Just having a website is meaningless until someone visits it.Virtual hosting is one of the options in web hosting among starters. It costs very less.

Developing a website is not such a tough task but yes, maintenance requires lot of potential and hard work. It is costly as well as time-consuming for individuals and small and large scale companies. Just having a website is meaningless until someone visits it. So to let your website accessible to all thru internet, all you need is server where you can store all the information found in your website.

Running a server with continues internet is the far most tedious and complicated job. You need to hunt for a reliable web hosting company that can help you in the right direction. Virtual hosting is one of the options in web hosting among starters. It costs very less.

Virtual hosting:
It is the process of running multiple "virtual" web servers on a single physical host computer. Virtual hosting allows you to host multiple domains on one server. In such a hosting technique, just pay off the rent for space on server and get all the benefits of it. This technique is often used by the web hosting provider as it allows better scalability, efficiency and manageability. Hosting providers recommend packages with special combinations of domain names allowed with each hosting account, disk space, and bandwidth allocations.

Virtual hosting is also known as "shared hosting" as it permits you to share features of server with other domains. Basically there are two types of virtual web hosting i.e. IP-based and name-based. In name-based hosting, single IP-address is used to host each website whereas in IP-based technique, each website is given its own IP-address. Name-based virtual hosting is possible for the websites that do not have any specific security requirements.

In virtual hosting, the loading time of webpage depends on other websites sharing that server. That is why it is mostly preferred for the small website. Each web site has its personal OS on the "virtual" hosting server with a remote segment of disk space.

Advantages:
Low price.
Client doesn’t have to manage the server.

Disadvantages:
Overcrowded servers: Common problems faced by most of the web hosting company.
Security issues: Hosting more sites is not as secure as dedicated server.
Neighborhood related problems.

The cost of virtual hosting is very less as compared to the dedicated server. Such hosting is ideal for the low and small sized websites. Conclusion is that virtual hosting is more preferred as its advantages overweigh its disadvantages.

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Here are some of the things that could guide you when selecting the right hosting company to run your website:

Data Center location :
This is the place where server web hosting company operates. If your web site visitors targeting area is in the same country as yours, I suggest that you select a web hosting company that put the local web server in the your country. However, if you want your site can be accessed easily from outside the country though, you can search for providers that provides web hosting servers that operate in the data center internationally.

Reputation and Reference :
Whether the web hosting company has good reputation for its ‘uptime’. Web hosting company that has a good reputation, surely has list of satisfied customers and this web hosting company usually do not mind if customers ask for a reference from the satisfied customers. If the web hosting company refused to provide a reference, you should search for web hosting companies that want to show them a list of customers satisfied with the services provided. This is because the web hosting is not just business, but also a partnership. You have to trust the web hosting company before selecting a place for your website.

Web Application Server Support :
Please check whether your server web hosting company meet the needs of your web site applications. Make sure that the web hosting company’s servers run Windows, if you build an application that is intended to function in the Windows server. The same also applies if you want to use Linux-based servers, namely the Apache Web server.

Back Up :
Check whether the hosting company provides backup protection incase the potential loss of web site datas. Having your datas backed up will be more safe for your sites so if anything happens with your sites, you could upload the latest backup than have to recreate your site from the beginning.

Technical Support :
Whether the support is available 24 hours(such as support via email or phone).

Facilities Control Panel :
To make it easier to manage your web hosting account (such as ftp change password, add email accounts, change the quota for an email account, etc.), you could visit Plesk (www. parallels. com), Ensim (www.ensim.com) and cPanel (www.cpanel.net) to examine the benefits or features offered by each compared with the control panel for your hosting management.

Price Range :
make sure you select a web hosting company that offers a reasonable price for services that were promised.

Here are some webhosting companies which offers great deals for their services :

BlueHost
HostGator
HostMonster
Lunarpages

By : Melina

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