Hosting
Choosing a Web Host:
A web host, also referred to as a web space provider is like an ISP (internet service provider), except that it doesn’t give you access to the internet. It gives the internet access to you. The web space provider makes your web site available and visible to the public.
Web space providers fall into three basic categories:
1. Dedicated Servers
2. Virtual Private Servers
3. Shared Servers
1. Dedicated servers are just that, they are a server dedicated to your web site. Dedicated servers are powerful and designed for the high performance, high traffic web sites. They are good if you have a lot of files or a large database. Dedicated servers are expensive. They normally start at one-hundred dollars per month and go up from there.
2. Virtual Private Servers offer the flexibility of a dedicated server, but with an affordable price. Most virtual private servers start around thirty dollars per month.
3. Shared Servers (Shared Hosting) is a great way to go for many web site owners. They are normally packed with great features and are very affordable. Features and the amount of space vary from provider to provider. For a reliable and secure shared server normally starts around four dollars per month.
These providers generally offer different amounts of web space, customer support, and technological expertise. The server itself might run on a variety of software and hardware, some of which vary in reliability and ease of use.
A web server is the combination of hardware and software that holds and displays your web site to the internet. Many people will try to connect to your server all at the same time, so the machine itself should have a powerful processor and lots of memory. Also the web server software should be secure enough that you don’t have to worry about hackers getting in and changing your pages or hijacking your site without your permission.
Web servers run a variety of server software programs on all operating systems. Two of the most common and reliable servers are the following:
1. Linux
2. Windows
Linux or Windows?
Both technologies are suitable for beginners, professional web developers, and everyone in between, but it is essential to choose the technology that is more suited to your style of web building. Each technology has its own distinct advantages for users.
Linux is considered to be the popular operating system for web hosting servers.
If you plan to incorporate work that uses PHP, Perl or MySQL, Linux is the solution you should choose. Linux is also ideal for the kind of web sites that display information as a brochure, in newsletter format or as data sheets. Linux works well for brochure-ware’ sites that offer interaction via inquiry forms, online purchasing and other e-commerce functions.
Microsoft should be your choice of platform if you plan on utilizing Active Server Pages or other Microsoft applications to design your web pages. MS hosting also offers an advantage if you wish to incorporate searchable databases into your web site. The Microsoft platform delivers reduced development time and better functionality for databases.
The next question you’ll probably be asking is, “How much space do I need?” well, that depends on a few things. First, are you just hosting a couple of HTML pages with a few graphics? Will you have a downloadable program on your site? Are you including audio files? Are you planning on having a lot of photos or video files?
The more complicated your media, the larger the files. The larger the files, the more space you will need. HTML is just plain text, the simplest type of file. Compressed graphics such as GIF’s and JPEGs are the next simplest type of file, followed by PDF files, audio files, and finally video. If all your web site will be providing is text, then you can get away with around 100 MB of space.
