Web Hosting Articles

Web Hosting Technologies

The requirements of a web host should be evaluated by any customer. Database softwares, scripting softwares and operating systems are such considerations. Microsoft Windows server platform is a prerequisite of Active Server Pages (ASP) web sites. Different softwares are offered in Linux-based web hosting.

The LAMP platform is the most common configuration for a Linux server. This means Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Interoperability between Linux and Windows is limited although Linux servers are capable of integrating with Windows file services and some hosts support FrontPage server extensions.

Windows Hosting. This is the technology used by Windows operating system. Server scripting using ASP (Active Server Pages) as well as database programs like Access and SQL Server is recommended for this technology.

Unix Hosting. This is the technology used on the Unix operating system. It is much less expensive than Windows. Known for its reliability and stability, it is the first web server operating system.

Linux Hosting. This is the technology applicable to the Linux operating system.

CGI. Scripts written in this format are provided in majority of Internet service providers. Many guest-books, page-counters and chat forums are built-in and ready to use in this type of script. Unix or Linux servers commonly use CGI.

ASP - Active Server Pages. Developed by Microsoft, ASP allows the creation of script codes inside the pages of your HTML document. It can be used in both Visual Basic and JavaScript. It is an essential component in Window 95, 98, 2000, and XP. Because of its popularity, ASP is being offered by many web hosting providers.

Chili! Soft ASP. An offshoot to Microsoft’s ASP, it allows ASP to work on UNIX and other platforms.

JSP. Developed by Sun Microsystems, it is a server-side technology similar to ASP. It allows the creation of dynamic web pages using Java code inside the pages of your HTML document.
There is no restriction to the server platform.

FrontPage. It allows users to develop their web sites even without sufficient knowledge of how to develop a web site. It was developed by Microsoft..
Front Page works best in servers running on Windows operating system.

PHP. Similarly, PHP allows the creation of dynamic web pages by inserting script codes inside the pages of your HTML document.

Cold Fusion. Developed by Macromedia, it is another server-side scripting language that is utilized for developing dynamic web pages.

Secure Server. So-called because it protects web transactions from unauthorized access. It can transmit encrypted data.