-What is UNIX Hosting

UNIX hosting is the most common web hosting platform today. The term UNIX refers to a computer operating system which provides the base operating system architecture for many open source companies including Solaris (Sun), Linux (GNU) and others. UNIX has been around for years and is the choice language for mid-frame computer users. UNIX hosting solutions is considered more available due to open source distribution of its operating system. LINUX hosting is a version of UNIX that has gained popularity because of its stability as an operating system. You will find these two terms being used interchangeably, which effectively refers to the same type of hosting solution.

-When it comes to choosing between UNIX and Windows hosting, the main thing to look for is what functions and programming languages that will be required by your website. Primarily, it is a choice between PHP and ASP, in which the former comes with UNIX hosting while the latter comes with Windows hosting. In addition, for plain and ordinary web sites which uses HTML pages with no or little database or dynamic pages, in most cases UNIX hosting would be the best option. UNIX should also be the option should your web site requirements include the use of PERL, PHP or Python.

-UNIX hosting is associated with reliability, security and high-performance. UNIX hosting is an open system, which means that its source code is publicly available for free from various web sites. In addition, UNIX hosting providers usually provide free tools and applications that have been written primarily for the UNIX community. These companies are also more technically oriented and most of the systems on offer are custom designed. In terms of complexity, UNIX hosting is a very cost-effective choice, due to its efficient use of hardware. This enables an increased web sites per server ratio, resulting in a decrease of cost of hosting. Naturally for this reason, UNIX hosting is normally cheaper than Windows hosting.

-For those concerned on e-Commerce solutions, most UNIX website hosting plans come with features such as free shopping carts. Websites hosted in UNIX web hosting services normally have very high up-time in the order of 99%. Therefore, UNIX website hosting for e-commerce is the logical choice and has become a trend in the market.

-The main disadvantage of using UNIX hosting is that your provider may only allow access to your account via Telnet or SSH. Also, when considering the UNIX operating system and UNIX hosting, users need to consider their own technical abilities. A strong working knowledge of UNIX commands is an advantage in order to do customizations beyond the basic needs. There’ll be some minimal time required on learning the basics before you can fully utilize the advantages of UNIX hosting.

-In conclusion, the UNIX hosting solution should be your choice if you are using PHP scripting for your website, and also if your website is pretty basic with mainly HTML language. It is also a more affordable option compared to Windows hosting due to its open-source concept. On top of all, it is widely regarded as more stable, secure and scalable.

What is Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting is a type of web hosting package where we can split up the allocated bandwidth and disk space of a hosting account, and then resell to other individual users as separate hosting accounts. It effectively means that we can buy hosting space from providers in bulk and then subdivide it to be resold to other customers. It is a method for people to start making money of their own with web hosting. Interestingly, reseller hosting requires very little knowledge on how to get started. Hence, practically everyone who is comfortable with the internet can start their own reseller hosting business.

-The reseller hosting concept is a rapidly growing industry. This is due to the simple fact that it is an inexpensive way for hosting entrepreneurs to start doing business in this field. This type of hosting is normally used by companies or individuals who want to start a small web hosting company, and also chosen by developers, designers or internet consultants. From the cost point of view, it is a cost-efficient method for webmasters who want to manage and host multiple number of sites with separate control panels. It definitely has the potential to be a very profitable business if the costs and margins are well-managed. Resellers are able to offer custom-made hosting packages for specific customers that perhaps not offered by any of the current hosting providers. This added by the fact that resellers can better control the quality of service since they can pick their servers of choice.

-In most cases, the resellers will be given freedom by the hosting provider to create their own packages and offers. Alternatively, most hosting providers would offer predefined packages for resellers to directly sell to customers. Some hosting providers even provide ready sites for resellers to use as a platform to promote their products. To manage the hosting accounts, resellers will be given an interface called the Web Hosting Manager. From there, they can get access to features which typically include payment systems, forms, applications and others. From here, resellers can manage their tasks such as adding domains and setting up DNS entries.
Overall, reseller hosting is great for small businesses or even individuals who intend to generate online profit through the web hosting business. Fortunately, the amount of effort required for resellers to set up this business has been greatly reduced by the ready-made hosting packages and website templates offered by hosting providers. This enables resellers to immediately launch their business without too much start-up hassle and effort. Considering that the market for web hosting is huge, there will be no shortage of demand and there are always opportunities for you in this business

What is PHP Hosting

PHP hosting is a server-side scripting environment that is used to create dynamic web pages. PHP is an abbreviation for Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source language widely used by programmers and web developers. The fact that it is open source gives it a lot of advantages over proprietary programming languages. Due to this reason, PHP has been the most famous server-side scripting language and almost all hosting providers offer PHP hosting services nowadays.

-PHP is an object oriented language. The way PHP hosting works is that the web server would filter a request document using PHP and generates the output from PHP to the web browser. These documents are usually in HTML format with PHP tags inside. The tags can be run on both Windows and UNIX servers. In terms of output text, PHP is capable to generate any format such as XHTML and XML.

-With PHP, web developers would be able to perform any CGI tasks, such as generate dynamic contents or send and receive cookies. PHP is also capable of outputting PDF files, Flash videos and images on the fly at high speed. This is possible due to its ability to save the required files in its file system and forming a server-side cache.

-There are a host of advantages of using a PHP hosting. For beginners, it is a relatively easy language to learn and work on. While for seasoned developers, there are a lot of advanced applications and features that comes with PHP hosting. In terms of cost, it is one of the cheapest hosting solutions as it is an open-source technology. There are also programming tools that come free with PHP hosting, contributed by programmers worldwide.

-PHP is especially strong in relational databases, which are used for dynamic contents, product catalogs and e-commerce applications. The relational database application that comes with PHP is called MySQL, which is also open-source. It is known for its high reliability, precision and flexibility. These advantages have made it the more preferred alternative compared to proprietary databases systems.

-Overall, PHP hosting is one of the most complete hosting packages available in the industry. It is perfect both for beginners who require easy-to-use hosting services and for advanced users who require powerful web applications. The value that it offers is even more significant due to its inexpensive pricing, especially compared to proprietary hosting services.

Managed hosting is a hosting solution whereby the hosting provider takes care of all the running and administrative tasks of your dedicated server. It is the perfect solution for customers who are looking for a full turnkey service of managing a web server, encompassing hardware, software, space, network and all related requirements. It is commonly subscribed by companies who are looking for a dedicated support to provide 100% service uptime while maintaining a level of control on their servers. The infrastructure, technical support and responsiveness of support provided by the hosting provider are definitely greater than other hosting services.

-Managed hosting breaks the traditional method of having to spend capital expenditure up front in purchasing and setting up hardware and software for a server, into an operating expenditure-based model of paying monthly fee for a fully managed service. From a company’s point of view, it is very similar to outsourcing the IT and technical aspects of their online business.

-This hosting service is ideal for large online businesses that prefer to focus their effort on their core business rather than having to spend extra resources and time of managing their dedicated servers. Managed hosting greatly alleviates the issues security and performance normally associated to an unmanaged or shared hosting environment. While looking expensive on the outset, managed hosting is actually the cost-effective solution due to the fact that technical expertise, uptime, responsiveness and reliable infrastructure will be guaranteed at a fixed cost.

-The service included in a managed hosting extends to products such as private networks, database administration and security products. There are also hosting providers that include managed SQL server hosting services. In terms of server administration, customers can expect services such as load balancing, managed storage, database hosting, connectivity, reporting and monitoring of their servers. Physical maintenance such as equipment servicing would also be covered by the hosting providers. For an additional fee, hosting providers also normally offer software-related services. Definitely this is a solution for webmasters and companies who require fully managed services while maintaining control over the server.

What is FrontPage Hosting

FrontPage Hosting is a niche market offering in terms of support for a web authoring software product. It is run on a Windows operating system. The FrontPage software itself refers to a complete package for web site creation, flexible web site management, and the ability to edit and format HTML. All these can be done through an interface that is user-friendly and easy to use especially for those already familiar with Microsoft Office. FrontPage hosting is designed for users who use a lot of dynamic functions for their websites and require FrontPage specific features like photo gallery, active web pages or if they are running FrontPage bots. It is a great platform for users who want to host their small or large e-commerce sites.

-FrontPage Hosting is comparable with the normal hosting services but is differentiated by its ability to support for various FrontPage extensions. In fact, FrontPage can only work in perfection if the hosting provider has FrontPage Server Extensions installed. In terms of price, the normal cost for a FrontPage hosting is comparable to the normal Windows or UNIX hosting.

-In view to extend the functionality and capabilities of the FrontPage hosting, FrontPage version 2003 was developed. It offers additional useful features such as a new photo gallery, usage analysis reports and instant team web sites. The features such as easy-to-use dropdown menus, check boxes and radio buttons enables easy website development and ensures pleasant experience for beginners in web development. There are also dynamic web templates for quick site modification. Remote sites can be connected to easily using the web import dialog can Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). It also provides a great advantage for data-driven websites where people can be connected in various methods through Extensible Markup Language (XML), using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor.

-In conclusion, FrontPage hosting is a very feature-rich solution especially for beginners in web development who are already familiar with the Microsoft Office environment. The FrontPage web development software works perfectly with FrontPage hosting, which is designed to support the FrontPage extensions. This is the right solution if you are looking for a web hosting and web development environment that is easy and quick to learn through a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

What is Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is a hosting environment where one or more servers are dedicated for a single client. The client effectively leases the server from the hosting provider. The hosting provider provides the server machine, the connectivity and the required software and operating system to run the server. Dedicated hosting can also be split into two categories — managed and unmanaged dedicated hosting. For managed dedicated hosting, the hosting provider will provide the services of running and maintaining the server within their own datacenter. This is a good choice if you don’t have the personnel, money or time to operate a server in-house. This is the choice for web developers who do not want to be bogged down by server management activities. While for unmanaged dedicated hosting, there will be a lot of support and maintenance features that are not provided by the hosting provider and will be done by the customers themselves. This is normally the hosting choice for system administrators who want to manage their servers themselves.

-Dedicated hosting is the opposite of shared hosting where the resources are shared among different customers. It is crucial for large and complex websites that require plenty of disk space, bandwidth, applications and software to operate. This hosting type is the perfect choice for websites to maintain a high volume of traffic and fast data transfer. It enables the webmasters to have total control of their website since the performance of their websites is only controlled by internal factors and not by other websites. For web developers, installation and embedding of complex applications such as online shopping tools and automated tools can be done without affecting the stability of the servers.

-It is important that you find out the range of services offered by different hosting providers as there is no standard set out for managed dedicated hosting. There will be different levels of support provided, depending on the packages and requirements by the customer. There are also different set ups and maintenance scope for the servers. For example, there are hosting providers who provide a shared infrastructure for backend database while the clients host their applications on a dedicated server. Conversely, there are also configurations whereby the application is hosted on a shared infrastructure while the backend database on dedicated server.
In terms of security, the control of security features for a dedicated hosting is far greater compared to a shared hosting. For a dedicated hosting service, the hosting provider will normally provide extreme security features to combat potential security threats to the hosted websites. Additionally, the dedicated server can only be accessed by the site owner and the hosting provider, meaning that there will be fewer possibilities of security breaches.

-In summary, the take-up for dedicated hosting will definitely increase significantly due to the booming of complex e-commerce websites and various enhanced functionalities that websites are able to offer, thus requiring more resources and stability on the hosting platform. For beginners, the idea is to start small with shared hosting, then to scale up the hosting capabilities together with the website’s functionalities, and eventually moving to a dedicated hosting environment.

What is CPannel

-Cpanel is an easy to use interface for web maintenance. cPanel is the leading web hosting control panel available today. Even a user completely new to web hosting can easily manage his/her own website. With the Cpanel hosting interface, you’ll have complete control over your website. When looking for a hosting package, CPanel is also a good indicator of the reliability of the hosting provider. The most well known and reliable web hosts would normally provide web hosting plans that are powered by cPanel control panel. cPanel hosting plans that are on the market predominantly support PHP and MySQL, FrontPage, Fantastico and RVSkins.

-With CPanel, you will have access to lots of useful stats such as disk usage and space, bandwidth usage and sub domains through cpanel. The current version of CPanel is CPanel 11 or CPanel X, which gives you full control of every aspect of your account. Hosting packages that come with CPanel are a very cost effective solution as they allow you to host multiple web sites under the same account. Another very useful program-Fantastico can be directly managed from the cPanel control panel. Essentially, what Cpanel does is that it condenses the dozens of commands needed to complete one task to a single mouse click. CPanel takes care of tedious and complicated tasks, such as a simple change to the content of your web page, password protecting portions of your web site, or deleting a table in one of your databases. All these can easily be done just by some minor input from the end users. For webmasters that require assistance on web building, certain hosting companies would also provide cPanel control panel that comes with a range of powerful online building tools. Customers can use these tools to create, configure and launch their website.

-Other available control panels normally restricts your ability to manage your website to just the basic functions like creating email addresses, managing files and adding sub domain names. Cpanel provides much more than these basic tasks, allowing access to the more advanced functions, such as MIME types, cron jobs, OpenPGP keys, Apache handlers, addon domains, password protected directories and a lot more. For the basic users, CPanel still provide the typical program such as to add or remove email accounts, view website statistics, install different PHP / mySql scripts, get access to your online Web Mail and more. Some other functions of CPanel are to create a POP or default email account, autoresponder, subdomain, custom error pages. Users can also create an MySQL database PHPMyAdmin to manage databases, install FrontPage extensions, redirect a URL, redirect mail change, create an add-on domain, create a FTP account and to password-protect a directory. All these vast array of programs would normally come with tutorials to assist users especially newbies to ensure that using CPanel would be an ease.

-In summary, CPanel is an integrated program that combines the requirements of basic to advanced users in one user-friendly interface. It definitely will save you a lot of time and hassle of completing your tasks manually. The best fact is that it is directly linked to Fantastico, enabling users access to a multitude of programs that are extremely useful for managing websites.

What is coldfusion hosting

-ColdFusion hosting is a server-side scripting language which is similar to PHP or ASP. A product of Macromedia, it is considered as a complete web application server for not only basic hosting, but extends to developing and delivering scaleable e-commerce applications especially for business websites. Mostly, ColdFusion is utilized in small and large businesses, and also for some advanced personal uses. It is due to the fact that in a short space of time, users will be able to create robust Web applications coupled with advanced data integration.

-Since it is a server-side technology, ColdFusion hosting works by having a web server to process and deliver web applications, rather than just plain web pages. The language used is called ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) which includes tags for querying databases, outputting text and interacting with different web services. The language uses tags and attributes, similar to XHTML, for the codes that interact with the website and its back-end functions. CFML is relatively much simpler than languages like C++. However, a strong understanding in HTML coding and relational database design is still very important.

-From a web developer’s point of view, ColdFusion hosting requires less learning time and fewer code lines compared to ASP, PHP or JSP. Developers can develop their application locally using various tools such as ColdFusion Studio and only move to the real ColdFusion server when fully ready. The capabilities of ColdFusion hosting encompasses shopping cart-enabled web store,,back-end support for interactive Flash applications and to the extent of building a global network for a company.

-In terms of cost, due to the expensive cost to set up a ColdFusion server and engine, the price for this type of hosting is normally more expensive than the normal UNIX and Windows hosting. However, with the unrivalled advanced features that it provides, and the availability of shared ColdFusion server, the hosting price has come out to be very competitive.

-Overall, ColdFusion hosting is a technology that helps to build powerful web applications and services. Its biggest advantage over other hosting types is the simplicity that it offers to develop websites that would otherwise be more complex if coded in ASP, PHP or JSP. In short, ColdFusion hosting delivers powerful web capabilities using an easy-to-learn and highly productive server-side scripting environment.

The importances of customer support in hosting

So why is customer support all that important in a hosting service? Simple! Imagine your self working hard on a site and you finally get a quite popular one with an impressive amount of daily visitors. Let’s say it’s a very popular forum. And all of a sudden system gets crash. So you have to come up with silly reasons to tell to the visitors, why is the site down and why can’t they access their accounts. Most importantly you don’t know if it’s permanent or is it just some temporary down time. And believe me, by the experience that I have, when that happens you are in quite a pickle. All of that can be avoided if you have customer service. They will tell you what is wrong, when will the server be up again etc.
So how do I find a hosting service with customer service?
Well just search the web for a bit. Now a day almost every hosting website has that already in the cheapest hosting package. After all you wouldn’t want to be stranded all alone in a situation like that. Because of such technological advancement and lots of researches, there are many sites and companies, which promise you everything. The customer service can even serve you like a critic. If the company doesn’t provide it to all of the packages, than that means it’s not a too good company, now is it? How can they host servers for people and sites if they can’t even manage some customer service and support?
-Usually sites with a lot of money and a big capital have such things installed because the consulting staff is not cheap at all, as a result to that we can conclude that companies with customer support care about their clients. The consulting staff is paid like normal workers, even more if they have good knowledge and that’s how you know that you won’t be left down. So what does it cost you to search the web for a new and better service with some consulting involved in it, having help when you need it and finding a good hosting company just for you?
But don’t be fooled. All customer services aren’t all that good. A quick response and resolution time of the crew is a must when talking about quality. When you talk to the staff they have to make you feel good, and can communicate fast, clear and without complications.
Still don’t understand the benefits of the whole thing?
-Think of it in this way. The Customer service is actually like a hand that guides you, so you can’t actually make mistakes. The only mistake that you can do is at the very beginning. That is choosing a wrong hosting service or a free package, that doesn’t include the support. So just don’t be lazy and search for a better company, a company with pizzazz, a company WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE that won’t let you down.

How to find and avoid overselling hosting companies

If you are reading this you probably need help on choosing a good provider as a hosting service. In the last ten years the pc industry has reached its limit. As a result to that there is even more competition than ever before. But not all services are good. They will promise everything and than once you pay them, they WILL leave you in the dust.
How can I avoid being cheated?

-The so called frauds usually make a quite good review and story about their companies so if you can’t distinguish silly offers and if you don’t have some experience, than you are an easy target. Keep in mind. Most of the providers just care about money and not you and you needs. Here are some examples of a silly offer:

-5000 GB of transfer, 500 GB of space, 1 free domain etc. just for 4$/month - 5000 GB of transfer, 500 GB of space, 1 free domain etc. + the site creation for just 10$/month
These 2 are just examples. Hardly anyone can fall for them. But in the real life, the offers can be much more cunning.

Some companies won’t even answer you the second you pay them by paypal or some other bank account. That’s usually considered the easiest way of getting money.
If you are just starting in this business than you should follow these steps so you can at least have an idea on which are real offers and professional providers, and which are the ones that just want to steal your money.
Examples: » Cheaper is not always better, experienced webmasters say - you get what you pay for. » Look for hosts who have multiple support options. » Find out how long the hosting company has been in business. » Chances are if the company’s main website is slow, yours will be too.

Anyway once you start getting in stuff like this, you’ll probably be able to figure out the frauds from the honest providers.
Also their own site can be used as a critic. You should be able to judge if the site is done professionally or not. If they can’t make a good enough site, believe me, than they can’t provide even the basic hosting. But don’t be fooled, some companies hire some cheap web designer to make an appealing site for them.
Actually when I think of it it’s all about luck and some brains. But is there a technique so that I don’t waste my money?

- Actually there is. Have you ever seen the ad “free web hosting”, if you aren’t sure bout the provider, if he’ll be able to host your site and if that IS the thing you have been looking for? You haven’t got anything to lose except maybe some time, but even that’s better than wasting money. So I hope you have learned something from this article and good luck finding the right hosting service!

What is ASP Hosting

ASP hosting is a server-side scripting environment that uses the Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. It is designed for dynamic web pages and applications, offering a vast array of functionalities for web developers. ASP hosting is normally hosted on a Windows server, typically an NT server, and can be fully integrated into an Internet Information Server (IIS) or PWS. The concept of ASP is the same as scripts such as Java Server Pages (JSP) and CGI that enables web pages to work with databases and programs in the web server. An ASP web page is easily identifiable with the .asp extension on the URL.
ASP hosting works in similar way as other server-side scripting technologies. When your web browser sends its request to the web server, the web server will call ASP which would process the requested file. It would run any script commands and in turn sends the requested web page back to the web browser. Hence, it is the server who runs all the requests and sends the requested HTML pages back to the browser.
ASP hosting provides a platform for web developers to explore their own creativity and design customized web solutions. Web developers would be able to tap on Microsoft’s programming technologies and design web pages with powerful features. ASP hosting is also considered as an attractive hosting solution with the availability of free training videos on the Microsoft web site. This is extremely useful especially for beginners as they can learn the basic skills of working with ASP technologies.
It is also possible for ASP hosting to be run on non-windows operating systems such as UNIX. Some hosting providers do offer this kind of service, for example making use of ChiliASP on a UNIX server. However, there could be some compatibility issues that may come with it and users would not be able to enjoy the full features of ASP.
In summary, ASP hosting is ideal for web developers who intend to create websites that utilizes the Microsoft programming technologies especially ASP. There is a huge list of applications and features offered by an ASP hosting environment. There is plenty of room for creativity with all these available functionalities, which definitely suits those who plans to develop powerful, multi-feature websites.