Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting is a web hosting service where many different websites share one physical server that is connected to the Internet. Each website is located in its own partitioned area on the server that keeps it separated from the other websites on the server. Shared web hosting is usually the most economical hosting option for websites as the monthly charge is usually kept to a minimum because multiple site owners are sharing the cost of the server’s maintenance and upkeep.

Shared web hosting includes some form of system administration that is taken care of by the web hosting company. It has its pros and cons as more advanced websites owners sometimes want more control than what is allotted in a shared system. It is also not very efficient for users who will need software development outside the scope of the service. Otherwise, shared hosting is the most economical type of website hosting available for most websites.

This type of web hosting uses a web based control panel system that allows the user to upload their files and manage their website and associated utilities. The hosting provider gives the owner access to their control panel and allows them to work with their website. The provider, on the hand, is responsible for but is not limited to: managing servers; installing server software; security updates; technical support; and more. Many servers use Linux based operating systems while some use a Microsoft Windows based package.

Shared web hosting can be done in two different ways. Named based hosting has multiple hostnames on a single server that has a single IP address. The URL will contain the domain name and the hostname in order to access the proper website. IP based hosting assigns a different IP address to each virtual host. The server is configured with numerous physical network interfaces even though they are on the same physical interface. The IP address tells the web server software which website to access and this type of shared web hosting is used primarily with websites that need their own SSL security certificate.

Shared web hosting does have some disadvantages especially if you are using name based shared hosting. For one thing, shared web hosting using name based recognition cannot properly support secure websites because all of the IP addressed share the same digital certificate. If the domain name system is malfunctioning, users have no real way of accessing the website since the IP address alone points to the server and not all of the individual websites contained on it. Browsers that do not send the hostname as part of the requests will not find the website. This is less of a problem today since most browsers have been updated to HTTP/1.1 protocol. Finally, improperly configured file permissions with shared web hosting could compromise access to the website.

Shared web hosting is usually all the average website owner needs in terms of functionality and performance for their personal website. It is also a good way for e-commerce sites to get started but as they gain traffic and users, web owners will want to consider a high feed service or even dedicated server in order to fit their needs.