Shared web hosting is the phrase used for a service provided by a web hosting provider in which the server is shared by several webpages, though they are sectioned off from each other for security.  There are additional items they share which will not be considered here.  Dedicated web hosting provides an entire server for a single webpage.  Dedicated web hosting is expensive, and is the only type of service that was first provided when the internet became common.

The advent of shared web hosting made the internet financial feasible for a much larger group of people, companies and institutions.  The sharing of resources that created shared web hosting caused a huge influx into the internet.  While many large corporation maintain dedicated web server, the largest number of webpages are on shared web hosting.

Shared Web Hosting Can Have Some Difficulties

Shared web hosting does have some difficulties.  When you choose a web hosting provider, and they offer shared web hosting you need to be sure that they provide certain services to make sure and avoid the difficulties.  The web hosting provider needs to manager the server.  That means monitoring, security, up-time and maintenance.  The shared web server is not located where you are sitting at your computer, therefore, you cannot physically provide maintenance for the shared web server.  You need to be sure that your web hosting provider is providing maintenance.  As part of the maintenance, they should also provide monitoring of the server.

Monitoring of the server is imperative on shared web hosting.  As you cannot look over at the server and verify that is it up and working, as you would do if you had dedicated web hosting on your own computer, you are dependent on the web hosting provider to monitor and make sure that the server is up and running mostly 24/7.   All computers require maintenance and so minor downtown is to be expected.

The maintenance and maintenance go to the up-time issue.  The internet is a 24/7 proposition and while you are sleeping, someone on the other side of the world may be trying to buy your product.  You don’t want down-time, because you want that person to be able to buy your product while you sleep.

The last difficulty that needs to be handled by the web hosting provider in the shared web hosting is security.  Security so that the different webpages to do have access to each other, and security from outside.  To secure the websites from hackers and other attacks that will cause the servers to go down and the webpages to be inaccessible, the web hosting provider needs to have firewalls and other security protocols in place.