One of the first decisions to make while choosing web hosting is – what platform to opt for? Windows or Linux? PHP or ASP?

First of all, note that sites with static pages such as blogs can run on either Windows or Linux hosting platforms. These only use HTML and CSS, which are supported equally well by both operating systems.

When you require dynamic content on your website, such as eCommerce facilities, forums or other forms of scripting, then you need to pay attention to your hosting platform.

Traditionally, Linux servers are used for scripts based on PHP or Perl. These scripts include Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla and many other blogging or content management systems. Windows servers, on the contrary, are used with scripts written in ASP, ASP(dot)Net or Access. MySQL works equally well with both Windows and Linux. Today, cross-platform scripting – that is, scripting with PHP/Perl on Windows or with ASP/ASP(dot)NET/Access on Linux – is permitted by some ISPs.

However, cross-platform scripting will never give the smooth performance that a program does when run on its native platform – it is a bit like using emulators to run programs that are not native to the OS. There is one exception here, though – PHP runs equally well on Windows and Linux, so Linux-based hosting is no longer essential to run PHP-based scripts and applications.

Most computer geeks will advise you to go for Linux hosting, as Unix – on which Linux is based – is a far more secure and stable platform than Windows’ alternative. While this is demonstrably true – think of the millions of viruses for Windows systems, and the rare bug that crops up in Linux – it is also true that efficient server administration can render a Windows system as secure as a Linux one.

Speedwise, there is no clear winner between Windows and Linux. Some things work faster on Windows, while others work faster on Linux. So to choose between operating systems, cost and security would have to be the deciding factors. Linux here is substantially cheaper, as it is an open-source system, and most of its applications are also under GNU public licenses – in other words, free. Windows hosting comes with the added cost of the OS, and certain applications that the hosting company has to continually pay for.

As for the ASP-PHP comparison, ASP is almost universally the winner where speed is concerned. However, the learning curve in ASP or ASP(dot)NET is much steeper than in PHP – something that can backfire for advanced users looking for greater control and freedom. PHP, however, is still one of the most popular scripts around thanks to its versatility and the solid, useful applications being written using it.

In the end, choosing between Windows ASP and Linux PHP as hosting platforms becomes a matter of individual preference and contingent need. Depending on your budget, security concerns and familiarity with the computer language, you can pick either of them and successfully run a dynamic website for a long time to come.

By: Darren W Chow

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best asp hosting

Front page web hosting is a server plat form that has the ability to support this popular scripting software from Microsoft.

If you are keen to know about the platform that supports a FrontPage, let us make you aware of the fact that any web hosting provider that is reputable, should Be able to support Microsoft front page well.

However it is always better to check out within the provider to make sure whether Microsoft front page is supported by a particular web hosting service, most of the providers often list the scripting software that are supported by their hosting plans.

The list is often listed on their web sites. If you cannot find the list, there is nothing to be worried about. Your queries will be answered over a phone or email enquiry. Front page web hosting will often also support other support other software and tools such as ASP, ASP, NET, PHS and MYSQL data base programming.

The important thing to observe is that the hosting plat form is for Microsoft and not UNIX technologies. Plat forms will either support one or the other, but most of today’s popular competitively priced hosting packages are Microsoft oriented. But we would like to worn you again that you should always check to make sure you know what exactly you are getting the front page software is quite popular with the web site builders and designers as it is quite reasonable and user friendly.

It is equipped with pre made templates for quick and easy website launching.

There are also some more complicated e-commerce templates for heavier dusty shopping.

Their dynamic software also features ASP add-ins, which provides visitors with an exciting interactive experience through new groups.

Surveys, audio/video and interactive chats, a Web creator can utilize these technologies to enhance his/ creativity and build web sites that are more user friendly and good to view.

If you are vying for the best in front page web hosting, you should settle for nothing less than a Microsoft certification. This certificate authenticates the fact that the host company is a Microsoft – registered provider of front page hosting platforms.

The company is also support to offer FrontPage server extensions in its hosting plans. You are also guaranteed a 30 days money back guarantee if they don’t meet or offer you the standard.

By: Andy Eaton

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best asp hosting

A website hosting is the service that makes your site accessible to the general public and lets them know what you are selling or trying to communicate. Website hosting can happen in a variety of ways. Therefore, it is recommended that you research the features that are available and that you need and then you can make the best possible choice in which service to have host your site.

If you are planning to put up your own personal website, then the most important to take into consideration first is what kind of web hosting service you want to avail. There are various web hosting services available online that have varied qualifications. You could easily search online about web hosting services and some of these are offered at no cost.

It becomes clear very quickly that web hosting firms provide different sorts of package deals and have features that differ from those of their competitors. The particular features we are about to discuss should be checked as soon as you consider using a web hosting service, since they can simplify the entire process for you.

Initially, you must check the amount of web space they will give you. This is measured in terms of the quantity of files that can be stored on their server. Clearly, the more space you get, the more sub-domains that can be hosted there. If space is not a problem, the installation of more programs in the future won’t pose any difficulty either.

The next consideration you have to turn your thoughts to is the total sum of permissible traffic. Frequently firms track the traffic on each of the sites they host. For your purposes, you would really like to have no limitations on your traffic. When a limit exists, a potential visitor who registers on the tracking system as being above that limit never gets to see your website load. This can create a very bad impression of your site in the would-be visitor’s mind.

Third is the concern over server uptime. If in your control, you want to keep your site up all of the time, which is what all businesses want. This trait is reliant on the server of the company hosting your site. You should take steps to guarantee that you do business with a reputable company that can keep your server running.

The fourth component to be taken into consideration is to make sure that software, applications and other things are included. This is generally where the perks start coming as there are many hosting companies that will provide application and software installation. There are a variety of web hosting scripts and programs available today. Try to look for which programs the web hosting service supports to find out if your web page will work with their service.

By: Tem Balanco

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best asp hosting

Finding a web hosting in Kenya took me more than days. I should say it took me weeks. I started off with some local providers like the Africa online and Kenya web. But soon found that the Bandwidth I required was not provided. I also came to know that some of my friends and clients in the America were not able to see my website due to the Bandwidth limits. After a lot of procrastination, I came to the conclusion that I should use a provider who is global and not a local provider. At the end of the day it does not matter where I host my website as long as every one around can access it.

So what’s all about the Web hosting in Kenya which makes it so bad?

Poor infrastructure. Very bad customer service Poor Turn Around time Google Hardly recognizes my website. That was enough to tell me that I had to move forward with a decent web hosting provider. But who can give me a decent hosting for a limited budget? I had to pick some Funny Indian company which would probably rip my money off and not provide anything.

I tried a few, some went off the Roof. It was worse than that of Kenya. It was nearly when I gave up that I found a decent web hosting company. The rates they gave were quite decent and payment was accepted through credit cards. Service was Excellent. And for a money back guarantee, I was taking the risk of not losing anything at all.

It worked at last. Today, Kenyan Hosting companies charge a bomb of money for hosting and I get it at a fraction of the amount. 99% up time and much more than anything the Kenyan local company can provide. So why go for a web hosting company in Kenya. Shoot out for someone who will charge you lesser and will of course be worth your while and money.

By: Rajiv Sahadevan

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Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

It is a pain searching for the correct web hosting provider, and the difference between a good one and a bad one can make or spoil your online experience. This can be disastrous, especially if you are conducting your business online. There are many things that you need to look out for, before you finally settle for someone who can be entrusted with the task of putting your webpage on their server. Most people look at trivial things like unlimited disk space and bandwidth when selecting an organization. This shows their narrow outlook.

They never bother to check out whether the company they have selected is reputed or not and whether it is trusted internationally or not. The service part is that most people forget to check when on the lookout for a provider. They should not forget that problems might arise at any point of time, hence, they should be sure that their web hosting provider should have a trained staff who are available 24 hours a day 365 days a year. If one thinks about it, there are few people who need these unlimited stuffs. They should be more concerned about the uptime of the server in which their webpage is hosted.

Nobody loves to visit a site and find that it is down. Chances are bright that they will never visit that site again. These are some of the vital things that are required for a business to be successful on the net. It is but obvious that you shall also correspond with your clients during the course of your business and if your email shows your domain name, it increases the value of your business in the eye of your client. However most people fear to setup an email client! It is not an easy task setting up various parameters and folders to ensure that each and every email reaches its designated inbox.

This poses no problems if the web hosting organization provides an easy to configure webmail client as a part of the hosting deal. This will save you lots of problems and will also ensure that your email identity is a part of your business domain name. This is something that you should demand and get for no additional charge. There is no need for you to waste time configuring a standard email client when you get an easily configurable webmail client for free.

By: Nitin Saini

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Caffeinated Content

The Internet is the fastest growing form of media and features over 50 million websites and this superhighway only seems to be getting busier with its ever-growing expansion. The huge number of websites active on the World Wide Web has created a huge demand for the emergence of web hosting companies. To the novice player, find the right web hosting company could come across as a daunting task. It therefore becomes important to become equipped with the basics of web hosting business including the industry jargons or terminology used in the hosting industry.

An amateur web master may not be familiar with the common web hosting terms and this could make the selection process quite complicated. Listed below is a glossary of hosting terms that would help you figure out what’s what in the web hosting industry.

Alias:

Aliases are used to identify different email accounts and can also redirect the mail to other POP3 accounts or to other folders within the same email address. A catch-all alias can be used to process e-mail from unknown senders, and is often known as a “junk-mail” sorter.

Auto-Responders:

While auto-responders are not email accounts in themselves, they are assigned an email address and it auto-respond to anyone who sends them an email. The reply is a pre-formatted email and every response is identical to the corresponding queries or concerns.

Bandwidth:

Bandwidth is a term used to describe the amount of data that can pass through a communications channel (such as an Internet connection) in a given period of time. Bandwidth is often measured monthly.

Browser:

A browser is a program that allows access to the web visually by allowing requests from special files known as HyperText Markup Language. The Internet Explorer program from Microsoft is the most popular among other browsers.

Client

A client is a computer program that can download files for editing, run applications, or request application based services from a file server.

Dedicated Hosting:

Dedicated hosting is an ideal option for websites that receive high amounts of traffic. The user gets access to an entire server with the dedicated hosting service and has access to all its resources.

DNS:

DNS stands for “Domain Name System” and facilitates easy differentiation between different institutions like .com, .us, .ca etc.

Domain Parking:

Domain Parking refers to when individuals or companies buy the domain names before they are ready to use them.

FTP:

File Transfer Protocol governs the transfer of files between computers over a network.

Gigabyte:

A gigabyte is a unit of computer memory or data storage capacity equal to 1,024 megabytes. One Gigabyte (Gb) is equal to about one billion bytes (230 bytes).

HTML and HTTP:

HyperText Markup Language is a computer language used to structure the text and multimedia documents of a website as well as create hypertext links between electronic documents.
HTTP or HyperText Transfer Protocol is used to request and transmit web pages and web page components over the Internet or other computer networks.

ISP:

This is an acronym for Internet Server Provider

By: Bob Willis

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Kansieo.com

Having a dedicated server hosting account provides more flexibility for a company that needs to acquire hosting for their website. It also allows the client to have much more control over the server, or servers, that are being used. Some of the control that is available for dedicated hosting accounts, which is not available with shared hosting packages, is having a choice of operating system that is used, customized script installations and hardware choices.

A dedicated hosting service, which is often referred to as a dedicated server or managed dedicated server hosting, is one specific type of internet website hosting that a company can choose, in order to get the site files uploaded and have their website displayed online. When a client chooses any type of dedicated hosting, they lease the entire server and it is not shared with other clients of the hosting company.

There are many instances where a company with a growing web presence will hesitate to make the move to a dedicated server hosting arrangement. They have the mistaken idea that it means the dedicated servers have to be housed and managed on-site. In reality, most of the websites that are run on dedicated servers are located on the premises of the managed dedicated hosting company, which provides round the clock maintenance and support.

Managed dedicated server hosting is a beneficial choice because the hosting client has the security of knowing that they are the only one using the server and that it is 100% exclusively used for their website needs only. This eliminates issues of potential downtime that might be caused by problems on another website that is on the same server and with security issues as well. Many companies have a great deal of proprietary information and customer databases that need to be protected, and managed dedicated servers help to add an additional layer of data safety.

While shared web hosting plan options are less expensive, they are also less secure. In addition to the security issues, there are also accessibility issues that should be considered. If another site on a shared server has a large promotion and experiences a sudden surge in traffic, then that could cause all websites on that server to load slowly or even be inaccessible for periods of time. With a dedicated hosting service, the only traffic flow that needs to be considered and planned for is under the control and plans of the company using the dedicated hosting.

Dedicated hosting services is the best choice when a website project is considered to be “mission-critical” and when the site owner wants to concentrate on the content development and design elements of the site and leave all the technical issues to the experts. The web server hosting providers that offer dedicated server management are responsible for having a technical support staff available around the clock to immediately take care of problems, and assure that the server is up and running at all times.

When a company is new or has a fairly minor presence on the internet, shared hosting is usually more than sufficient and is a budget friendly choice. However, as the traffic demands and complexity of the website grows, then a dedicated server hosting account will likely become a necessity at some point.

By: Mike Selvon

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Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

There are so many hosting providers that claim to be the best website hosting provider in the world. Surely, not all these are what they say they are. For the typical website owner or administrator, how would you know what makes a web hosting service the best? Here are some tips:

1. Check out your web hosting service provider’s uptime: The best website hosting is one that is up at about 99.99% of the time. This translates to your site being available 99.99% of the time. Of course, it should be told that you cannot expect the good website hosts to be up 100% of the time. There are downtimes in the services since they need to do maintenance work on their servers. This allows them to consistently provide you with good service.

2. Select a platform that best suit your needs: All top web hosting services will either come in Linux or Windows platform. There are advantages and disadvantages to either one. You need to choose the best website hosting that fits with your site’s needs; i.e. the language you use to write the web pages. Certain scripting languages, such as ASP, require a Windows hosting services. Likewise, there are certain languages that are best with Linux hosting services.

At the same time, the platform of the web service also affects the security and stability of your web pages. Many technical experts agree that Linux servers are more secure and more stable than their counterparts. Of course, this does not mean it is the best website hosting platform – there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

3. Know what you get as site administrator: The top services come with some of the best site administrator features. For one thing, the site administrator interface should be easy to figure out; that is, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist in order to get anything done.

4. Next, a professional service should come packed with nice pre-installed software. These software programs are simple scripting packages you can readily use for your site as, say, your content management system, opt-in subscription system and the like. The best website hosting should, more or less, know what you need as a site owner and have this available to you. As example, some of the professional services offer CPanel site administration services and the Fantastico set of pre-installed software programs.

By: James Clarke

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Website content