Posts Tagged ‘windows hosting’

In today’s world most of transactions take place over the internet. The internet has become one of the most important aspects of our daily lives, be it at work or at home. On the internet, there are a number of companies that provide web hosting services with many different features. Web hosting basically means that companies own web space which they are ready to sell to the public. Companies who wish to have their services listed on the web use web hosting services to showcase their products and services to a large audience. Although there are many web hosting services available today, it is important to do ample research in order to use the web hosting service that will perfectly cater to your specific needs.

There are many top web hosting companies which offer many different features along with web hosting services. Web hosting basically means that you have your own private space on the web in which you can showcase your products and services. As a potential buyer, you should check out which companies offer affordable web hosting along with other features. On of the most important factors in choosing the right web hosting service is to see which web hosting service provides you with maximum space for minimum cost.

Another chief determinant of a good web hosting service is the freedom of domain name registration. Domain name registration basically is the name by which you will refer to your web space. Reputed web hosting companies have many options when it comes to domain name registration. A web hosting company with a large option of domain names is always better than a company with a few domain name registration options. Thus be sure to check out domain name registration features before opting for a web hosting service.

If you plan to use Windows applications like ASP, MS SQL and others, it is imperative for you to use Windows hosting services. Windows hosting service enables you to use all Windows based software like MS SQL and MS Access on your web space. Thus if you are looking to use these applications, it is imperative that you find the web hosting service that will give you Windows hosting as an option. Thus, if you are looking to purchase web hosting space, it is advisable that you do ample research in order to get the best and most efficient web hosting solutions fotr your business or personal website.

Windows VPS Hosting plans are perfect for game developers aiming to make it big. With a Windows VPS Hosting account, game developers are able to use guaranteed resources to power their applications. No longer a secret, Windows VPS Hosting has been the source of web hosting for many game developers. Price, the ease of installing programs, and included tools make Windows VPS Hosting plans the best alternative to make. In this write-up, you’ll learn how Windows VPS Hosting plans assist game developers develop more games.

The Savings Windows VPS Hosting Offers To Game Developers

Windows VPS Hosting plans are great for budget conscious game developers. Less expensive than a dedicated server yet offering similar services, Windows VPS Hosting plans are the perfect method to minimize business expense. With shared hosting, game developers aren’t able to host several sites with complete control. Dedicated servers can provide the same feature yet they are more expensive. This is why Windows VPS Hosting plans are regarded as the middle service for game developers searching to manage their own hosting environment yet save on their web hosting bill.

How Windows VPS Hosting Offer Game Developers the Option to Install Programs

Windows VPS Hosting plans are the best choice for game developers wanting to use their favorite programs. Unlike shared hosting, game developers can install the applications necessary to finish tasks. ASP.NET users are freed from worrying if their favorite program will execute smoothly. Windows VPS Hosting can even dedicate space on your computer to power this application. Another program that can be installed on a Windows VPS Hosting account is ColdFusion. ColdFusion provides game developers the software development environment to create great games. There are literally tons of other programs that can be setup and ran smoothly on a Windows VPS Hosting account. Game developers are given endless possibilities.

The Many Tools Windows VPS Hosting Provide for Game Developers

Windows VPS Hosting plans provide lots of powerful tools meant to increase productivity and provide complete management for game developers. Virtuozzo, one of Windows VPS Hosting control panels, gives the account user the opportunity to manage their domains well. Virtuozzo enables game developers to migrate, monitor, backup, recover, and even troubleshoot and repair. Using a single OS, Virtuozzo makes it easy to manage and update data among game developers’ online environments. Developers are worry-free about OS updates or security patches because these are server administrators responsibilities.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

Servers are complex machines - orders of magnitude more complex that the PCs that run at our homes. Apart from the hardware, much of a server’s complexity arises from software interactions. So when you see even companies like Google displaying error messages, you know that something is wrong with the way their software is set up.

Due to the heavy load that servers experience, events that have a minuscule chance of occurring at any given point happen frequently. We have to get used it. What can be done however, is learning how to quickly deal with errors so that your IIS server doesn’t crash.

To this end, IIS 7 comes with sophisticated error tracing tools that allow you to get to the heart of the problem, thereby enabling you to fix it. So what are the common causes of these errors? Here are a few.

Application changes

A new update or bug fix to an existing application can have unexpected effects on the workings of even unrelated software. This is why Server administrators are paid so much. They know exactly what they’re doing and understand the inner guts of a server.

Server Configuration changes

IIS 7 has a lot of options and configurations. Sometimes, you might be forced to make a change that has unexpected ramifications, causing requests to fail.

Why Error Pages aren’t enough

When a web request fails, one can get very detailed error pages that sometimes lead to problems being resolved quickly. However, when the error is caused by interacting modules, error pages simply aren’t enough or are misleading. What can happen is that an error can occur and go unnoticed for a while and when it manifests itself, the real reason is hidden. Debugging is an art, but with the right tools, it can be done much faster. And this is where IIS 7 tracing comes into play.

IIS 7 Tracing

IIS 7 has sophisticated tracing tools that allow administrators to view the worker processes and their requests in real time. The new feature is called Failed Request Tracing and is one of the hallmarks of IIS 7. It’s completely configurable and can be used to trace requests based on certain parameters that are set by the administrator.

For example, and administer can set an alert and tell IIS 7 that if a request takes longer than x seconds to complete, then a trace needs to be initiated that will enable administrators to fix the problem. This command can also be used to fine tune the server and figure out where it is running slow.

If you’re using IIS 7 as a server in any environment including a VPS, you can use the trace features along with IIS 7 remote administration in order to effectively manage your server.

Source: http://www.ezinearticles.com/

In current web hosting market Linux and Windows are the two most common and readily available operating systems, and there are many good reasons for using both. In terms of performance there’s not a huge difference between the two servers. Linux reportedly performs faster because Windows (as usual) attempts to offer an ‘all in one’ package instead of the extendable Linux implementation.

I am not biased towards any one, it that would have been the case than there is no point in reading this article. I would just try to list and compare all usable features which should help you to take final decision.

Second to the operating system, the most important influence on the features that will be available to you will be the Web Server system in use. On Linux systems, the Web Server offered is almost always the Apache server. On Windows it’s the Internet Information Server (now “Service”), IIS. Apache is also available for Windows systems, but is not very frequently used by hosting companies using the Windows platform. From the stats below( source netcraft.com) Linux seems to be the most prominent form of hosting on the Internet.

Below are some key features of hosting and their availability on Linux and windows servers

Access method:
Linux: FTP, Telnet, SSH
Windows: Mostly FTP

The first difference that most people notice with Web hosting operating systems is how you access the server. Both Windows and Linux offer FTP access to your files, but only Linux will generally offer telnet or SSH access. (It’s possible to set up telnet access on Windows, but very few hosting administrators offer it.) FTP is a way of transferring your files from your hard drive to your Web server. Telnet and SSH are a way to open a window directly on the Web server and manipulate files right there, usually using Unix command line commands.

HTML , JavaScript and Frontpage Extensions
Linux: Supported
Windows: Supported

FrontPage extensions are often cited as the reason to use a Windows server. But there are Linux servers that offer this service as well.

CGI/Perl:
Linux: Supported
Windows: Limited

CGI and Perl access is mostly found on Linux, although some windows servers also support them. The “Common Gateway Interface” (CGI) provides a means to connect or link from a web page to a program written in a scripting language that runs on the server. Some people refer to a “CGI Script” when what they actually mean is a Shell Script accessed via the CGI. Shell scripts are files containing a series of commands to be executed by the Unix Shell. They are therefore a feature of a Unix or Linux system. Other types of scripts accessed via the CGI include PERL scripts. PERL is readily available for either Unix/Linux or Windows. As a very powerful and popular scripting language, it is available on most hosting service systems. It is something that you will want to check

Server side scripts:
Linux: PHP,Coldfusion
Windows: ASP,Colfusion

There are many other type of Server Side scripting and/or interfaces, including PHP, ASP and ASP.net. PHP, as an easy to learn, but very powerful scripting language has gained a great deal of popularity. It is readily available for both Unix/Linux and Windows systems, but is still more commonly deployed on Linux. ASP and the newer ASP.net are native to Windows. They provide, among other things, access to Visual Basic and the VB Scripting language. It is very rare to see it offered by a hosting company running Linux servers. ColdFusion can be found on both.

Database:
Linux: mySQL,
Windows: Access,mySQL,

If you’re going to run a dynamically driven Web site, then you’ll want a database. The two most popular are mySQL and Access. mySQL runs on both Linux and Windows, but is more often found on Linux servers. Access, as a Microsoft product, is only available for Windows.

Cost:
Linux: Since it’s an open source OS, there is no licensing charge for running Linux operating systems. It costs less for the host to provide the service.
Windows: Just as you must purchase Windows for your own computer , servers must pay Microsoft for additional licensing fees for using their operating system. That’s why hosts must usually charge more for Windows hosting.

Security:
Security is very important to your Web host. Many people will argue that Windows servers have more vulnerabilities than Linux servers. But the reality is that they both have security problems. Security is more important at the hosting services administration level than it is at the operating system level. If you have good administrators, your server will be more secure - regardless of OS.

Final Vedict:
The differences between the operating systems is much less than you might think. I would recommend, if you don’t have any specific requirement, It is better to pick a Web host based on its features and services rather than on what operating system it is running on. Developers are constantly improving both Linux and Windows so they should be fairly close in terms of features, security, and reliability for a long time. It’s the people implementing them that you should be basing your decision on.

Find more details about Windows and Linux servers.