Hosting Your Windows Website
Creating a good looking, polished website is extremely important to both businesses and personal website owners as well. As the industry of web services continues to develop the expectations of both user and viewer alike are rising exponentially. The ability to create such websites was once a mystery to many and only the most highly trained people could accomplish the feat. Now with the many site building programs available it is easier and easier for everybody to get connected with the mass market available online.
Windows, a product of Microsoft, is one of the most popular operating systems in the present day world. This is a standard operating system used for personal computers, both at home as well as in office. With the growth in the popularity of web hosting services, the operating systems are also a matter of concern. These are the systems that would not be visible to the end users as such but the performance they generate would definitely matter for the website. Windows is preferred by a large scale of users as well as web hosts. Windows web hosting offers a wide array of scripting languages like that of ASP, ASP.NET and PHP. These scripts are also easier to learn as there are several online tutorial featured by Microsoft, offers lessons on these scripting languages.
If you find a website needs to be hosted incorporating the use of Microsoft products it is advisable to use Windows as a platform so that you know the applications will operate correctly. An effective Internet Information Server (IIS) is one of Microsoft’s many features. If your hosting environment uses ASP, Microsoft access, and SQL then IIS is absolutely required and you must use the windows platform to create your website. A Windows webhosting environment has a lot of plug-ins and pre-made programs and components such as CGI specifically for use on Windows web servers.
Windows compared to UNIX
Web sites that are hosted on UNIX and Windows servers can be accessed universally. The difference between the two operating system lies in terms of the software they provide to server data. Windows can always provide better software services for all purposes. In terms of reliability, UNIX is just a few steps ahead since it is known to be extremely stable and does run for years without rebooting. However, Windows can manage to meet the requirements of modern websites far better than UNIX.
Windows is used where Microsoft products are into application like, MS Access databases, ASP for delivering dynamic content, and VBScript for site enhancements. UNIX is not devised to accommodate the mentioned technologies. Therefore those who are in need of these technologies will ultimately have to depend on Windows. Moreover what UNIX provides, is already there with Windows.
Windows vs Linux
Both Windows and Linux can support standard Cold Fusion, HTML and JavaScript files. Previously it was difficult to use Linux server for FrontPage extensions but now it is easy to do so. CGI and Perl platforms are though supported by Windows but Linux is commonly used for these. Linux commonly supports PHP while Windows support ASP.
The biggest advantage of Windows over Linux is that it runs all of the Microsoft software such as Access and can also create MS SQL database that is used by many hosts now. The Windows platform gives developers programming environments such as VBScripts (Visual Basic Scripts), Active Server Pages (ASP), and the Index capabilities of MS Index Server. Linux is not able to access those Microsoft features so if a use requires the use of MS SQL, ASP, OR VBScript as a method of development they must use Windows.
The best method to choose between the various platforms is to study what Windows has to offer. Not all of the Windows packages offer every component so you need to examine them carefully.
Some of the features of the Windows operating system are:
* NET Support
This is the most commonly used feature web hosts use to provide their service. It is the most modern offer that Microsoft’s Active Server Page provides. It is a valuable tool in the creation of web pages and is necessary to use with IIS.
* Databases
Most businesses offer the Microsoft Access 2000 database as a way to use their systems. If a company is larger and requires a lot more space for such information then MS SQL is a requirement for use.
* PHP and ColdFusion
These are advanced features that not all web hosts make available. They usually only give this option if they have it to the most specialized of websites.
* Control Panel
Your control panel is the way you communicate with and access your website. It is important to use the same operating system that your host uses to provide this feature.
Some other kit that is expected from a web host for providing a web hosting for windows include POP3 email IDs and Aliases, Backup, Bandwidth, IP, Webmail and SMTPs, FTP Accounts, CDONTS and ASP Support.
Windows operating systems will continue to be the most popular system for use by the most customers largely due to the fact they have come to expect seeing the familiar logo and associate it with a positive image. Microsoft has imprinted that image so heavily upon the minds of the general public they are often not willing to use other systems, or even try them out. Windows has been the most popular operating system since the early 80’s and will continue a strong customer loyalty thanks to its strong brand name presence. People are generally geared to believe that a Windows platform will be available for long periods in the future and won’t disappear.
Another reason for the massive popularity of Windows as an operating system is the company’s extensive support available to everyone who uses their products. They go over and above most other companies to give tech support, online free tutorials for all of their products and many upgrades and additions to each program.
