Picking a Type of Web Hosting Service
There are various types of web hosting services and it all depends on what you want to accomplish in building your web-site for your business. You should look at the different options which depend on these following factors:
Complexity of your web-site – You may want to talk to a developer on the complexity of your web-site, especially when it comes to graphics and database administration. You may have to consult with an internet specialist on the type of hosting that you need.
Some web hosting services are provided for free but you have to put up with ads that are on the top or bottom of your web site and those ads might not be conducive to the web site that you have developed. If you are going to get a site with ads, then get a free web hosting package that matches with the online ad that’s already there.
Free hosting also has low bandwidth on the internet because of so many people using the free service instead of the paid service. Basically, you also get a free web email account with free hosting services.
Then there is hosting that you pay for that you have more control over when you load and host your web site. You get POP mail access and can create as many emails as you want to which depends on the type of account that you pay for.
Every company has special packages for each and every need. From personal to business servers, even servers for special kinds of operating systems (UNIX, Windows, Linux and Apple) the choices vary depending on what you want to do.
The prices depend on how much space you need on the server to load your applications so you have to take into consideration what you want to put on the server through your web-site.
Web Server Hosting Types
There are different types of hosting services that you can choose from depending on what type of web development and web site that you want to host.
Dial-Up Access Hosting – This is the most basic access/hosting service and these providers also provides a web page for hosting your site. Dial-up access hosting was the first hosting available and is still around. Most ISP’s specialize in just internet access and it’s rare that you will see an ISP do both. These companies make their money off of providing access to the Internet.
Development Hosting - Web site developers are buying their own servers and offering independent hosting services for their clients. This is called development hosting in which they provide web development services along with a host server located at their place of business. The consumer gets charged for the development and the maintenance of the web-site.
(more…)
Using MySQL in a Hosting Environment
MySQL is a heavy-duty database server. Used with various software languages, most notably PHP, and part of the LAMP family (which is comprised of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP),
Whether it’s a customer relations management list or medical records, any data you have that needs storing, is stored on a database. You will need a database management system to add, access, edit, and process data in your databases, and MySQL is one of the best and most comprehensive packages on the market. MySQL can also be used as a relational database management system, which means it can store data in various tables that can communicate with one another rather than all in one large “storeroom” of data.
You can run MySQL as a server in your local device or in a remote server. All you need to access your MySQL databases and MySQL functionality is your server name (such as the name server of your MySQL web hosting provider) or the appropriate IP address. You can then input your various commands, most likely using PHP scripts, to interact with your various databases. These commands are written on programming scripts.
When choosing a MySQL web hosting provider, you’ll want to consider some additional factors beyond the standard uptime, backup/redundancy systems, bandwidth, email, and bandwidth concerns.
* Databases: If you’re seeking a MySQL web hosting provider, you’re surely planning on making databases a significant part of your web-presence. You therefore need to find a MySQL hosting provider that offers you at least as many data structures as you might need. A host that promotes itself as a MySQL hosting provider must offer its clients with multiple websites at least five databases.
(more…)
Developing Cold Fusion Hosting
Cold Fusion Hosting is all about databases, really. Cold Fusion, a software suite brought to us by the fine folks at Macromedia, which allows web-interactivity with databases. With Cold Fusion web hosting, you can now query, update, index, and chart databases from any web browser.
Cold Fusion hosting adds versatility and interactivity to ecommerce sites. Cold Fusion allows you to publish and then have automatically removed from your site time-sensitive content, such as flight schedules or event calendars. It adds functionality to creating and managing mailing lists and business reports. It allows you to offer your visitors printable content and customized menus.
Anytime you see .cfm as the extension on a web page, as opposed to .htm or .asp for example, you know you’re dealing with Cold Fusion Markup Language (CFML).
Though cold fusion is built on the Java platform, CFML allows web developers the benefits of Java without its inherent technical complexities. You need not know Java scripting in order to use cold fusion. CFML is a tag-based language quite similar to HTML and XML which makes it easy for anyone with even the most basic knowledge of web scripting to learn.
Cold Fusion is a server-side language which means that any web pages using CFML are read and interpreted by the Cold Fusion hosting company’s server and converted into an HTML page prior to being sent back to the user’s browser.
Cold Fusion web hosting can be significantly more expensive than other forms of web hosting, and should therefore only really be considered if its unique set of tools are relevant for your site’s intended uses. Cold Fusion hosting is usually run on Windows 2000/NT/2003 operating systems, though you can also find support for Cold Fusion hosting on Linux and Sun servers.
In addition to all the usual factors you must consider when choosing any web host - cost, disk space, bandwidth, uptime, scalability, support - you now also have to consider certain factors specific to cold fusion hosting, including: potential tag restrictions, additional security concerns, whether the cold fusion hosting company provides database support, and which version of Cold Fusion they’re using.
One type of tag restriction that is also a security concern is “high risk” tags, such as those that can be used to find and erase selected files from a server. For some larger businesses, this functionality is crucial to their operation, though potentially detrimental if accessed by the wrong hands, in which case a dedicated server is probably in order. Fortunately, cold fusion hosting is offered on shared, virtual, and dedicated servers.
Cold Fusion is well worth considering if you’d like the functionality of the Java platform with the facility of a comparatively autonomous and user-friendly software system. Especially if your website is expected to generate an income, you may find that the intimidating price tag, in the long run, turned out to be a bargain.
Templates for E-Commerce Web Hosting
Creating a professional website can be challenging. E-commerce web design is really a complex animal. To cut development time, many web hosting companies start offering web hosting templates or hosting with templates.
Whether you’re looking for a simple web site or a functional e-commerce website, the chances are that you may be able to find a few web templates from your hosting company. A simple web template may cost under $20 dollars, but a well-designed professional e-commerce website will cost a few hundreds or more if not thousands. The cost of web templates is still cheap comparing to custom-made e-commerce websites when Web designers charge anywhere from $20 to $100 per hour. If you want to check out some templates, go to www.templates box.com
Besides the requirements of standard web hosting plans, Web hosting templates for e-commerce operations needs a shopping cart that supports online catalog and online payment processing (here’s a clue, pick Pay Pal). Web templates for e-commerce often include common pages and navigations for online shopping - searching or browsing products, adding items to shopping carts and making payment. The web templates for e-commerce do not include or connect to any specific shopping cart. It’s up to the webmasters to add shopping cart to the site.
The alternative e-commerce hosting to web templates is e-commerce turnkey solution. EBay Stores, Yahoo! and GoDaddy.com are the most popular turn-key e-commerce solutions for small businesses that want to setup online stores easily. Different hosting plans may have different free structures. The cost of each hosting plan often varies on transaction volume.
When comparing functionality, there’re many questions to ask: 1) whether a shopping cart accepts online check or debit card. 2) Whether there’s a limit on the number of products and categories that you can setup; 3) whether it automatically sends out an email notification once an order is placed at your web-site.
When looking at the cost of commerce operation, you’ll need to ask questions about 1) what’s the basic monthly fee for transactions; 2) is there’s a setup fee for a new online store; 3) how about handling taxes?; 4) how much it charges for each transaction.
Talk with your hosting service on e-commerce issues and discuss the best plan to go with.
Using JSP as a Host Server
JSP Hosting Basics
JSP Hosting is a Java hosting program that has many similarities to Microsoft ASP. JSP hosting refers to the ability to run and manage Java Server Pages. Even though Java Server Pages (JSP) is quite similar to Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP) JSP does have slight differences in the hosting environment.
Java Server Pages is a server-side language that uses simple tag-based codes inserted into HTML and XML to produce dynamic and interactive web pages that are platform independent, meaning that by all rights they should appear exactly the same on every computer screen, regardless of the platform. This is the result when your publish yoy JSP-coded website on a JSP-supported Java hosting provider.
JSP allows web designers combine dynamically generated HTML in with their standard, static HTML code. While most CGI programs require you to compose the entire website in that one program, JSP allows you to compose the dynamic aspects and the static aspects of your site separately.
Java Hosting which includes JSP support would be the logical choice of any web designer wishing to eliminate the irritating need to repeat work they’ve already done. Java hosting, and JSP hosting specifically, would also be an efficient choice for those web designers working with a team.
One of the greatest aspects about JSP is that you don’t need to learn Java to use it and it’s practically built into programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver MX.
JSP’s use a variety of simple tags. The following are some of the most basic and common ones:
* Directives: <%@directive%> Instructions processed when the page is compiled
* Hidden Comments: <--comment--> Document the page, not sent to the client
* Declarations: <%!declaration%> Declare methods or variables with scope throughout the page.
* Expressions: <%=expression%> A bit more complicated to explain, expressions produce results which are then inserted into the output stream at the appropriate place
* Scriptlets: <%scriptlet%> A fragment of code that can access a declared variable and execute it at a defined time.
* Actions:
So if you are running JSP, remember that you need to have a host that provides JSP runtime modules on the host side of your web server so that you can run the appropriate scripts.
Linux Unix options for Small Businesses
Linux/Unix is an alternate type of system that provides hosting for small businesses and companies that run Linux/Unix applications on their personal computers and laptops. The Linux/Unix-based platform is stable platform in the industry.
The Linux operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems. Most of its versions are free of costs. The most popular Linux software is Red Hat and Mandrake.
Linux/Unix was only for professionals until a few years ago but the situation has changed. Many ’small businesses have switched to the Linux/Unix platform because of its open source architecture, meaning that users can structure the system to do what they want it to do.
Web host providers are specializing in Linux/Unix servers and the demand for this type of interface has grown by 40% over the last three years. A Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable operating system that you can ever have. It has a better up time than Microsoft Operating Systems and hosting programs in Linux/Unix are more flexible. You actually can get ore from a Linux/Unix based server than other servers on the market.
Linux/Unix supports a wide variety of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of such kind include C, C++, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP. Databases available for Unix are mSQL and mySQL. The one you choose would depend on what you plan to do on the web and the host that you choose to park your web site.
The Linux/Unix based system comes with its won web development module in some versions of Red Hat Linux that make web site creation easy as 1-2-3. FTP modules are built into the operating system to provide you with an alternative way to load the web site to the Linux/Unix host.
Linux/Unix will become a major force in the future as more small to medium businesses turn towards its hosting platform.
The Nuts and Bolts of UNIX Hosting
UNIX hosting involves a machine configured on a UNIX platform which is a multi-user computer operating system designed primarily for servers and advanced users. UNIX provides the base operating system architecture for many open source companies, such as Solaris (Sun Microsystems), Linux (GNU), and others. In regards to web hosting, choosing the UNIX web hosting alternative has its advantages and disadvantages.
UNIX has been around for years and it was the language of choice for midframe computer users. Windows actually copied the UNIX file naming convention technique when they created Microsoft Windows.
UNIX hosting is cheaper than Windows hosting. Because most web hosts use the free version of UNIX (like Linux), they don’t have to compensate for huge overhead expenses which you have with any Windows Operating System. Savings is passed to customers. In addition, those who use UNIX hosting usually get free tools and applications that have been written primarily for the UNIX community. Since UNIX hosting is an “open system”, its source code is publicly available for free from various web sites.
This allows web developers working for various companies and for different purposes to add rapid development of applications quickly. As a result, improvements come fast and problems are quickly resolved.
The main disadvantage of using UNIX hosting is that your provider may only allow access to your account via Telnet or SSH. As are result, you must have a strong working knowledge of UNIX commands in order to customize to your requirements. You may find yourself spending a lot of time learning the basics before you can enjoy the free advantages of UNIX hosting but learning the UNIX language is not that hard at all.
When considering the UNIX operating system and UNIX hosting, you need to consider your own technical abilities. Then take a look at the special features offered by each system and hosting company in light of the available technology and — sometimes more importantly — your budget.
Technorati Tags: unix webhosting, linux webhosting, windows webhosting, apple webhosting, free webhosting, paid webhosting
Picking a Type of Web Hosting Service
There are various types of web hosting services and it all depends on what you want to accomplish in building your web-site for your business. You should look at the different options which depend on these following factors:
Complexity of your web-site – You may want to talk to a developer on the complexity of your web-site, especially when it comes to graphics and database administration. You may have to consult with an internet specialist on the type of hosting that you need.
Some web hosting services are provided for free but you have to put up with ads that are on the top or bottom of your web site and those ads might not be conducive to the web site that you have developed. If you are going to get a site with ads, then get a free web hosting package that matches with the online ad that’s already there.
Free hosting also has low bandwidth on the internet because of so many people using the free service instead of the paid service. Basically, you also get a free web email account with free hosting services.
Then there is hosting that you pay for that you have more control over when you load and host your web site. You get POP mail access and can create as many emails as you want to which depends on the type of account that you pay for.
Every company has special packages for each and every need. From personal to business servers, even servers for special kinds of operating systems (UNIX, Windows, Linux and Apple) the choices vary depending on what you want to do.
The prices depend on how much space you need on the server to load your applications so you have to take into consideration what you want to put on the server through your web-site.
Technorati Tags: unix webhosting, linux webhosting, windows webhosting, apple webhosting, free webhosting, paid webhosting
Putting Your Web Site on the Internet
You need a web server to put your web site on the internet. Sometimes, owning and maintaining a web server can cost money and it requires someone who knows what they are doing to maintain the server and the web-site.
A web host can do this for you. They provide equipment and other technical programs that are required to build a customer a web-site. These hosting companies charge a monthly fee for the service of storing your web site and allowing your web site to be seen on the internet. Within that fee, it allows web-site visitor traffic to flow through their servers so people can view your site on the internet.
The physical web server does not reside at the consumers home or business which means that the web host services are designated as outsourced services. This means that the hosting organization that you choose has the responsibility to maintain your site structure, files and web pages.
Many web hosts provide excellent services that really assist individuals and business owners. All the weight of maintaining the host servers and application fall on the hosting company and not the individual and as a business owner, this is great because there are so many technical routines that you have to do daily to maintain a server.
When you pick a web host to handle your internet server needs, you achieve the following:
You streamline your internet costs getting the maximum from your hosting provider;
Work with knowledgeable technicians;
and pass IT control functions to the host so you won’t have to worry about maintaining servers and other equipment.
You can self publish your site and use the web host to handle the technical aspects of server management. The host that you choose will give you the capability to load your own site to the server for updates and revisions to your web page. Web hosting doesn’t include developing your site (unless they have a special development program) or the development of certain customized programs. You can develop the programs (web-site or server side code) or have someone do it for you.
Web hosting is offered in multiple formats based on cost and infrastructure.