Options of Web Hosting Services
Operating Systems and Web Servers There're many Web servers you can choose from to serve the Web pages. Apache, Internet Information
Service (IIS) and Netscape Enterprise Web server are among the popular Web servers. Most of Web servers support multiple platforms - Windows,
Unix or Linux.
Programming Language Support You need a hosting environment that supports your favorite programming languages - ASP, PHP, Perl or JSP.
Database Support Ecommerce applications demand database backend support whether it's a MySQL, MS SQL Server or Oracle.
Disk Space and Bandwidth It's common for hosting plans to offer over 200MB disk space and over 40GB bandwidth a month. Don't worry
about disk space and bandwidth unless you plan to distribute large software or images on the net.
Other Features Other must-have hosting features include control panel, email, FTP, backup and site traffic analysis.
Unix Operating System and Unix Web Hosting
Unix is a computer operating system designed to be used by many people at the same time and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system
for servers on the Internet, but no longer the sole operating system used to run servers. Windows and Linux are other popular operating systems to run
Web servers. Most larger and professional sites are UNIX based.
There are many reasons to host your websites on a UNIX server.
Security UNIX was initially designed as a multi-user multi-process platform for interconnected computers. Many security problems have been fixed
in the course of 35 years of development since its inception in 1969. Unix is generally considered more secure than NT.
Stability Unix systems generally offer stability and long uptimes while NT needs periodic rebooting to get rid of the random junk that running
the system has left over.
Scalability UNIX systems are available from simple PC's to giant SMP systems (Symmetric Multi-Processor). Benchmark tests have shown that Unix
outperforms NT in terms of salability.
Open Standards UNIX has been built on open standards, and it opens the door for any vendors who wants to develop applications.
A Unix Hosting plan generally offers Control Panel for managing your hosting account, emails, FTP, file Backup, Web access Statistics, PHP scripting
language and Mysql Database.
How to choose a Web Hosting Company
Selecting a hosting company is a time-consuming and intimidating process since there're so many hosting plans and vendors to choose from.
You can, however, find your ideal hosting company in 2-4 hours by following our 4-step process.
1: Look for Hosting Features The first step is to look at hosting plans from 3-5 hosting companies that meet your business and technical needs.
2: Research on Quality and Reputation The number of customers is one of the best measures of service quality. You should also look at
the trend of customer acquisition, years in business and customer feedback.
3: Test Availability and Performance Hosting companies usually guarantee 99.99% availability of your Web sites. You can find out connection
speed they offer on hosting vendors' web sites. You should test 2-3 sites hosted by the hosting company or look at Alexa's site information
on evaluation of the connection speed for a particular site.
4: Check the Pricing The pricing is the last thing to worry about. The stiff competition, maturity of hosting business model and advance in
technology have turned Web hosting into a commodity.
Related Topics
Ecommerce Web Hosting - Options of Hosting Services and Choosing a Hosting Company
Choosing a Web Hosting Company Step-by-Step
The Top 10 Essential Ingredients of Every LINUX HOSTING Plan (Package)
The Top 15 Essential Ingredients of Every WINDOWS HOSTING Plan (Package)
Selecting a PHP Hosting Plan
Choosing a JSP Web Hosting Plan
Perl Hosting Plan
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