FazeWire Web Services - The Blog

So, What Is Shared Web Hosting?

There are many great ways to describe shared web hosting to a beginner. Many people ask me every day what web hosting, and specifically shared web hosting, is. A direct definition of web hosting would be to have a “virtual hotel” of customers and each room is a website. According to dictionary.com, the word host can be defined as “A person who manages an inn or hotel.” This allows us to present the perfect example to newcomers of the hosting field or to making websites. Imagine that FazeWire, or any other shared hosting company, is a large virtual hotel. There are always the economical rooms, they’re not so big and don’t always offer the most amenities. Then, there are the rooms that can be considered “middle class”. They offer a little more than the economy rooms, maybe the room is a little bit larger or the room service is of better quality. Besides this, there are the “luxury class” rooms. These rooms have the best amenities, the best features, and everything about them is great. Examples like these can be easily applied to today’s shared hosting plans. There will always be the cheap plans, the moderate plans, and the expensive plans. Each room in this “virtual hotel” is private, nothing is shared between anybody. Each room has its own key, its own bed, its own T.V., etc. This is just how a shared web server operates. Each client is given his or her own space on the server and they do not mingle at all.

Are There Negative Attributes To A Shared Hosting Environment?

As with everything, there are always negative attributes to being on a shared server. As with the example above, imagine the server where the websites are being stored is a large “virtual hotel”. If something happens to one room, it can affect everybody. If that one person decides to pull the fire alarm everybody would have to leave. With web hosting, if one client decides to slow down the server it would affect everybody. Also, malicious users may upload something called a C99 Shell. These shells are applications that provide the user with full access to everyone’s “room”. Then, the person would be able to cause havoc, just as if someone would pull a fire alarm as a prank. Besides this, people can inflict something called a DDoS attack, or Direct Denial of Service attack, and slow down a server to a complete halt. Usually, these things happen very rarely. If you choose a hosting company wisely these things will not happen.