Linux Ubuntu OS Installation

1. Overview

The Ubuntu desktop is easy to use, easy to install and includes everything you need to run your organisation, school, home or enterprise. It's also open source, secure, accessible and free to download.

2. Requirements

You'll need to consider the following before starting the installation:

• Connect your laptop to a power source.
• Ensure you have at least 25GB of free storage space, or 5GB for a minimal installation.
• Have access to either a DVD or a USB flash drive containing the version of Ubuntu you want to install.
• Make sure you have a recent backup of your data. While it's unlikely that anything will go wrong, you can never be too prepared.

3. Boot from DVD

It's easy to install Ubuntu from a DVD. Here's what you need to do:

1. Put the Ubuntu DVD into your optical/DVD drive.
2. Restart your computer.

As soon as your computer boots you'll see the welcome window.

From here, you can select your language from a list on the left and choose between either installing Ubuntu directly, or trying the desktop first (if you like what you see, you can also install Ubuntu from this mode too).

Depending on your computer's configuration, you may instead see an alternative boot menu showing a large language selection pane. Use your mouse or cursor keys to select a language and you'll be presented with a simple menu.

Select the second option, ‘Install Ubuntu', and press return to launch the desktop installer automatically. Alternatively, select the first option, ‘Try Ubuntu without installing', to test Ubuntu (as before, you can also install Ubuntu from this mode too).

A few moments later, after the desktop has loaded, you'll see the welcome window. From here, you can select your language from a list on the left and choose between either installing Ubuntu directly, or trying the desktop first.

4. Boot from USB flash drive

Most computers will boot from USB automatically. Simply insert the USB flash drive and either power on your computer or restart it. You should see the same welcome window we saw in the previous ‘Install from DVD' step, prompting you to choose your language and either install or try the Ubuntu desktop.

If your computer doesn't automatically boot from USB, try holding F12 when your computer first starts. With most machines, this will allow you to select the USB device from a system-specific boot menu.

5. Prepare to install Ubuntu

You will first be asked to select your keyboard layout. If the installer doesn't guess the default layout correctly, use the ‘Detect Keyboard Layout' button to run through a brief configuration procedure.

After selecting Continue you will be asked What apps would you like to install to start with? The two options are ‘Normal installation' and ‘Minimal installation'. The first is the equivalent to the old default bundle of utilities, applications, games and media players - a great launchpad for any Linux installation. The second takes considerably less storage space and allows you to install only what you need.

Beneath the installation-type question are two check boxes; one to enable updates while installing and another to enable third-party software.

• We advise enabling both Download updates and Install third-party software.
• Stay connected to the internet so you can get the latest updates while you install Ubuntu.
• If you are not connected to the internet, you will be asked to select a wireless network, if available. We advise you to connect during the installation so we can ensure your machine is up to date

6. Allocate drive space

Use the checkboxes to choose whether you'd like to install Ubuntu alongside another operating system, delete your existing operating system and replace it with Ubuntu, or — if you're an advanced user — choose the 'Something else' option.

7. Begin installation

After configuring storage, click on the ‘Install Now' button. A small pane will appear with an overview of the storage options you've chosen, with the chance to go back if the details are incorrect.

Click Continue to fix those changes in place and start the installation process.

8. Select your location

If you are connected to the internet, your location will be detected automatically. Check your location is correct and click 'Forward' to proceed.

If you're unsure of your time zone, type the name of a local town or city or use the map to select your location.

9. Login details

Enter your name and the installer will automatically suggest a computer name and username. These can easily be changed if you prefer. The computer name is how your computer will appear on the network, while your username will be your login and account name.

Next, enter a strong password. The installer will let you know if it's too weak.

You can also choose to enable automatic login and home folder encryption. If your machine is portable, we recommend keeping automatic login disabled and enabling encryption. This should stop people accessing your personal files if the machine is lost or stolen.

If you enable home folder encryption and you forget your password, you won't be able to retrieve any personal data stored in your home folder.

10. Background installation

The installer will now complete in the background while the installation window teaches you a little about how awesome Ubuntu is. Depending on the speed of your machine and network connection, installation should only take a few minutes.

11. Installation complete

After everything has been installed and configured, a small window will appear asking you to restart your machine. Click on Restart Now and remove either the DVD or USB flash drive when prompted. If you initiated the installation while testing the desktop, you also get the option to continue testing.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed the world's most popular Linux operating system!

Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB stick from Windows OS

1. Overview

With a bootable Ubuntu USB stick, you can:

• Install or upgrade Ubuntu
• Test out the Ubuntu desktop experience without touching your PC configuration
• Boot into Ubuntu on a borrowed machine or from an internet cafe
• Use tools installed by default on the USB stick to repair or fix a broken
  configuration

Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB stick from Microsoft Windows is very simple and we're going to cover the process in the next few steps.

2. Requirements

You will need:

• A 4GB or larger USB stick/flash drive
• Microsoft Windows XP or later
• Rufus, a free and open source USB stick writing tool
• An Ubuntu ISO file. See Get Ubuntu for download links

3. USB selection

Perform the following to configure your USB device in Rufus:

1. Launch Rufus
2. Insert your USB stick
3. Rufus will update to set the device within the Device field
4. If the Device selected is incorrect (perhaps you have multiple USB storage devices), select the correct one from the device field's drop-down menu

4. Boot selection and Partition scheme

Now choose the Boot selection. Choices will be Non bootable and FreeDOS. Since you are creating a bootable Ubuntu device select FreeDOS.

The default selections for Partition scheme (MBR) and Target system (BIOS (or UEFI-CSM)) are appropriate (and are the only options available).

5. Select the Ubuntu ISO file

To select the Ubuntu ISO file you downloaded previously, click the SELECT to the right of "Boot selection". If this is the only ISO file present in the Downloads folder you will only see one file listed.

Select the appropriate ISO file and click on Open.

6. Write the ISO

The Volume label will be updated to reflect the ISO selected.

Leave all other parameters with their default values and click START to initiate the write process.

7. Additional downloads

You may be alerted that Rufus requires additional files to complete writing the ISO. If this dialog box appears, select Yes to continue.

8. Write warnings

You will then be alerted that Rufus has detected that the Ubuntu ISO is an ISOHybrid image. This means the same image file can be used as the source for both a DVD and a USB stick without requiring conversion.

Keep Write in ISO Image mode selected and click on OK to continue.

9. Writing the ISO

The ISO will now be written to your USB stick, and the progress bar in Rufus will give you some indication of where you are in the process. With a reasonably modern machine, this should take around 10 minutes. Total elapsed time is shown in the lower right corner of the Rufus window.

10. Installation complete

When Rufus has finished writing the USB device, the Status bar will be green filled and the word READY will appear in the center. Select CLOSE to complete the write process.

Congratulations! You now have Ubuntu on a USB stick, bootable and ready to go.

Introduction to Disk Cleanup Utilities of Windows

Windows Disk Cleanup Tool

Disk Cleanup tool, part of Windows, will perform a search on the hard disk for files that can be deleted from your computer without affecting its functionality or your personal files:

• Temporary Internet Explorer files (related: How To Clear Internet Explorer 6-to-11 Cache)
• Java applets or ActiveX controls
• Files from Recycle Bin if Recycle Bin has not been emptied
• Windows temporary files

How to Run Disk Cleanup Utility 

1. Press Windows + R Button.
2. Type cleanmgr
3. Click OK or  press Enter

Internet Security Management Concepts / इंटरनेट सुरक्षा और साइबर क्राइम

Internet Security (इंटरनेट सुरक्षा) और  साइबर क्राइम  (Cyber Crime) 

Internet Security Management Concepts

यह ऐसा कार्य है जो गैर कानूनी है, तथा जिसमें सूचना तकनीक या कंप्यूटर/Internet का उपयोग किया जाता है| आधुनिक युग में बहुत से गैरकानूनी काम या अपराध करने के लिए कंप्यूटर का प्रयोग किया जाता है, जैसे data चोरी online धोखाधड़ी जालसाजी आदि| सूचना तकनीकी प्रगति ने अपराधिक गतिविधियों के लिए नई संभावनाएं भी बनाए हैं, इस प्रकार के अपराधों से निपटने के लिए साइबर लॉ बनाया गया है| साइबर क्राइम को दो तरीकों में बांटा जा सकता है।
साइबर क्राइम के अंतर्गत आते हैं:

• Unauthorized access of computer/network and Hacking
• Data data Theft (डाटा चोरी करना)
• Identity theft (पहचान चुराना)
• Virus Trojan or worms attack (कंप्यूटर वायरस)

Unauthorized access of computer/network and hacking

किसी भी कंप्यूटर या कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क में बिना अनुमति के प्रवेश करने को unauthorized access यह hacking कहा जाता है। अनाधिकृत व्यक्ति द्वारा कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क में किया गया कोई भी कार्य इस अपराध की श्रेणी में आता है। जो व्यक्ति किसी नेटवर्क में अनाधिकृत तरीके से प्रवेश करता है उसे हैकर कहा जाता है। हैकर ऐसे प्रोग्राम बनाते हैं जो वांछित नेटवर्क पर आक्रमण कर सकें। इस प्रकार की कार्य साधारणता वित्तीय अपराधों में बहुताय होते हैं। जैसे किसी बैंक के नेटवर्क में अनाधिकृत तरीके से प्रवेश कर उनके खाताधारकों के अकाउंट से दूसरे अकाउंट में पैसे स्थानांतरित करना।
किसी व्यक्ति के क्रेडिट कार्ड की जानकारी चुरा कर उसका दुरूपयोग करना आदि।
किसी वेबसाइट के घटक अनाधिकृत तरीके से बदलने की क्रिया को web हैकिंग कहा जाता है।
भारत देश में हैकिंग क्रिया को गैरकानूनी माना जाता है तथा इनफार्मेशन टेक्नोलॉजी एक्ट 2008 के अंतर्गत 3 साल तक सजा एवं जुर्माने का प्रावधान है।

Data data theft (डाटा चोरी करना)

किसी संस्था या व्यक्ति या कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क में अधिकृत व्यक्ति के अनुमति लिए बिना उसके कंप्यूटर के डाटा को कॉपी करना उसे शेयर करना डाटा चोरी के अपराध की श्रेणी में आता है। किसी अनाधिकृत व्यक्ति द्वारा किसी अन्य व्यक्ति या संस्था की अनुमति के बिना डेटा कॉपी करना गैरकानूनी माना जाता है। वर्तमान में बहुत से छोटे स्टोरेज डिवाइस जैसे पेन ड्राइव मेमोरी कार्ड आसानी से उपलब्ध है, इन डिवाइस की सहायता से डाटा चुराना बहुत आसान हो गया है| इसमें आईटी एक्ट 2008 के अंतर्गत सजा का प्रावधान है।

Identity theft (पहचान चुराना)

किसी अन्य व्यक्ति की पहचान चुराकर कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क पर कार्य करना इस अपराध श्रेणी में आता है|
कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क पर स्वयं की पहचान बचा कर स्वयं को दूसरे के नाम से प्रस्तुत करना, उसके नाम पर कोई घपला कर ना, बेवकूफ बनाना आईटी एक्ट के अंतर्गत अपराध है|
इसके अतिरिक्त किसी अन्य व्यक्ति का पासवर्ड का प्रयोग करना,
डिजिटल सिग्नेचर की नकल करना भी इस अपराध की श्रेणी में आते हैं|
किसी अन्य के नाम का प्रयोग कर अवांछित लाभ लेना धोखाधड़ी करना भी इस प्रकार के अपराध में आते हैं|
जिस व्यक्ति की पहचान चुराई गई है उस से अनावश्यक रुप से कानूनी उलझनों का सामना करना पड़ता है, बहुत बड़ा नुकसान भी हो सकता है| उदाहरण के लिए आपके बैंक अकाउंट को कोई अन्य व्यक्ति आपकी पहचान चुराकर प्रयोग कर रहा है| आपकी पहचान चुरा कर दूसरी जगह धोखा धड़ी के लिए प्रयोग कर रहा है, इसलिए कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क पर अपने पासवर्ड व्यक्तिगत जानकारियां सार्वजनिक ना करें|आईटी एक्ट 2008 सेक्शन 66 सी के अंतर्गत सजा का प्रावधान है|

Virus Trojan or worms attack (कंप्यूटर वायरस)

जो प्रोग्राम किसी कंप्यूटर यह कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क की अनुमति के बिना कंप्यूटर में प्रवेश कर लेते हैं उन्हें कंप्यूटर वायरस की श्रेणी में डाला जाता है| साधारणता वायरस या वोर्म (Worm) प्रोग्राम का काम किसी अन्य के कंप्यूटर के डाटा को खराब /Delete/Edit करना है| इसीलिए कोई व्यक्ति या संस्था किसी ऐसे प्रोग्राम को अनावश्यक रुप से फैलाते हैं तो उन्हें इस अपराध की श्रेणी में रखा जाता है| बहुत से बड़े नेटवर्क को यदि वायरस प्रभावित करें तब बहुत बड़ा नुकसान हो सकता है| उदाहरण के लिए किसी विमान सेवा के कंप्यूटर में वायरस ने डाटा को बदल दिया है तब कोई प्लेन दुर्घटनाग्रस्त हो सकता है| यद्यपि सभी बड़े कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क में वायरस से कंप्यूटर को बचाने की प्रणाली होती है| भारतीय आईटी एक्ट 2008 के सेक्शन 43 (C) एवं 43 (e) के अंतर्गत वायरस फैलाने के कार्य के लिए सजा का प्रावधान है| Trojan उस प्रोग्राम को कहा जाता है जो दिखते तो उपयोगी हैं, लेकिन उनका कार्य कंप्यूटर कंप्यूटर नेटवर्क को नुकसान पहुंचाना होता है|

साइबर क्राइम के कुछ अन्य उदाहरण हैं –

• नेटवर्क का अनधिकृत तौर पर प्रयोग करना
• कंप्यूटर तथा नेटवर्क का प्रयोग कर व्यक्तिगत (Private) तथा गुप्त (Confidential) सूचना प्राप्त करना
• नेटवर्क तथा सूचना को नुकसान पहुंचाना
• बड़ी संख्या में ई – मेल भेजना (E – Mail Bombing)
• वायरस द्वारा कम्प्यूटर तथा डाटा को नुकसान पहुंचाना
• इंटरनेट का उपयोग कर आर्थिक अपराध (Financial Fraud) करना
• इंटरनेट पर गैरकानूनी तथा असामाजिक तथ्यों तथा चित्रों को प्रदर्शित करना

साइबर अपराध से बचने के उपाय (Ways To Prevent Cyber Crime)

• Login ID तथा पासवर्ड सुरक्षित रखना तथा समय – समय पर इसे परिवर्तित करते रहना
• Antivirus साफ्टवेयर का प्रयोग करना
• Fire wall का प्रयोग करना
• Data Backup रखना
• Proxy Server का प्रयोग करना
• Data को गुप्त कोड (Encrypted Form) में बदलकर भेजना व प्राप्त करना

Internet Security (इंटरनेट सुरक्षा)

इंटरनेट सुरक्षा का अर्थ है – नेटवर्क तथा नेटवर्क पर उपलब्ध सूचना, डाटा या सॉफ्टवेयर को अनधिकृत व्यक्तियों (Unauthorized persons) की पहुंच से दूर रखना तथा केवल विश्वसनीय उपयोगकर्ताओं द्वारा ही इनका उपयोग सुनिश्चित करना।
इंटरनेट सुरक्षा के मुख्यत: तीन आधार हैं –
• Authentication
• Access Control
• Cryptography

उपयोगकर्ता के प्रामाणिकता की जांच करना (Authentication) 

उपयोगकर्ता के प्रामाणिकता की जांच Login ID, Password/fingerprint/iris, गुप्त कोड आदि द्वारा की जाती हैं।

एक्सेस कंट्रोल (Access Control) 

कुछ विशेष डाटा या सूचना की उपलब्धता, कुछ विशेष उपयोगकर्ताओं के लिए ही सुनिश्चित करना एक्सेस कंट्रोल कहलाता हैं। अंगुलियों के निशान (Finger Print) आवाज की पहचान (Voice Recognition) इलेक्ट्रानिक कार्ड आदि द्वारा ऐसा किया जाता हैं।

क्रिप्टोग्राफी (Cryptography)

सूचना या डाटा को इंटरनेट पर भेजने से पहले उसे गुप्त कोड में परिवर्तित करना तथा प्राप्तकर्ता द्वारा उसे प्रयोग से पूर्व पुन: सामान्य सूचना में परिवर्तित करना क्रिप्टोग्राफी कहलाता हैं। यह इंटरनेट पर डाटा सुरक्षा का एक महत्वपूर्ण आधार है। सूचना या डाटा को गुप्त संदेशों में बदलने की प्रक्रिया Encryption कहलाती हैं। जबकि इनक्रिप्ट किए गए डाटा या सूचना को पुन: सामान्य सूचना में बदलना Decryption कहलाता हैं। क्रिप्टोग्राफी से डाटा स्थानान्तरण के दौरान डाटा चोरी होने या लीक होने की संभावना नहीं रहती है।

इंटरनेट सुरक्षा में शामिल होता हैं –

• सूचना, डाटा तथा संसाधनों का उपयोग केवल अधिकृत व्यक्तियों द्वारा किया जाना।
• डाटा तथा संसाधन अधिकृत व्यक्तियों के लिए हमेशा उपलब्ध होना।
• नेटवर्क पर भेजे गए डाटा के Destination तक पहुंचने से पहले उसे रिकॉर्ड करने तथा छेड़छाड़ या परिवर्तन करने की संभावना न होना।

यूजर आइडेंटीफिकेशन(User Identification)

कम्प्यूटर तथा नेटवर्क पर अधिकृत उपयोगकर्ता की पहचान करना User Identification कहलाता हैं जबकि इस पहचान को सत्यापित करने की प्रक्रिया ऑथेनटिकेशन (Authentication) कहलाती हैं।
यूजर नेम तथा पासवर्ड (User Name and Password)
 उपयोगकर्ता की पहचान स्थापित करने (Identification) तथा उसे सत्यापित करने  (Authentication) की सर्वाधिक प्रचलित विधि यूजर नेम तथा पासवर्ड की हैं। इसके द्वारा केवल अधिकृत उपयोगकर्ता को ही कम्प्यूटर डाटा तथा नेटवर्क का उपयोग करने दिया जाता हैं। यूजर नेम तथा पासवर्ड उपयोगकर्ता द्वारा कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम में स्टोर किया जाता हैं। अगली बार कम्प्यूटर या नेटवर्क का उपयोग करने के लिए कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम यूजर नेम तथा पासवर्ड डालने का request करता हैं। कम्प्यूटर पहले से स्टोर किए गए यूजर नेम तथा पासवर्ड से दी गई सूचना का मिलान करता हैं, तथा सही पाए जाने पर ही कम्प्यूटर तथा नेटवर्क के प्रयोग की इजाजत देता हैं।

IP-Internet Protocol Address

Internet Addressing:

Physical-MAC

Logical-IP

Physical/MAC

A media access control address (MAC address) of a device is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for communications at the data link layer of a network segment.

MAC addresses are 6-byte (48-bits) in length.

eg. 00-14-22-01-23-45.

IP Address

Numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing.

1. Versions of IP Address

Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4)

• 32 bit number
• 4 octets
• Limitation : 4294967296 (2³²) addresses.
• e.g. 172.115.56.48

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

• 128 bit number
• 16 octets
• Limitation : (2¹²⁸) 3.403×10³⁸ addresses
• It was developed in 1995 and standardized as rfc2460 in 1998.
• Not yet widely used.
• e.g. 2001:0:9d38:90d7:2c0f:19de:4b28:afba

2. Classes of IP Addresses

IPv4 Classes:

Class	A	B	C	D	E
1st Octet Range	1-126*	128-191	192-223	224-239	240-254
IP Addresses Range	1.0.0.1 to 126.255.255.254	128.1.0.1 to 191.255.255.254	192.0.1.1 to 223.255.254.254	224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255	240.0.0.0 to 254.255.255.254
Default Subnet Mask	255.0.0.0	255.255.0.0	255.255.255.0	NA	NA
Network / Host ID	N.H.H.H	N.N.H.H	N.N.N.H	NA	NA
Number of Networks configurable	126 (27 – 2)	16,382 (214 – 2)	2,097,150 (221 – 2)	NA	NA
Number of devices configurable per network	16,777,214 (224 – 2)	65,534 (216 – 2)	254 (28 – 2)	NA	NA
Purpose	Large networks	Medium sized networks	Small networks	Reserved for multi casting	For research and development

• Class A - range 127.0.0.1 to 127.255.255.255 - reserved for loop back and diagnostic purposes.
• Any server / system localhost ip address is 127.0.0.1

3. Types of IP Addresses

Public vs Private IP Addresses

Public IP address is assigned to a computer by the ISP when it is connected to the Internet.

Private IP addresses are used to configure the devices in a private network (LAN / MAN / WAN). 

Static vs Dynamic IP Addresses

Static

• ​Static IP address does not change once it is assigned to a device / computer in a network.
• Since, the IP is static and known there is more possibility for network attacks
• Used by Web Servers, E-mail Servers
• Number of allocatable IP addresses is limited in IPv4.Hence, nowadays it is not possible to connect all the devices that exists in world to Internet simultaneously by using IPv4. 

​​Dynamic

• Dynamic IP addresses are assigned by ISP using DHCP
• ​Available IP address is assigned to a device when it is connected to the network, after the session expiry the IP address released for other device's use.
• Effective use of IP addresses is an advantage of Dynamic IP address assigning.
• Since, the IP address changes frequently, it become not traceable. 

What is Subnetting:

A subnetwork or subnet is a logical subdivision of an IP network. The practice of dividing a network into two or more networks is called subnetting. Computers that belong to a subnet are addressed with an identical most-significant bit-group in their IP addresses

Why Sub netting Required ?

Subnetwork, or subnet, is a logically subdivision of

an IP network.

Method to divide network into two or more

networks.

Shortage of IP Address

Classless IP- No Network IP no Host ID.

Easy to manage smaller network then bigger

network.

Web Development and Web Hosting.

Web developers use the LAMP/WAMP stack to create feature-rich applications using programming languages and database storage to serve files through XHTML & DHTML. Web scripts like content management systems (CMS), blogging platforms, eCommerce stores, forums, wikis, and social networks all run on web servers through custom stack development. Web publishers have the option to program new websites using proprietary database frameworks, HTML authoring tools, or open source scripts based in shared development platforms. Web development requirements are one of the most determining factors in the choice of a web hosting platform. You may select windows and Linux web server to host your website.

Different Types of Web Hosting

Web hosting accounts can be subdivided into different categories based on the way that server resources are allocated and shared on the hardware that is used in a data center. Other ways to classify web hosting depend on the way the accounts are billed or the market sector to which the services are targeted. Accordingly, the most common forms of web hosting available are:

• Free Web Hosting
• Shared Web Hosting
• VPS Web Hosting
• Dedicated Web Hosting
• Cloud Web Hosting

Each type of hosting has value for a certain segment of the web development community, as well as unique advantages and disadvantages which make it most suitable for a particular domain application. Understanding the differences between the types of web hosting available is important for site owners and businesses to make the right purchasing decision to support the development requirements of various scripts under a wide variety of user traffic conditions.

Free Web Hosting

Free web hosting is offered by various companies primarily in order to up-sell other domain services or to publish advertising on pages that are hosted under the account. Free web hosts usually offer only subdomain support for user web pages, for example: user.geocities.com. Many popular CMS platforms like WordPress and Joomla offer free web hosting for web publishers to get started blogging or building a website. Free web hosting is not considered a viable solution for business owners or websites that require custom content development, eCommerce facilities, and domain name support. Free web hosting is mostly popular with bloggers and can be viewed as another form of social networking, i.e. Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, MySpace, Blogger, Ning, WordPress, and other brand name sites.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting provides for the management of a large number of domain names on a single server using IP addressing, where all of the registered websites will simultaneously use the same CPU, RAM, hard drive, and bandwidth resources to serve files or run scripts according to temporary commands. With shared web hosting, there may be thousands of different businesses, individuals, and organizations all serving their website files to the public from the same computer. A single data center is able to host millions of domains on this model, allowing web hosting companies to scale at volume and offer the lowest pricing to consumers for web file management and database storage tools.

How Does Shared Web Hosting Work?

With shared web hosting, each user account is provided with a unique login to the server which is registered to a root domain name and identified through a public IP address. Additional domain names are added to the account through the use of a control panel by administrators. The web hosting company employs systems administrators to manage the server software installation and security updates. The hosting clients use file transfer management tools to host web pages in HTML or other programming languages which serve the files to the public through the browser. The hard disk space on the remote server can be used for other purposes than web hosting, for example remote file storage, email accounts, sandbox web development, mobile app support, or running software scripts online.

Advantages of Shared Web Hosting

The number one benefit of shared web hosting traditionally is that it is an extremely cheap way to publish information online. Shared web hosting accounts can cost as little as $1 – $3 dollars per month and rarely cost more than $20. It is estimated that over 90% of the websites on the internet use shared web hosting to keep their information online 24 hours a day. Shared web hosts never turn off their services and offer seamless hardware upgrades in the data center that can keep a website online for years. Most of the available web development tools will integrate easily with a shared hosting account.

These services allow the internet to function as a vast library of self-published information in a non-hierarchical, distributed network system. Because web hosting companies hire experts to manage the data centers and typically keep up-to-date with the latest security releases on server software installs, the end users receive a simple to use platform to manage file transfers, databases, email accounts, and web publishing that is generally secure. There is a huge amount of flexibility in what can be done creatively with the remote data processing and storage facilities on a shared web hosting account.

Disadvantages of Shared Web Hosting

The main disadvantage of shared web hosting is that it is not able to scale effectively to support the traffic of large websites and usually includes strict limitations on the use of CPU processing power because of the pooled resources.

There is still no opportunity for advanced systems administration and custom server configurations on most shared hosting plans. Security on shared web hosting frameworks is not considered robust enough for sensitive corporate information and government accounts. There can also be performance issues.

Who is Shared Web Hosting Best For?

Shared web hosting is recommended for self-published websites and small business networks. Web designers can host unlimited domains on a shared account for development, and then transfer them to cloud or dedicated servers if the traffic develops more than the web hosting company will permit. One of the most popular uses for shared web hosting is single and multi-user blog sites built on WordPress. 

VPS Web Hosting

Virtual Private Servers (VPS) are a web hosting solution designed to give more power and flexibility to website owners for custom developed software requirements and complex applications. Technically, a VPS will operate in the same manner as a dedicated server while operating on a partitioned hardware framework that allows for the use of only a fraction of the resources of the host machine. VPS accounts are based on the amount of RAM, hard drive storage, and CPU processing power allocated to the virtual machine.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated web hosting is the most expensive and flexible of all of the service plans offered by companies in the industry, as site owners are able to directly rent or lease a complete rack-mount server in a data center. The advantage of dedicated hosting is that the client has complete control over the software configuration of the server, which can be used to harness the full processing power of the CPU, all of the allocated hard drive space, and available RAM memory. Dedicated servers are required to host the largest sites by traffic on the web, as well as by mobile apps which require elite performance.

Cloud Web Hosting

Cloud web hosting provides solutions for websites that need more processing power and require more than a single server instance because the amount of online traffic, including the number of queries to the database and resource files, is too high in volume for a single machine to effectively manage for all simultaneous users. Website users now frequently require access to remote processing power from data centers (cloud computing) in order to do complex work in the browser rather than on the desktop with software downloads.

Which Features Should You Look For in a Web Hosting Plan?

After understanding the different types of web hosting accounts available from data center companies, it is important to closely review the total package of features that each plan offers in order to determine which provide the best value for the money invested. Some of the main features to look for in any web hosting account are:

• Server Architecture
• Operating System Version
• Domain Management Tools
• Systems Administration Tools
• Bandwidth & CPU Limitations
• Free Offers & Promotions
• Data Security
• Technical Support

These factors can be found across all web hosting accounts including shared, VPS, dedicated, managed, and cloud hosting. Because most web hosting companies offer the lowest pricing on long-term plans, it is easy to get “locked in” to an account on sign-up, only to find out later that it is lacking in major required aspects or underperforms other services in significant ways. To avoid this problem, which can lead to having to transfer a website repeatedly between web servers, confirm the account under review for these factors in advance of any long-term commitment to the company platform.