What are the Pros and Cons of Virtual Hosting?

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The Pros And Cons Of Virtual Hosting

Virtual hosting is where one or more domain name is hosted on the same computer.

Virtual hosting is most commonly used by companies that provide website hosting services. For example, a web hosting company may host the sites for Dave’s bar and Bill’s window cleaning business. The pages for both sites will be physically stored on the same computer (known as a server).

When somebody visits one of the sites, the domain name system (DNS) translates the website address (www.filetonic.com or www.constant-content.com) into an IP address, which is a string of numbers that identify a particular server. As both sites are on the same server, the DNS information will include both the IP address for that site, and which files to show.

The main benefit of virtual hosting is economies of scale. A web hosting company can host many sites on one server and split the costs between all their customers, allowing them to charge low prices. This also means the customers do not have to worry about running their own server, which involves technical know-how and requires maintenance and physical security.

Some large businesses also use virtual hosting for their own websites. For example, a business may have one website for customers, one for suppliers, and an intranet site for employees. With virtual hosting, all three sites can be stored on the same server.

The main drawback of virtual hosting comes when the domain name system (DNS) is not working properly. Normally in this case, the person visiting the site can type the IP address directly if they know it. However, with virtual hosting, the IP address alone will not necessarily bring up the correct site.

Another problem is that virtual hosting cannot usually deal with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security. This is the most common method of encrypting information such as passwords. However, with virtual hosting, the server may have encryption set-ups from more than one site and not know which to use.