Shared Hosting

One of the more popular forms of web hosting is the affordable shared web hosting alternative. If you are a power user that needs complete control, this is not the hosting for you but for users that does not want to deal with any system administration it just might be the perfect hosting. Shared hosting most often includes a user-friendly control panel, with cPanel being the most appreciated and common.

A great deal of the today active hosting providers, ranging from small companies to the major players on the market, offers some form of shared hosting. This form of web hosting is funded in two different ways. It can be driven privately by letting the customers share the costs of running and maintaining a server. The other way it can be driven is via affiliate programs and PPC advertising.

There are two ways that shared web hosting can be accomplished: name-based or IP-based.

Name-based  This is also known as IP hosting and what it means is that a large number of hostnames are served on a single server with just one IP address.

IP-based This type of hosting is frequently referred to as dedicated IP hosting. Every virtual web host has its own different IP address and the web server uses the IP address which the client uses in order to determine which website to show the user. This way a dedicated IP address can take advantage of it own SSL certificate instead of a shared certificate.

Most shared hosting packages include plenty of disk storage, unlimited traffic and free traffic. There has been some talk about shared hosting not being secure but we find that to simply not be true. One great thing about hosting is that it is often easy to let it grow at the same pace as your website. Simply expand your hosting when it is necessary.

What is domain parking or parked domains?
If you are planning to build up a website and have decided on a name for it you then must purchase that domain name from a domain registrar: i.e. your domain name gets placed on a name server so that you can use it later on. This is known as domain parking. Even if your website content is not ready, it�s better to park your desired domain name. Otherwise, it might be possible that in future somebody else acquires that particular domain name.

What are sub domains?
Sub domains are third level domains in the sense that they are used solely to organize your website content. They are simply folders under your root directory, but to access them a special URL is used. For instance, http://www.m6.net is a regular URL without a sub domain. http://features.m6.net is an URL with the sub domain name: "features". 

Here the:
                .net: is the first level domain,
                 m6: is the second level domain,
                 features: is the third level domain

What are addon domains?
Addon domains are provided by your web hosting plan. They allow you to have one hosting plan or account with your provider that has 2 different websites, each with a different URL (domain) for each. Let's say I own Plan 2 from Tower Host which offers 2 addon domains. My main site uses the domain webhostgear.com but through my control panel I can add a second site with a second URL but under the same hosting account. So my second domain would be ramprage.com. As you can see addon domains are very useful if you have more than 1 website and you want to save on hosting costs!

For how long does a domain name belong to you?
Generally when you register a domain name it is registered for a minimum of one year. However, you can register it for more years, as there is no hard and fast rule as such.

What is Domain Renewal?
After one year you need to renew your domain name so that your website doesn get lost.  Generally when your domain is about to expire your domain registrar will send you a reminder mail regarding the domain renewal. If you do not renew your domain you lose the rights to own it. After this someone can take over your domain and register it for themselves - see domain expires below.

What happens when your domain name expires?
When your domain name expires you can renew it within one month. If you dont renew it in this period it goes into a redemption phase. It stays in this redemption phase for 15 to 30 days before it is then available for purchase again at a normal price.  Getting a domain name out of redemption phase is like buying fifty domains as it can cost around $200! If you don't renew your domain before it expires somoeone else can buy it and use it.

How to find out the owner of a domain name?
To find out the owner of a domain name, use the WhoIs search tool on the Internet .For E.g. Go to http://whois.sc and type the domain name.  It will show you the name of the registrant/domains owner/web host.

What is WhoIs record?
WhoIS record is a domain name search engine/Internet program where users can enter an Internet entity (e.g. a domain, a network, some hosts) and it will give detailed information on the domain registrar, the owner of the domain, and respective DNS records.