Web Hosting: Linux Vs. Windows
The Basics of Linux & Windows: Linux (and its close relation Unix) and Windows 2000 (and its close cousin Windows NT) are types of software (known as operating systems) that web servers use to do the kind of things that web servers do. You do not need to know any real detail of either to make a decision as to which you need but here a few guidelines.
Just because you use a windows desktop PC doesn’t mean you have to opt for Windows web hosting (and the reverse is true as well). The operating system you use on your desktop has little to do with your choice of web hosts. As long as you understand how to use your FTP or web publishing software, your can use either operating system.
But what is important is that you know what you want your website to do and what you want to offer on it. This is what will ultimately help determine the type of web hosting that will work best for you. As mentioned earlier, interactive websites usually rely on ASP, PHP, or Perl type languages.
Linux Web Hosting or Windows 2000 Web Hosting? Make your Choice!
When it comes to Web hosting, Linux has, for some time, been widely considered the best OS for Web servers. It’s typically found to be the most reliable, stable and efficient system and, as such, it’s commonly used for the demanding environment of Web and mail servers. Indeed,Most of the clients websites of aalpha NET runs on the Linux OS precisely because of this traditional stability.
The million-dollar question is what application are you looking to use for your hosting? Consider the tools and scripting languages you plan to use – if you use PHP, Perl or MySQL, Linux is the way forward. If apps are Microsoft-specific, then Windows is what you need.
If your site, like most web sites, is what might be termed “brochure-ware” then Linux servers are ideal. By brochure-ware I mean a site that offers the kind of information that in the past might have been provided on paper in the form of brochures, newsletters or data sheets. Brochure-ware sites will offer some interaction through enquiry forms and can certainly incorporate online purchasing and other routine e-commerce functions.
If however your site incorporates an online searchable database or interactive chat facilities then Windows 2000 or NT will be a better bet in most cases. It will cost a bit more but you’ll get that back in reduced development time and simply better functionality.
The following are the advantages of using Linux based web server compared to Windows based web server:
Stable: Linux/Unix operating systems has traditionally been believed to be very stable and robust. A web site housed on a Linux operating system will have very high up-time (of the order of 99.9%). Of course, other factors such as power supply, network admin skills, and network load etc. also matter when it comes to maintaining the system uptime.
Low cost of ownership: The Linux OS comes free of cost (or at very insignificant cost, usually cost of distribution). Also, it has full fledged server, and desk top applications that comes free along with the OS. These server applications (such as FTP, Web Server, DNS Server, File Server etc.) being free, are also very stable.
Ease of use : When it comes to web hosting, it is easy to host on Linux web servers. The process of uploading and hosting is almost same for both Linux and Windows web servers. If you want to use a Windows based tool such as Front Page for uploading a web site on to a Linux based web server, make sure that the Front Page extensions are enabled. This is only required if you are uploading using HTTP feature (http://www.yourwebsite.com) of Front Page. Front Page also makes it possible to upload a web site using FTP. You need to select ftp://www.yourwebsite.com for up loading using front page FTP option. Note that if you select “Front Page Extensions” during web site design, you must enable Front Page extensions on a Linux web server also. These days, all Linux web servers are coming with installable Front Page extensions, and this should pose no problem for hosting on a Linux platform.
You can use almost all types of file extensions (or scripts) when using Linux web server. Commonly, the following extensions are supported: .cgi, .html, .htm, .pl, .php, .shtml, .xml, and others. Basically it means that you can host web sites that use different types of server side scripts including .cgi, .pl, .php, and .asp (with plug-in).
Easy to move between hosts: A web site designed to be hosted on a Linux based web server can be hosted on a Windows web server easily, where as the reverse is not always true.
Most widely used: Linux/Unix based web hosting is most widely used compared to Windows based web hosting.
Scalability: A web site is dynamic. Usually, a web site starts with a few pages of html and grows over a period of time to suit the customers requirements. It is preferable to design a web site keeping this requirements in mind. A web site designed for compatibility with a Linux/Unix based web server meets the scalability requirement easily without making any site wide design changes.
On the downside, Linux based web server is not fully compatible with Microsoft technologies. If you are using any specialized applications or VB for development of your web site, it is preferable to host with a Windows based web server.
I am Arpit,the webmaster of the site All Web Hosts is a computer enginner and enjoys working in front of computers. I like to spend my time in building sites and on various forums. AllWebHosts site is mainatined by me and one of my friend, Prashant. In my free time, I like to play table-tennis.
How to Get to a Cheap Web Hosting and a Reliable Web Hosting in the Same Time
The number of cheap web hosting providers on the Internet has increased rapidly lately, and so has the dilemma of choosing between cheap web hosting, and reliable web hosting, because cheap does not mean reliable in all cases.When deciding to choose cheap web hosting you must look thoroughly at the offers and pick the most reliable of all.Most cheap web hosting offer a 30-day warranty luckily, so,if your desire for a reliable web hosting server in not satisfied, you can choose another cheap web hosting server.Usually, thirty days are enough to decide if the server provides reliable web hosting services.
One thing of great importance in your choice are the features of the free web hosting server, the type of programming language it supports, it’s bandwidth, it’s number of email accounts, it’s fee of course, and maybe most important it’s disk space, because you need a lot of disk space if you plan on having a large website. My recommendation about deciding on a cheap web hosting server is not to go straight to the cheapest, better choose an offer with a medium price, it’s better to spend a few more $ a months then to change the server, because what you found is a cheap, but not reliable web hosting service, which is down most of the time. Anyway, most of the sites where you can find cheap web hosting claim they offer the cheapest services, so do not bother with that, better make sure the server offers reliable web hosting, because good price and good quality are quite hard to find toghether. And after looking at the features try finding out from other people if the server you chose is a reliable web hosting server, a lot of useful information on this topic can be found posted on forums, try finding information with the help of a search engine.
If you plan on having two or more web sites, search for a provider who offers multiple accounts at the price of one, many of the cheap web hosting service providers do that, and if you are lucky, you may find a special offer, which will spare you some money, offering you free setup or something similar, but try not to sign a long term contract (I also recommend paying great attention when reading the contract) with the provider, a thing which will surely offer you a large discount, until you are sure that you chose a reliable web hosting server.
And finally, do not forget that the cheap web hosting providers do not have full control of their of their server, they are working in cooperation with other companies, to make their services cheaper.
This article was written by Groshan Fabiola. She is a professional writer with many articles written until now covering a large area of interests from finance to agriculture, web based commerce and marketing, etc. If you would like to find more about achieving a cheap web hosting and a reliable web hosting too, please visit this web site.
Understanding Web Hosting
You’ve got your new business all established now and you’re ready to take the next step and set up a website to tell the online world that you’re here and you’ve got something to offer. You’ve found a catchy domain name to call your own and now… what next? Well, the answer is that you need to find web hosting for the website you’re going to build. So what does that mean and how do you figure out what kind of web hosting you need? First let’s start with the basics.
Just what is web hosting anyway?
In simple terms, web hosting is renting space on a web server. A website is not simply a domain name, it is a collection of files linked together by HTML code to display text and graphics on a computer. In order for anybody to see this collection of files you’ve created, it has to be housed on a computer somewhere that has access to the internet. Not just any computer will do, of course. A web server is a computer set up with special software that allows it to receive requests from the internet for the website files it has stored on it and to send those files out over the internet so that the requesting computer can display them. It is very much like a waiter in a restaurant taking your order and bringing the food that you ask for from the kitchen, hence the name “server.”
Along with making sure your files can be seen by internet users around the world, a web server provides other important services as well. First and foremost is the ability to create email addresses based on your domain name and to send and receive email with them. The web server also has various types of software installed on it that allow your website to run programs, create and manage databases, display video, and many other functions you might find useful. Almost any type of computer can function as a web server, but it’s the software that’s on it that makes it a server.
When you buy webhosting, the monthly fee you pay goes to the continued maintenance and upgrading of the server’s hardware and software, the cost of keeping it online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a secure data center with a fast and powerful internet connection, and to pay for the expertise of the people who do all that work. It is completely possible to turn your own home or office computer into a web server if you really want to, but in most cases it is far more economical to pay someone else who is dedicated to providing this service in a properly reliable manner than it is to try and do it yourself.
What kinds of web hosting are there?
Shared Hosting – Most websites are not huge affairs with hundreds of pages and thousands of files and graphics, and they are targeted toward a particular audience, so they will not get as many visitors as the large general sites like Yahoo! that are targeted at everybody who uses the internet. As such, the average website therefore is not going to require the full resources of an entire web server to run it. Web servers are designed to be able to handle dozens, even hundreds of websites at once because they are powerful machines. Shared hosting is simply the concept of hosting more than one website on a particular server. Over 95% of all websites on the internet are being run in a shared hosting environment. Since the resources of the server can be split among the clients hosted on it, so can the costs of operating the server, so shared hosting is universally cheaper than any other type. Shared hosting packages are generally designed so that each client is allotted a certain amount of each resource, with different payment levels representing different amounts of resources such as disk space, bandwidth, email addresses, and so on. Shared hosting is also known as virtual hosting.
Dedicated Hosting – If you do have a big, powerful website that gets lots of visitors and has a tendency to hog resources, then you might want to have a web server all to yourself. Some companies also prefer the extra security of not having to share the server with anyone else who could do something accidentally or on purpose to crash it. Renting the use of an entire server is known as dedicated hosting. The web hosting company still owns the machine and takes responsibility for maintaining the hardware and the web hosting software, but you have greater control over the configuration and use of the server. There is also such a thing as semi-dedicated hosting, in which a web server is only split between a very small number of clients, such as 2 to 4, with strong partitions between each to prevent them from interfering with one another. Since the hosting company is still responsible for the upkeep of the server, this type of hosting is also known as managed hosting. For obvious reasons, dedicated hosting always costs significantly more than shared hosting.
Server Co-Location – If you really want complete control over every aspect of your web server, you might very well choose to buy one and maintain it yourself if you have sufficient knowledge. However, chances are that you still don’t have the resources to keep your server completely safe from power outages, roof leaks, thieves, unwary employees and other hazards and keep it on the internet on a fast, high-bandwidth connection at all times. You need a data center to provide those services for you. Co-location is the rental of physical security, continuous electrical power and a fast, reliable internet connection for a server that you own. The data center is not responsible for any of the hardware or software maintenance of a co-located server, you are. This can be a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting if you have the necessary expertise and time to run a web server yourself.
Some web hosts are offering UNIX hosting and Windows hosting. What’s the difference?
The terms UNIX hosting and Windows hosting refer to the operating system (OS) that is running on the server. The operating system, of course, is the software that allows the computer to function and manage all of the other hardware and software that is installed on it. Chances are good that you are reading this on a computer running a version of the Windows operating system, the most popular operating system in the world for personal and business computers. Other operating systems that are growing in popularity are Macintosh and various versions of Linux. However, the operating system you use on your computer is irrelevant to which type of hosting you choose. Here are some of the main features of UNIX and Windows:
UNIX Hosting
Most of the web servers in the world today run on one of the many variants of UNIX. The UNIX operating system was originally developed by universities for servers and networking, and many different versions have been written by programmers around the world under the open-source protocol, which means that the code for the operating system is openly available for programmers to customize and make improvements. Linux and BSD are the most popular forms of UNIX and come in many varieties, such as Red Hat Linux, Debian, SuSE, and FreeBSD. Most of these different versions (and much of the software that runs on them) can be obtained for free, which makes UNIX hosting cheaper for a web host than other operating systems and allows them to offer lower prices. UNIX hosting platforms are generally considered to be stable, secure, powerful and fast. Most web programming applications can be performed by software that is available for a UNIX platform. “UNIX hosting” has become a generic term to refer to any platform that is derived from the original UNIX.
Windows Hosting
Microsoft has developed its own operating system for servers as a special version of its Windows operating system, Windows Server 2003. It is a commercial product which requires the operator to purchase a license, which increases the cost of operation for the web host and usually results in higher hosting prices. Windows is designed to be user friendly, but it is generally considered to be less powerful and secure than UNIX for operating in a network environment. ASP, ASP.NET, and ColdFusion are scripting languages which will only run on a Windows server, as will the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database programs. These are popular for certain web programming applications, and if you are planning on using them to build your website, you will need to find a Windows host.
What are some of the terms I need to know when I choose a web host?
Disk Space or Storage – Because your website is a collection of files being offered on the internet for viewing, they have to be stored somewhere for retrieval and take up space. Each web server has a finite amount of hard disk memory to divide up and offer to hosting customers. Typically that space is divided up by different package levels so that the more you pay, the more space you are allowed to store pictures, web pages, videos and whatever other files you like on the web server’s hard drive. If your website gets bigger than the space you are given, you will need to purchase more disk space from the web host.
Bandwidth or Data Transfer – Whenever you visit a website and view a page, you are transfering a copy of the files that make up that page over the internet from the web server to your computer. If the page you are viewing consists of an HTML file that is 3KB in size and three pictures of 47KB, 100KB and 250 KB, then you have just used 400KB of bandwidth or data transfer, because that is the total amount of data you just downloaded from the web server to view that page. Bandwidth is a commodity like disk space that the web host has to buy from its internet service provider, so it too is divided up and offered to the customers in specific amounts. Bandwidth amounts are usually measured in gigabytes (GB), because while only one copy of your files needs to be stored on the server, thousands or even millions of copies may be downloaded for viewing. If your website is viewed more times than the amount of bandwidth you are allowed can handle, your website may be turned off until the next billing period starts, or you may simply be billed for the excess amount used, depending on your host’s policies. You can always purchase more bandwidth as your site’s traffic increases.
Uptime – In an ideal world, every web server would be up and running and offering your web pages to the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week forever. However, web servers are computers, and like any other computer, things happen to make them fail, or they get old and out of date and require maintenance and repair. When a web host gives you a 99% uptime guarantee, they are saying that the web server will be up and running for 99% of the billing period. If they fail to meet this guarantee, most web hosts will refund a certain portion of your money depending on the amount of excess downtime they experienced.
Traffic Statistics – Website traffic statistics programs try to track visitors to your website. They can track how many times your site was visited, how many visitors were unique and how many returned more than once, which pages were most popular, where the visitors came to your site from, what search terms they used in the search engines, and many other types of information which could be useful to you in marketing your website to a target audience. These statistics can be displayed in tables, graphs and charts by hour, day, week, month or year. Some statistics programs are better than others and offer more types of data, better displays, easier navigation or other useful features. Most web hosts today offer some sort of traffic statistics software with their hosting packages.
CGI Scripts – Many web hosts offer a variety of free CGI scripts with their packages. These are things like hit counters, guestbooks, form mail programs, message boards, and other programs that allow your website to perform commonly desired functions. You can use the ones your host provides you with or you can upload and run custom CGI scripts written by yourself or somebody else to perform different tasks like conducting a survey or processing customer information to produce an automatic price quote. Most CGI scripts are written in common programming languages like Perl, PHP or ASP.
You could spend a long time trying to learn everything there is to know about web hosting, but if you’ve read this far then you should be armed with the basic knowledge you need to understand what different web hosts are offering you. Your next task is to figure out what you need and go out and find a host that wants to give it to you at a great price!
© Copyright 2005 by Stacy Clifford
Stacy Clifford is the founder of ChiliPepperWeb.net and has spent four years assisting customers in understanding how their web services work.
Part 1: Web Hosting Fine Print Exposed: How to find a web host
This series of articles reveals 14 points about web hosting fine print–things you should know and be aware of when looking for a web host.
The entire guide is available at best-webhosting-provider.com
Part 1 of the guide gives you 3 practical points, complete with explanations, under which you can evaluate your potential web host.
Be patient in finding your web host: there are thousands of web hosting companies and gazillion offers, so you better take the time to evaluate them and find the one most suitable for your needs.
Please do let us know if your opinion differs, or you have additional things to say. We want this guide to be the most comprehensive, ever-expanding tool in determining your new web hosting partner.
To leave comments, please go to best-webhosting-provider.com
Let’s get started!
Preparation
First, get clear what you need and want, and write everything down.
Here are the main things to consider:
* Price: put down your maximum price. Don’t expect great service for a dollar a month.
* Scripting: what scripting technology needs to be supported?
* Database: what database your web site requires?
* Disk space.
* Bandwidth: the amount of data transfer.
Second, is there any web host that you like/prefer? If there is, then go with them. If you have any doubts, though, keep reading.
For instance, we like Hosting ZOOM.
Now, find 3-4 hosts that meet your basic criteria that you just wrote down. Write down the names of the web hosts in the first column.
We’re now going to look at each one of them and see how well they compare.
Price Freeze Guarantee
Ever heard of these? With a price freeze guarantee your price won’t go up if the web hosts pricing changes.
Well, the catch is that your price won’t go down either…
You should know that for the last several years the prices of webhosting services have gone down steadily giving an additional incentive for the web hosts to advertise this guarantee.
What you should find out from the web host is this: if the web host lowers or increases the prices on your package, will they lower/increase your price as well? Does it still hold if you pre-paid for the whole year? Email them and ask. And note the time it takes for them to respond.
In Business Since?
How long have they been in business?
This a very simple piece of information to find out about a web host. You’ll notice that web hosting companies that have been in business for long will have the date prominently displayed on their website. Whereas, a new company can even hide this information.
Why is this important? Because you don’t want your web host to go out of business. Generally, one can assume that the longer the web hosting company is in the business, the lower the chance of them quitting.
Now, any web host can go belly up anytime but if they’ve been in the web hosting business for 3 years or more, you can assume they are making some money, because, one may assume again, most hosts are small businesses and don’t have a lot of capital to keep running unprofitably for a long period of time.
Get Web Host Feedback
What are others saying? Check the web hosting message boards. There’s plenty of information and feedback on most hosts.
And if you can’t find your host mentioned anywhere, simply ask! Registration is usually free and so many people read the web hosting boards that you should get an answer quickly.
Once you find feedback on your hosts, check the date the feedback was left–old feedback is…well, old.
Also, see the severity of the complaints. Not all sins are equal. And always find more than one post about a particular web host before you make any decisions.
Alright, now search for the feedback on your web hosts. Make sure to find at least 4 posts about each of them. For each positive feedback put + in your evaluation sheet after the web host’s name and for each negative put a -.
In the Part 2 & 3 we will cover these topics:
Web Host Location
Web Host Support System
Adult Sites and Proxies
Spam Blacklisting
Web Host Uptime
Refund Guarantee
Set-up Fee Scam
Help Moving Your Site
Resource Allocation
Shared vs. Reseller
Crowded Servers
Thanks for reading and stay tuned! best-webhosting-provider.com
About the Author
Web developer. Interests in turnkey websites for home based businesses available at blogadsnet.com.
Big Blue Web Hosting Lives Up to its Name
“Big Blue” Lives Up to its Name
When it comes to web hosting, “Big Blue” lives up to its name. IBM is a major player in the web hosting industry and has been achieving some significant customer wins. Some industry experts see large enterprise customers continuing to shift to firms like IBM, due in part, to their fiscal strength in an environment where hosting start-ups remain questionable for deploying business-critical applications.
On November 16th, IBM inked a deal with Dow Chemical to provide a five-year arrangement for the company’s end-to-end web hosting services. The contract covered all three stages of the Web production cycle – development, testing and production environments.
IBM’s strength in winning corporate customers is partially a result of the company’s large network of partners. For example, IBM has extensive relationships with telecom companies; some of which even compete with IBM for the same hosting clients.
Warren Hart, Director of Global Offerings in eBusiness Hosting Services for IBM says working with the Telco’s and network providers, instead of against them, is a win-win situation for IBM, it’s partners and their clients.
“By having multiple network bandwidth procedures, it helps ensure availability and elevates services level performance,” Hart said. “We’re a huge fans of our [Telco] partners, but the advantage of IBM working alongside them goes to our customers who have a business focused on their needs.”
IBM’s differentiation factor is that it brings to the table not only a solid infrastructure; facilitated in part by partners, but also extensive online business practices. IBM has developed applications for many large-scale events and companies. Few in the technology industry would question IBM’s grasp of the technological side of the hosting realm. Their deeply rooted technology-background is a unique attribute that provides IBM a competitive advantage over other hosts (including telcos).
Yet, IBM’s efforts in application hosting are shifting beyond the enterprise marketplace to the SME environment. As the upscale SME hosting market evolves, their remains a considerable battle ahead for marketshare. Some pundits have expressed concern that IBM may not be able to apply the same level of service offerings to the SME marketplace, due to the value-nature of smaller contracts. However, IBM is clearly positioning themselves to the contrary.
“As a global organization we address more than the large enterprise,” Hart stated. “We have a great reputation and a strong track record in dealing with highly complex enterprise businesses, but there’s a substantial opportunity out there that reaches beyond the large enterprise.”
IBM does have the advantage that the company can take software and services tried, tested and true for enterprises and scale them to meet the needs of SME hosting requirements. Obviously the average SME isn’t going to need the same hosting solutions as the huge corporations and eBusiness sites , but they do want the reliability, speed and trust that’s relative to the name IBM.
“We’re increasingly focusing on the SME level,” Hart said. “We can lower our costs for the entry-level business. We’re more flexible, we can offer more attributes of self-services applications.”
Paul Boulay, Program Director, Global Application Services for IBM Global Services notes that IBM is the one-stop-shop for SME, alleviating the hassle of having to go to different businesses to obtain the services they need.
“Especially of interest in the small-medium business environment, where in the past the getting-started price tag was almost an automatic inhibitor, we’re able to go to that market segment now with a predefined offering allowing them to get up and running very quickly at very low starting costs,” Boulay explains. “Some of our entry-level offerings are priced well below $20,000 a month, which is extremely favorable for these types of applications.”
IBM has over 200 data center facilities around the world and is reinforcing global reach, both for the enterprise and SME hosting marketplaces. However, with more than 67 discrete web hosting offerings, and the added confusion of application hosting, time will remain the determinant as to whether IBM can achieve simultaneous success in serving both the enterprise and SME hosting platforms.”
About the Author
Hosting Article Creator – Companies like ipowerweb.com, midphase.com, weblinkhosting.com, lunarpages.com.