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Posts Tagged ‘Windows hosting’

Windows Hosting

Many people select windows operating system for hosting their website since they are more familiar with the operation of the Microsoft product. hostings and windows servers are the same thing. Developed and sold by windows, these servers include access to the ASP or Active Server Pages, Microsoft Access, MS SQL, and Microsoft FrontPage.

About ASP, FrontPage, Access, and SQL

ASP, FrontPage, Access, and SQL are all Microsoft products. ASP is basically web application that allows the users to build up dynamic web sites, applications, and services. Many websites contain ASP pages under the nomenclature ASP.net. FrontPage is HTML editor and can administer the website allowing the user to add dynamic columns and elements to the page. Microsoft Access is RDBMS or relational database management system that can be very convenient for small databases and generating forms and reports. MS SQL servers are on the other hand database servers constructed following relational model. All these applications are relevant to windows hosts.

Pros and Cons of Windows Hosting

With the powerful brand name of Microsoft behind him or her, the user gets a good deal of support as well continuous flow of updates. Window server use is as easy as using windows itself. However windows hosting requires more resources in comparison to Linux hosting. Requirement therefore would be a larger machine to run the hosting services. In any case the disadvantages are not major so as to dispense with the windows hosting in favor of Linux or other operating system hostings.

Why Windows Hosting

In fact windows platform is basically choice of two types of people. First type are those that know nothing about the website hosting process and the second type are those who realize that it is the windows hosting that is the best for them. However, availability of NET technologies like ASP that is accessible only on the windows platform only may prompt many users to go for the windows hosting. ASP technology is perhaps the best for the big databases with the addition of PHP or Perl and MS SQL. One may not find it as convenient using the Linux platform for such applications.

Windows Hosting

Running on the windows operating systems, windows hosting is one of the most popular hosting techniques in the market basically for the ASP compatibility of the hosting process. Windows hosting technique becomes indispensable for those who desire to develop their hosting services using Microsoft products and services.

Unix/Linux Hosting

Running on the UNIX or Linux operats system respectively, they are very reliable and often less expensive in comparison to windows hosting system but do not provide ASP facilities. UNIX hosting was the first web server operating that made its appearance in the market. Linux is a free operating system and is open end which means the user can manipulate, modify, and improve the back programs creating the system.

CGI

Scripts with CGI are executables and they can produce dynamic as well as interactive web pages on execution. ISPs whether preinstalled or not mostly offer some CGI capabilities. Usually the ready to run pages, guest books, and chatting forums use CGI solutions. Use of CGI is common for UNIX or Linux servers.

ASP or Active Server Page

Server side technology invented and developed by Microsoft, ASP facilitates creation of dynamic pages using scripts inside HTML codes. VBScript or JavaScript are usually applied for the purpose. Standard component on Windows operating systems, it can run and be activated on any computer with such operating systems.

PHP Web Hosting

One of the most widely used and free alternative to ASP is the PHP Hosting that is very suitable for web development and can be directly embedded into HTML codes. With syntax similar to Perl and C languages it is often used in combination with Apache web server on any operating system. Since it supports ISAPI it can also be used with Microsoft Windows operating system. Another advantage of PHP is that it supports multiple databases including Oracle, Sybase, MySQL, Generic ODBC, Solid, Informix as well as PostgreSQL.

JSP

Competitor to Microsoft ASP is the Sun JSP with the advantage that unlike Microsoft based ASP; it is platform independent and can run on both Windows and other operating systems nicely.

Cold Fusion

Developed by Adobe, it is also another server side scripting language that helps developing dynamic web pages.

Linux is far more popular for managing and maintaining a server. It is free so you can have it for 0 dollars.
This means that you are getting one of the most popular hosting platforms and low cost server maintenance. Linux is most useful for different web languages such as PHP and Perl while Windows is more optimized for ASP.

Windows on the other hand is a paid platform and you will need to spend couple of hundreds of dollars on this platform. Linux distributions that are most common for hosting are CentOS and OpenSuse as well as Unix.
In 85% you will find Linux installed at most of the hosting companies. Windows is also popular in server management but still didn’t develop much alternatives to Linux and modules that you can use with Linux.
Most of the newer softwares and web languages require Linux since most users use this open source platform for hosting.

Microsoft has Windows Server as alternative for hosting and works very good for ASP based sites.
Windows is still in development stage while Linux has distributed many versions of all server editions.
Getting new standards in the hosting industry will hardly change since Linux is in the big advantage there, while it is still in the background as the desktop platform.

In most cases it doesn’t matter which platform you are using for hosting. But for the most people who want to run a web hosting it is cheaper to run a Linux platform.

Basically you shouldn’t encounter many problems when choosing any of these platforms for your web server because every software for both platforms should react normal.

If you do migrate files from one to another hosting platform you still shouldn’t experience any problems.
So the conclusion is if you want to save some money you should probably go for Linux but it is your choice.

Are you confused between these two hosting platforms? Lots of people are, including myself when I first got started with web hosting.

Technically speaking, Linux and Windows servers do not really differ much in their performance as they both use very different technologies and software. Hence, it’s almost impossible to do a head-to-head comparison between them. However, there still are some apparent differences between the 2 operating systems (OS) that you ought to know in order to help you find the best hosting solution for your web business.

Windows Hosting is More Expensive Than Linux Hosting?

Not exactly. In dedicated server hosting, you can generally find them charging the same price for the same web hosting plan. It’s the hardware difference that makes their price the same. But in shared hosting, Windows server tends to cost higher. Simply because Microsoft develops and owns Windows operating system, whereas Linux is an open source Unix-like operating system that is generally free. Also, Windows uses more resources, hence you pay more for Windows hosting in a shared server.

Why Windows Hosting?

Good question. Windows hosting is more for websites that use specific applications like ASP.NET, MSSQL, MS Access, Expression Web, Plesk, FrontPage, Windows Streaming Media, or any of the other Microsoft proprietary technologies.

If those terms look Greek to you, then Windows hosting is not for you. Linux hosting suits you best as you basically do not need to be tech savvy just to host your website with it. That explains why most people (even tech savvy) go with Linux hosting.

Uptime Concern

If you were to host your website on Windows server, do get prepared for slightly more downtime. As Windows OS takes up more resources by running more processes / services even at its idle state* (not doing anything), you can expect more issues to occur and thus require more reboots to get any problematic processes / services back to normal again.

On the other hand, it’s not surprising to see your website running at 100% uptime for a straight 3 months… thanks to the more stable Linux platform.

* At idle state, Windows is still running a graphical user interface (GUI) whereas Linux only has a blinking cursor on a black screen. That’s why Windows server occupies more resources than a Linux server.

Major Advantage of Linux Hosting

When you change web host, it’s easier for you to focus on the quality of web hosting company rather than having to focus on the specifics of whether that web hosting service can provide you with what you need for your Windows hosting requirements.

Let’s say you’re hosting your site on Linux server with web hosting service A. But overall, you don’t quite like their service. So you go look for a better web host. Your prime concern will probably be how fast the new hosting service can load your site, its bandwidth, price, control panel, uptime etc. Hundreds of web hosts out there for you to choose from and compare against one another until you find one you like.

Let’s now look at what you’ll face if you’re moving your Windows-specific site to another web hosting service.

Other than the loading speed of site, its bandwidth, price, control panel, uptime and other features the new web host should provide, you must also make sure the new web hosting service can support your Windows-specific site that only Windows operating system can host.

You might find a web host of very good review, however, it doesn’t support Windows hosting. You might find another web host that supports Windows hosting, but it’s blasted with hundreds of bullet holes shot through by unhappy users.

You’ll face hard time looking for a reliable, reasonably priced web host that supports Windows hosting because right now only a small number of web hosts offer Windows hosting plan.

Some people also believe that Windows platform is less secure than Linux due to it being a popular operating system that hackers favor. But that shouldn’t stop you from using Windows hosting if you do really need to work with Windows OS.

Case Sensitive, Linux or Windows?

One more difference you might be interested to learn about is that Linux files are case-sensitive while Windows files are not. For example, on a Linux server, diehardwebhosting.com/web-hosting-tips/ is not the same as diehardwebhosting.com/Web-Hosting-Tips/ when you enter them in your browser. Try to copy and paste these two links and see the difference yourself as this web hosting site is hosted on Linux. But it doesn’t matter whether the domain name (diehardwebhosting.com) is upper or lower case.

While on a Windows server, /Web-Hosting-Tips/ and /web-hosting-tips/ are both considered the same name. That makes it easier for people to not having to memorize if a particular web page name of yours is upper case or lower case.

Not to worry about the case sensitive issue though if you’re going with Linux hosting. You can easily get around it by naming all your files or web pages in lower case across the entire platform, since 99% of Internet surfers aren’t expecting any web page to use uppercase.

That’s it. Problem solved.

So now, what’s your decision? If you don’t know anything about Windows applications running on a Windows server, you’d better not go with that. Linux web hosting is what I’d suggest to most people.

Tip: Whether you choose Linux or Windows as your hosting platform, it’s crucial to learn how to pick a web hosting service that helps you earn the most profits. That’s the key to a successful online business.

If you are planning to start your own website, then you might be a bit confused to decide which operating system you want to choose – Windows or the Linux. In fact the whole World Wide Web (WWW) has been engulfed in this debate of which is better Windows hosting or Linux. But the final choice has to be made by the user, because he is the one who has to make the selection – Windows or Linux. Different users have their different needs and based on it they make their choice of web hosting platforms.

Linux has always been the preferred choice for web developers because it is free and an open source software. Pricing wise, Linux is good and it is also considered to be a reliable and a safe hosting platform. There are other web hosting applications like the MySQL, PHP and Python and they all are open source software but they work perfectly well on Linux platform.

But Windows has also improved over the years and has emerged as a favourable choice for web hosting. Since it is a commercially owned by Microsoft, Windows is costly as compared to Linux. Windows, however, allows you to host different kinds of applications on the same server.

Windows made a small beginning but it gradually made progress despite the fact that it is an expensive operating system. But still Windows has grown and the main driving force has been its compatibility with Microsoft applications. Windows hosting is compatible with all Microsoft software and it becomes easy for webmasters to develop the website quickly and also make it interactive. Nowadays websites are made with Active Server Pages (ASP) or.Net and these two applications run effectively on Windows.

If you are planning to have an interactive website then windows hosting is the best way out for you because Linux is only good for traditional websites. Now all top end websites are being created on Windows hosting and after the tremendous success of Windows 2003 and 2008, there has been no stopping. Windows hosting is not only meant for top end websites but also for midsize and personal use as well. Though the Linux is said to have some extra features, but Windows is still considered to be a good and secured web hosting platform.

Windows hosting also makes sure that you will get the top quality, application tools that is sure to make your website modern and interactive as well. The success of a website depends on its interactivity and Windows hosting allows you that extra flexibility. More and more web hosting companies prefer to opt for Windows hosting. It may come at a price but that price is well worthy of the service that you will get.

When you are going to building your site, after you have domain, you will start with a hosting provider too. Before you choose a hosting company, you should know their main types. You also should know what functions you will need. That is the fact if you want get the right provider and the right services that you need.

For the chosen the right services provider, that is depends on the programming languages which hosting can support. For example, if you use PHP, Perl or MySQL on the site, you will prefer a Linux server. But if you are going to use ASP, you had better choose Windows such as windows 2003 hosting, windows 2008 hosting and windows Share Point hosting. Then, Windows-hosting is good if you use Windows oriented technologies such as Visual Basic.

Have two reason people choose the windows hosting plan. First, the people who understand nothing in hosting, and they think that windows platform will be easier for their understanding. Second, the people who knows about hosting and they really need Windows hosting exactly.

That we know, every web host services have advantages on their hosting services. And if we used a hosting on windows server, The Advantages that we got is:

1. Windows platform is the choice if used for a company and need a big database

2. Windows hosting used NET technologies, such as ASP hosting that accessible on the Windows platform. If you have a site created on Microsoft. NET technologies, you will have to select a hosting on a Windows server.

3. If you use the popular web design program, Microsoft Front Page, having a Windows Hosting platform will make your life a lot easier. You want not have to worry about making sure your server supports extensions, as you would with a Unix platform

4. If your website needs to collect its data from an Access database, a Windows server will be able to integrate this database seamlessly. While there are many database options, such as MySQL, many people prefer to use Access. A Windows server will be able to make integration much easier.

5. Windows hosting have Microsoft Share Point tools. That can be used to share your documents and web services on an intranet.

Windows hosting is more expensive than the other, because of expenditures on Microsoft licenses, but you do not worry because the windows hosting still give the best for hosting service.

Are you wondering why Windows hosting is better than Linux hosting? If you ask 10 people what they think, 5 will say that Windows hosting is the best, while the other 5 will say that Linux hosting is far better. Opinions are split and there are few people who really know which is better. We will try to be as objective as possible and our opinions are backed up by surveys and white papers. Although Linux hosting offers some good possibilities, we highly recommend Windows hosting! Let’s see why.

They all say Linux is free. Well, the basic operating system might be, but for hosting, you need Red Hat Enterprise Linux and this is definitely not free. It is based on annual subscriptions for operating system support. This means you have to pay for every server, every year. Most hosting companies need support. When working with Linux, support costs and will pay more per year. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Advanced costs no less than $2,499 for a server, for an year. Windows, on the other hand, is striving to reduce downtime and increase manageability, decreasing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Management and maintenance account for up to 60% of TCO, while downtime accounts for 15%. These total 75% of the total cost of ownership in three years. Buying the software leads to only 7% of the TCO over the same 3 years.

A reliable system must not only allow end users to make changes, but allow administrators to configure it. Business is evolving and the system must be configured so that it still delivers. Studies show that when it comes to patching, installing security updates, or simply making some changes to the Linux operating system, developers have to use a wide variety of tools and processes. On the other hand, Windows was designed to accept changes and different implementation without the need of additional tools. They managed to standardize administrative tasks and provide dedicated tools for customization. In addition, the Windows platform is a tested and certified platform that easily supports new software and hardware.

Windows has a lot fewer published vulnerabilities. It looks like hackers love looking at the freely available Linux code and searching for vulnerabilities to exploit. The study took place over a period of 650 days and showed that Windows had 75% less published vulnerabilities. Since security is a big concern when it comes to hosting, Windows clearly has the advantage.

URL Rewriting

We have seen in an earlier article, what URL rewriting?can do and how it has several benefits. However, in that article, we have seen how IIS 7 handles the job. In this section, we take a look at how Apache’s simple mod_rewrite module is one of the most powerful tools for URL rewriting and how to migrate that power over to IIS.

Apache’s mod_rewrite

Apache has a very flexible and simple technique for URL rewriting. There is a special module in Apache called the mod_rewrite module which should be installed by default on most configurations. This module is responsible for the URL rewriting capabilities of Apache and provides a powerful way to integrate these rules into already existing infrastructure.

Those of you who are familiar with the structure of a .NET application, will know that the web.config file in each folder can provide specific configurations for the files in that specific folder, while still allowing the global settings to take effect. This provides for fine grained control over each folder’s settings.

The mod_rewrite module makes use of Apache’s .htaccess file. This file is somewhat similar to the web.config file and contains folder level directives. Within the .htaccess files, mod_rewrite allows developers to add lines that direct Apache to redirect incoming URL’s to another URL while still displaying the content that the original URL was linked with. This has a host of benefits along with SEO friendliness, human friendliness, and even the discouraging of hot linking.

Bringing Apache’s power to IIS

IIS provides the ability to rewrite URLs as well. It provides very sophisticated and powerful techniques for rewriting URL’s into ones that are easy to read just like Apache. However, the methodology is very different and there are several reason why it will be difficult to use the new IIS7 techniques immediately. For one thing, you may not have IIS7 installed, and might still be working with a lower version like IIS6 or even IIS5. Secondly, it might be simply too much of a pain to rewrite code to take advantage of the new IIS7 rules. It’s also a question of learning the new techniques as well.

ISAPI_Rewrite modules

ISAPI_Rewrite 3.0 is the latest URL rewriter from Helicon. What it does is, it allows developers to use the same .htaccess files on their IIS systems that they would use on Apache. This would be extremely useful to a person with knowledge of how Apache works, but not how IIS works. It’s merely a question of copying already written .htaccess files over to the respective folders on IIS!

In addition, it allows highly complex regular expression matching and substitutions to take place in a simple easy to use manner that is completely Apache like. This is ideal for large applications that require an easy to use, and above all, scalable way to rewrite URL’s.

The ISAPI_Rewrite 3.0 module costs $99 for a single server and comes with a 45 days free trial. It also has a “lite” version that is free (albeit with limitations). Developers usually try this one first, before upgrading to the full version.

Rounding off IIS

IIS is a great server. However, applications like the ISAPI_Rewrite module make it even easier to use by removing impediments to it’s adoption. If you’re an experienced Apache administrator, Helicon’s latest URL rewrite module should give you yet another reason to take a new look at IIS.

With the roll out of IIS 7, many firms will be tempted to migrate from Apache to IIS, taking advantage of the new architecture as well as the inherent long term cost savings of the Windows Server platform.

However, research shows that when it comes to deciding on which technology to use, decisions are almost always based on how familiar one’s developers are with a certain platform. With many products offering comparable features, a dedicated Apache administrator will keep his or her eyes closed to the possibility of using IIS simply because people like to work in environments that are familiar to them.

IIS certainly works in a very different way from Apache, and in order to make use of the several new features, managers are going to have to find ways convince their IT teams to make the shift to IIS 7. Or say, that your firm has just acquired or has been acquired by another and the move necessitates the migration of your currently existing sites on Apache onto the new IIS platform.

We had seen earlier how a simple ISAPI_Rewrite module from Helicon could transfer Apache’s URL rewrite capability and configuration onto IIS. The latest product from Helicon – The APE (Apache Emulator) module allows full scale migration of websites from Apache onto IIS. Such applications not only make the migration from Apache easier, they also allow Apache developers to gradually get used to the IIS environment, by cushioning the transition.

Helicon’s APE module.

Helicon’s APE brings the functionality of many modules that are implemented on Apache, to IIS. It’s like a mega upgrade from the ISAPI_Rewrite module and Helicon provides special rates for those who are upgrading.

This allows the migration of entire websites from the Apache server to the IIS server, in most cases without any modification. This is particularly useful with PHP applications that can now run without any problems and with comparable speed on an IIS platform. In addition, administrators can still make use of the ubiquitous httpd.conf file that they are used to using in Apache.

Currently, the APE software provides 19 modules that can be ported over to IIS, and if the support forums are anything to go by, Helicon is planning to keep adding more and more to this feature set.

Inclusion with IIS 7 Hosting plans.

Sensing the benefits of Helicon’s APE, many hosting providers are now including this module along with their standard IIS 7 hosting plans, paving the way for many administrators to make the shift to IIS servers. For managers, this makes their job that much easier, as they can now provide their IT teams with the tools needed for a successful migration from Apache to IIS 7.

This is quite a value add to any IIS hosting plan, as the license for the Helicon APE module is $175. Providers of Virtual Private Servers will especially benefit from this as their users are much more likely to demand advanced features from their hosting plans.

Media on Web Sites.

These days almost every website worth it’s salt contains media rich content. Especially businesses which need to ‘wow’ consumers with a variety of strategies. The website being the figurehead of the company needs to present a truly compelling experience.

Unfortunately, this comes at a cost. Media, like high resolution pictures (say for an architectural firm), or videos of presentations are always large files and delivering this content to a customer in a manner that is cost effective, and at the same time compelling is a challenge to web masters everywhere.

The main reason for this is that bandwidth is expensive and firms have to realize that not everyone might want to watch a 10 minute video on the company’s achievements. However, there are people who will want to watch it, and these important stakeholders must be catered to.

Bit Rate Throttling with the IIS Media pack

IIS 7?has been specially built with media rich content in mind. It’s latest features present an admirable slew of technologies that help deliver streaming content to the viewer in a manner that can really save bandwidth.

Bit rate throttling is one such technology. What it essentially means is that the IIS application sends across enough video very quickly to the user for him or her to watch for a short period of time. If the user continues to show interest, well and good. Otherwise, it will stop the streaming in case the user moves to another page.

Let us take an example. Suppose I have a 50 MB video encoded at a rate of 450 kbps – That’s 450 kilobits per second. The IIS Media Pack (which is an add on to IIS 7), detecting this bit rate, will quickly send across say 20 seconds of content to the user. This means 450/8*20 = 1125 KB or just about 1.1 MB. After that, it will keep sending the standard rate of the video at just 450 kbps. Therefore, the user always has 20 seconds of video to watch so that his viewing experience will not be interrupted and the server sends no more than the standard bit rate of the file.

Now suppose the viewer watches for 30 seconds and leaves. The total amount that IIS would have sent over to the user would be 30 seconds 20 seconds of video which is equal to just 2.73 MB. Compared to the total size of the video which is 50 MB, this is a massive cost saving caused due to the intelligent handling of media by the IIS Media Pack.

Cost Savings.

Imagine now that you have a thousand visitors to your site every day. Without the IIS Media Pack, you would incur huge costs due to the bandwidth that is used to stream out the media file. With the IIS Media Pack in place, you incur only a fraction of the costs – in essence, you pay only for what was watched!

In this manner, you are able to efficiently target users who are genuinely interested in the specific videos that are on the screen. It also allows you to configure the settings for individual connections. The number of media formats supported by this is very large and this is a free add on to any IIS configuration! Another great release from the IIS team!