of
the website, kindly note that the FTP address may or may not be the same with
the URL of the website and
iv) The directory
folder where the pages need to be uploaded.
The
following are some of the popular paid web hosting service providers.
a) GoDaddy: GoDaddy Inc.
(http://www.godaddy.com) is a publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web
hosting company founded in 1997 by Baltimore, Maryland entrepreneur Bob
Parsons. GoDaddy Provide Starter Linux Plan (for singe website with 30 GB Disk
Space) for Rs.2,400 per annum, Economy Linux Plan (for singe website with 100
GB Disk Space) for Rs. 6,000 per annum, Deluxe Linux Plan (for unlimited
website with unlimited Disk Space) for Rs.7,200 per annum and Ultimate Linux
Plan (for unlimited website with unlimited Disk Space) for Rs. 12,000 per
annum.
b) Ionos: Ionos
(https://www.ionos.com) is a web hosting company owned by United Internet, a
German Internet company and was founded in 1988. Its Unlimited hosting plan
(for unlimited websites with unlimited Disk Space) is available at Rs. 7,000/-
per annum.
c)
Hostgator.com:
Hostgator.com (https://www.hostgator.com) is a Houston-based provider of
shared, reseller, virtual private server, and dedicated web hosting with an
additional presence in Austin, Texas. Its unlimited hosting plan for unlimited
websites comes at Rs. 6000 per annum.
d) Bluehost.com: Bluehost
(https://www.bluehost.in) is a web hosting company owned by Endurance
International Group and was founded in 2003. Its Pro hosting plan (for
unlimited websites with unlimited Disk Space) is available at Rs.6,000/- per annum.
5. Conclusion: It
is generally better to go for designing a websites only after determining a
hosting service, as there are certain tools, which can also be had from the
hosting service providers if one is not acquainted with regular HTML. Actually hosting
and DNS move side by side so buying the Domain and Hosting from same company is
best solution for a number of problems. So, when you choose a hosting service
provider, if possible kindly select the same company from which you have
purchased your domain. It will make your task a lot easier when you try to link
your domain to your hosting account. Again, domain registrars often
provide a discount to users who used to purchase the hosting account from it.
How to Cite this
Article?
APA Citation, 7th Ed.: Barman, B. (2020). A comprehensive book on Library and Information Science. New
Publications.
Chicago 16th Ed.: Barman, Badan. A Comprehensive Book on Library and Information Science. Guwahati:
New Publications, 2020.
MLA Citation 8th Ed: Barman, Badan. A Comprehensive Book on Library and Information Science. New
Publications, 2020.

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