Shared Web Hosting is seen as the starting point when entering the web hosting world; this is because the environment in which you are hosted is shared with many other people, and in most cases the resources such as disk space and bandwidth that have been assigned to your account are normally low. Shared Hosting is normally the ideal starting point for people with little or no experience of web hosting, since they are always assigned a control panel which they can use to control their website, also within many control panels, features such as script auto-installers are available to help you get started with your website. If your website is of the utmost importance, and is mission critical for you or your business then you should never have it hosted within a shared environment; this is because shared web hosting servers can be easily bought down by outside attackers if a ‘rogue’ website or account is hosted on the server concerned - in this type of situation you should always consider purchasing a VPS or a dedicated server since dedicated resources will be assigned to you within these environments, and the dedicated environment itself is not shared with anybody else.

Where to Start

Since your shared web hosting package might be your first web hosting package completely, there are several different places that you could consider starting from. If you have bought your package to just mess around with it, then you could try out the auto-script installer that should be included in your control panel (e.g. this is called Fantastico if you are using the cPanel control panel); these types of installers install many different applications within your web environment which you can have a play about with, if you are completely new to the concept of website design and hosting then this is perfect for you since the installer will take care of setting the necessary file permissions and the setup of the database for you. You might have signed up, but not have a website ready to host yet; in this case you could try out the different email functions on your control panel and setup emails for your website domain to get you going - you could also try out other different functions of the control panel and the more technical side of things such as the setting up and the modifying of databases under your website or account. If you are completely new, and are waiting for the completion of your website and don’t know what email accounts you need to setup yet, you could simply just have a browse around the control panel itself so that you know where everything is enabling you to carry out future tasks with ease; also, if you know the whereabouts of everything within the control panel, you are able to use your knowledge to help and guide others who might face problems.

Making the Most of Your Resources

Although you might have a good amount of resources within your account, it is highly unlikely that you’ll ever use them effectively. To make the most of them you should always consider hosting multiple domains under your account, and spreading the resources evenly across each domain; this would ensure that each site is getting a fair amount of bandwidth and disk space, for example. If one site uses more bandwidth than another site, you should always consider spacing both the disk space and bandwidth in proportion to the size of the site and the amount of visitors each site receives as well the amount of disk space each site uses - a factor which is normally dependent on the website’s content and infrastructure. If you have a hosting account which has both a large amount of disk space and bandwidth, then you could consider hosting a website such as an image sharing website; this is because you could easily use up all of the disk space by hosting visitor’s images and photos, and then use up a good amount of the bandwidth assigned to your account by streaming them - in other words allowing people to link back to them so that others are allowed to view them. Something else that you could so with an account which has a large amount of resources is host website for friends and family for a cost; by doing this you are able to make an income out of your package, and if you end up hosting enough websites, could upgrade to a reseller package or even a VPS server at a later date. For a package with a small amount of resources, you could host a small HTML based site which makes minimal use of images; by doing this you are able to establish an online presence, but one which only leaves a small foot print within your hosting resources.

Choosing the Appropriate Shared Hosting Package

When choosing a shared hosting package, you should only consider packages which suit your needs as well as ones which are within your price range. You might see packages advertised around with high specifications which seem unreal, for example a host might be offering 100GB disk space and 50tb bandwidth; the truth is that they are unreal. Web hosts which offer these types of packages are known as ‘overselling hosts’; this is because the packages that they have on offer are inviable both financially and server wise. In most cases, if all of a company’s users used up all their resources then the host would most likely go bust since there just wouldn’t be the capacity on the server to cope with such a demand. If you choose a package with not enough resources, then you could end up using your resources too quickly and having your site suspended because it has no bandwidth, or if you go for a package with too many resources then you could end up paying for what you don’t really need. If you run a small site which doesn’t receive many visitors, then you can easily go with a low end shared hosting package; however, if your site doesn’t receive many visitors but is very ‘image heavy’ then you should always go with a mid-range package for the reason that images can take up both alot of bandwidth and disk space. Your site might not be image heavy, but might receive alot of users and might be based on a database; in this case you should choose a high end package because the more visitors you receive, the more bandwidth you will need - also, databases can use up alot of disk space although that is dependent on the type of data held.

The Benefits of Shared Hosting

If you are new to the concept of web hosting, then a shared hosting package is perfect for you. Most packages, such as those provided by eUKhost, are feature packed allowing beginners to become extremely knowledgeable of everything related to their hosting account. Your account is normally hosted within a secure and controlled environment which means you are able to test new things out without disrupting others which may be hosted on the same server as you. The server maintenance and support is normally taken care of by your host meaning that you can use your account safe knowing that if anything does go wrong with the server you are unlikely to have caused it, and that it will most likely be dealt with by your host at the earliest possible convenience.

Conclusion

By making the most of the resources which are assigned to your shared hosting account, you are able to maximize the possibilities open to you - and in some cases are even able to make a return on the purchase of your package. Shared hosting is perfect for you if you are new to the concept of web hosting since you are in a shared and controlled environment meaning that you are not able to cause any actions which are likely to disrupt fellow customers on the same server as you. Also, the maintenance of the server is not something which falls back to you, giving you one less thing to worry about.

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