Web hosting companies provide shared hosting services with a lot of features, but sometimes they set heavy limitations for secure environments.
For example:
- You generally use PHP / MySQL or ASP.NET / MS SQL.
- There is no access to the web server logs or logs to MySQL or MS SQL.
- You have to use phpMyAdmin, though there are certain limitations over MySQL / MS SQL access.
- You cannot install web applications of your choice.
- Services on ports are disabled other than port 80.
You can enjoy total freedom by hosting a website on your home based machine, but there are certain limitations.
- You have to leave your computer on 24x7x365 days.
- The download or upload speed will be slow, so your website will be slow to access.
- Vulnerable environment for website, means your personal machine can be easily hacked.
- You have to troubleshoot errors yourself.
Hence, you need to consider a new generation of trustworthy hosting type that is increasingly popular: The hosting of virtual private servers.
Principle:
- It gives you access to a virtual machine located on a large server and a high-internet connection ( virtual machine behaves like a dedicated server ).
- Your virtual machine ( VPS server ) will have a certain amount of dedicated RAM, disk space, dedicated IP addresses.
- You can choose any operating system according to your requirements.
- You will get root access to your virtual server and much more.
From there, you can do absolutely anything you want on your virtual private server.
For example:
- You can shutdown / reboot your virtual machine.
- Ability to install a web server (Apache, Tomcat, Lighthttpd, or else!), PHP, ASP.NET, MySQL, MS SQL, Python, Ruby, CGI, etc.
- You can can install your own programs.
- Able to set as many services as you want (http, ssh, FTP, SMTP/pop3, etc. …).
- Reinstall in a few minutes the entire operating system (on request).
- You can upgrade your virtual server resources such as RAM, disk space (on request).
This is a new way of the hosting service which gives you total freedom on the server.
Benefits:
- Total freedom on server.
- You can install what you want, as long as you have a license (python / CGI programs compiled by you, etc..).
- You can run all the services you want.
- You can stop / restart the machine whenever you want.
- You will have SSH access to your machine to control the environment.
- You will have access to a console that allows you to take control of your machine.
Note:
It takes skills in system administration, for example: if you are not familiar with installation of Apache / Tomcat, MySQL / MS SQL, PHP / ASP.NET configuration, server security then it is recommended to opt fully managed services from the web host.
