Subscribing To Shared Hosting

 

A shared hosting service is also referred to as virtual hosting or shared services. As its name suggests, shared hosting is basically a number of websites residing on a single server with the intention of saving web hosting cost. Using a shared hosting account, your website resides simultaneously on the web server of the Internet Service Provider.

 

Normally, a single web server simultaneously hosts hundreds of websites. What’s good about this service aside from reducing cost is that it does not negatively impact website uptime and performance. This is because not all websites generate high volume traffic simultaneously.

 

The physical hard drive of the web server is divided into multiple sections or partitions with every website residing in its own section or partition. This strategy helps to separate the files and resources of each website subscribed to shared hosting services.

 

Currently, it serves as the most economical solution for hosting websites since the overall costs of hardware maintenance and operation is divided equally among all subscribers. Small to medium scale businesses as well as personal websites are the most common beneficiaries of shared hosting services.

 

How successful is Shared Hosting?

 

Implementation of shared hosting services is relatively simple and easy. This is because majority of providers offer substantially large disk space, higher data transfer, and multiple email accounts. In fact, most of these provisions are more than what personal or small to medium scale businesses ever need or use. This is why shared hosting services never exceed allotted quota and is one of the reasons for its continued success.

 

Potential Disadvantages of Shared Hosting

 

When it comes to shared hosting, there is really only one perceived disadvantage, overselling. The concept of overselling means that the web server hosts too many websites. Ideally, a web server is configured to handle a maximum number of websites based on its RAM, bandwidth allotment, and CPU cycles. This means that too many websites on a single server will severely spread the available resources leading to slowdown and possible downtime.

 

Shared Hosting implementation

 

There are two basic ways by which shared hosting can be implemented; IP-based or name-based. IP-based shared hosting is also referred to as dedicated IP hosting. It provides a different IP for every host. This is achieved by using multiple network interfaces or creating virtual network interfaces on a single physical interface. Software is used to control the IP addressing to ensure that the correct website is displayed.

 

Name-based on the other hand is also known as shared IP hosting. It makes use of multiple hostnames sharing a single IP address. It uses the hostname included in the HTTP/1.1 request to identify which website to display.

 

Potential issues with IP-based and name-based hosting

 

The primary problem associated with IP-based shared hosting is the address exhaustion. This means that IP addresses can become increasingly scarce with this shared hosting strategy and can result in the use of shared certificate rather than individual SSL certificate. Name-based issues concern its lack of backward compatibility with older HTTP/1.0 web browsers.

 

HTTPS is also not properly supported which can defeat the purpose of using secured websites. Malfunction of the Domain Name System also affects the functionality of this shared hosting solution. One of the most common issues with name-based hosting is that improper file permissions can give access to unauthorized users.

 

How are Shared Hosting Servers Controlled?

 

Basically, shared hosting providers make use of web-based software known as control panel system. This provides the basic user interface that will allow the subscriber to control the contents of the website from a remote facility.

 

There are a number of control panel systems used by different shared hosting providers like cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, Ensim, Helm, Sphera, and H-sphere among other many control panel products in the market. You can ask your shared hosting provider what type of control panel products they use for website administration.

 

What to Expect from Shared Hosting Providers

 

Essentially, subscribing to a shared hosting service means that you can be assured of a worry-free implementation of your online services. This is because the provider will take care of the installation of the software for your server, its management, security updates, as well as other maintenance requirement of your website.

 

Currently, majority of shared hosting providers prefer to use the Linux operating system primarily because of the wide availability of control panel products made for this platform.

 

Other platforms used by providers

 

Aside from the Linux operating system, some shared hosting providers make use of Microsoft Windows as well as other FreeBSD type solutions. Because of the different types of platforms available, some control panel products come in different versions based on the consideration for the underlying operating system.

 

For example, the Plesk control panel product has a Linux and Microsoft Windows version. The interfaces and functionality are basically the same except for the platform specific distinctions like support for SQL Server on Windows or ASP.NET among others.

 

Are there different kinds of Shared Hosting providers?

 

In the United States alone, there are literally thousands of shared hosting providers. These fall under different categories like small design firms, home shops, and of course, the big businesses which cater to hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Shared hosting providers can also be classified into free and paid services.

 

Free services means that the subscriber does not have to pay a monthly fee but has to contend with affiliate programs or Pay Per Click advertising on their website. These help to pay for maintenance expenses and keep the service free. Paid services meanwhile refer to subscribers who shoulder the same monthly payments computed by the total cost of operation divided by the number of subscribers.

 

Now that you have an idea of how shared hosting works, you can now find the best provider for your needs. Keep in mind that although more subscribers may translate to lower payments, it can also lead to downtime and connection slowdown if the shared hosting provider cannot support all its subscribers.