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Cheap Web Hosting: Root Access, Do I need it?
A lot of times people want hosting with access to root.
But what does "root access" mean? Root, or getting
root, is receiving the privilege to access all of the places
on a computer. If you think of a server/computer as a tree
the roots control the tree. The roots of a tree allow water
in, minerals in and are the lifeblood of the tree. Anything
which goes into the roots goes into the entire tree. Anything
which affects the roots of a tree affects the entire tree.
Servers are set up with a similar thought process in that
parts of the server are broken down into different areas.
Each different area has its own privileges. One area cannot
affect another area. For example, if there are three web
sites on a server and one web site breaks the other two
will not be affected. Each web site is in its own part of
the server and can affect only itself. However, there has
to be a master account or way into each area or site. If
you don't have a master method to access all sites at once
it would be a tremendous amount of effort if something needed
to be fixed or updated on every site on the server. The
method or access to all of the parts of the server is "root
access." When someone has root access they can affect
everything on the entire server or change everything on
the entire server. There are no restrictions with root access.
If an error is made in root access it could wipe out the
entire server.
So why do people want root access? Who knows. But unless
you are leasing your own server and need to affect every
account on the server you don't need root access. There
are some things you can do to make your site run more efficient
with root access, but unless you know what you are doing
you could destroy the entire server. And cheap web hosting
providers are not going to allow that to happen because
chances are there is more than one client on the server.
Besides that's what the webhosting company is being paid
to do-manage the server where your hosting account is. It's
not your job to manage the server, just to manage your own
web site.
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