Klik sini untuk pilihan webhosting terbaik di Malaysia

When you create a website for your business with a nice domain name, you need a place to store all your files and pages. A hosting company provide this servises.

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals like you and me and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

Type of webhosting

Free web hosting service:
Free web hosting is offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.

Shared web hosting service:
one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.

Reseller web hosting:
allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a collocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and provide the technical support themselves.

Virtual Dedicated Server:
also known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS for short) divides server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualisation may be done for a number of reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container between servers. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS. Customers are sometimes responsible for patching and maintaining the server.

Dedicated hosting service:
the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.

Managed hosting service:
the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.

Colocation web hosting service:
similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.

Cloud hosting:
is a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. Removing single-point of failures and allowing customers to pay for only what they use versus what they could use.

Clustered hosting:
having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution. A cluster may separate web serving from database hosting capability.

Grid hosting:
this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Home server:
usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more web sites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PCs. Some ISPs actively attempt to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the user's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A common way to attain a reliable DNS hostname is by creating an account with a dynamic DNS service. A dynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP address that a URL points to when the IP address changes.

Which hosting company to choose?

Choosing a host is an important decision as you would want to have a good relationship with the hosting company. It is the same like having a good relationship with the landlord of your rental house. You must understand certain aspects of what the host has to offer. You also need to decide what you need of a host. Here are some of the bacis knowledge of hosting that you should know.

1. Free hosting or paid hosting?
Free hosting is free. You don't need to pay anything. But, you must accept whatever facilities that they provide. There are certain rules for you to follow. There are some restrictions to your freedom. And of course, this kind of free hosting has an advertisement on your website. This kind of webhosting is not look very profesional for any online-business. Your domain name also wont look attractive. But if you go for a personal website, then go for this.

2. Disk space or storage
How much disk space that you really need? Some webhosting company provide 10MB (megabytes). If you sells wallpapers and one wallpaper is 1MB in size then you can only keep 10 wallpapers in your website. Got what I mean? Paid webhosting normally provide a disk space in Gigabyte.

3. Bandwidth
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that may be transmitted (to and from) over a connection during a period of time. There is a quota of bandwith for every month. If you reach the quota for that month, your company will see a 'white' blank page. Then your customer will never come back again.

4. Type of servers
This is a bit technical, but don't worry, the webhosting company are always ready to explain to you. Type or servers refer to the CPU speed (fast or very fast or insanely fast), R.A.M size (random access memory - its like the power of the engine, the bigger the better), connection spped. Some webhosting company provide enough informations for you to read and to certain extend, to compare types of servers. Different packadge of the hosting has different type of server.

5. FTP servises
FTP is File Transper Protocol. You use this facility to build, design, edit or upload your page. Ensure that the hosting company provide this FTP facilities. This is the fastest way to transfer your files or data or images from your computer to the host.

6. Back-up facilities
You need to regularly back-up your data. It is not that the host is going to colapse but its just a precautions. One never know. Bad things can happen, you know? Unforseen disasters, mishaps or technical faults of you or your hosting company could happen.

7. CGI
CGI is Common Gateway Interface. It is a programming language used in web designing. Many webhosting support dynamic page generation through CGI. You don't need to know about how to use it. It is enough for you to know if the company provide this utility. Webhosting is very user-friendly.

8. Statistics
If the webhosting company provide utilities to generate visitor demographic and various statistics then it is very good. As a businessman, you should analyse your customer, the background, or their behavior. Marketing is very dynamic and but a good statistic will provide you with a predictable flow of market interest. Use it wisely.

9. Email accounts and auto-responder
These are also a good utilitise. You will not be at your website 24 hour per day so the auto-responder will come in handy. If you have a good domain name and a good business then don't use the free email like yahoo or hotmail. Use the email of your domain name instead.

10. Uptime
Uptime means how long your website will be internet. Will it go off after midnite? Or, will the service go kelam kabut like Astro servise during raining time? Good server will promised a 99% uptime. This means that the website can be reached almost all the time. No hosting company will promise a 100% uptime. It simply wont happen. Sometime, the hosting company do a maintenance job. Sometime, its due to some unforseen circumstances. The reliable hosting company will ensure that your website is accessible most of the time.

11. After-sales servises
After-sales service is essential. However, it is very hard to judge. Most hosting company will promise a lot of nice thing. But we did not know what happen after some problem occurs. No webhosting company is 100% perfect. After all, its just a machine and programs. When you encounter a technical problem, you need to get help fast. Good webhosting company will come to your rescue swiftly. I have experience with exabyte.com.my. They are good.

12. Reputation
If you go for the paid webhosting, go for a reliably webhosting company with a good track records. If you are rajin enough then you can join any forum that discuss about the webhosting company in Malaysia. Some company are good. Some are bad. Some cheat customers. Some going bankrupt on the next day. You can also check is the webhosting company has achieved any rewards. At all webhosting company's website, you can find their list of their new customers. You can go to any of the website and has a 'feel' about the website. Some website are very slow. Some are fast.