Editing Web hosting service (section)

==Host management==
[[File:Floridaserversfront1.jpg|thumb|alt=Five nineteen-inch racks of servers|Racks of servers]]
The host may also provide an interface or [[Control panel (Web hosting)|control panel]] for managing the [[web server]] and installing scripts, as well as other modules and service applications like e-mail. A web server that does not use a [[Control panel (Web hosting)|control panel]] for managing the hosting account, is often referred to as a "headless" server. Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce, blogs, etc.).

=== Reliability and uptime ===
The [[High availability|availability]] of a website is measured by the percentage of a year in which the website is publicly accessible and reachable via the Internet. This is different from measuring the [[uptime]] of a system. Uptime refers to the system itself being online. Uptime does not take into account being able to reach it as in the event of a network outage.{{citation needed|date=October 2014}} A hosting provider's [[Service-level agreement|Service Level Agreement]] (SLA) may include a certain amount of scheduled [[downtime]] per year in order to perform maintenance on the systems. This scheduled downtime is often excluded from the SLA timeframe, and needs to be subtracted from the Total Time when availability is calculated. Depending on the wording of an SLA, if the availability of a system drops below that in the signed SLA, a hosting provider often will provide a partial refund for time lost. How downtime is determined changes from provider to provider, therefore reading the SLA is imperative.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Dawson|first1=Christian|title=Why Uptime Guarantees are Ridiculous|url=http://blog.servint.net/2013/05/03/why-uptime-guarantees-are-ridiculous/|publisher=Servint|access-date=7 October 2014|quote=a good SLA will clearly state how uptime is defined and what you’ll receive if the “uptime promise” is not met.}}</ref> Not all providers release uptime statistics.