Article  The Advantages and Disadvantages of Shared Hosting Small businesses and individuals can be a part of the web hosting industry. Expensive equipment is not even necessary. All that is needed is a service to provide the storage and a web-based control system. With shared hosting, small businesses not needing a dedicated server can use what is known as a virtual private server as part of a very inexpensive package. Many websites can reside on one server, with each one accessed by and maintained by the respective company or individual that owns it. Since many individuals or businesses can use one virtual server, shared hosting comes at a low price. The virtual plan provided by shared hosting includes many perks, such as FTP access and access to site statistics, CGI applications, and MySQL and PHP protocols. The company even allows upgrades and downgrades without penalty or extra costs. While the entry level plan includes a web-based control panel, the mid- and upper-level plans offer a more advanced assistance system for mail, statistics, and intrusion detection. There are also various add-ons available to upgrade plans to the customer’s requirements. It is also possible to request more IP addresses and increase the number of databases, domain names, and pop3 email accounts in a plan. Shared hosting is designed around the concept of someone starting small and intending on growing their business or web hosting capacity. Thousands of shared hosting providers are located in just the United States. Many of them are small, supporting just a handful of clients, while others are large corporations serving hundreds of thousands of people. Shared hosting provides many advantages to customers. There are also some disadvantages. Virtual hosts do not properly support secure websites, with those using the same IP address required to share one digital certificate. Other disadvantages include that if the domain name system malfunctions, a name-based virtually-hosted website is difficult to use, so an alternative access method is needed in this case. Also, virtual servers are not compatible with browsers that do not send the hostname as part of requests, though many web browsers support virtual hosting via the HTTP/1.1 protocol, which alleviates this issue. Another issue is that if file permissions aren’t properly configured in a shared file system, other users might inadvertently have database access and ability to modify files. Though these disadvantages exist, understanding how systems work with shared hosting goes a long way toward using them effectively. The inexpensive solution provided is a great alternative with the chance to start out with significant storage for a web presence. The security of an example provider is also noteworthy. Its data centers are secured by electric power provided by separate substations, in a similar fashion to the Federal Reserve Bank. Local power outages will likely not affect shared hosting. This data center also features security cameras, patrols, and restricted floor access, as well as fire suppression systems. This, combined with its network infrastructure, ensures a secure, reliable system for shared hosting. The client company only needs to focus on its own operations and the data and website, instead of the infrastructure needed to support all of it. Category Internet Author WOA Member Add To Favorites Print This Article Email Article To A Friend Post Comments   Rate This Article (0) 1 - Poor2345 - Good678910 - Excellent Added On 12 October 2009