Why Linux Kicked Windows Out of Hosting Game

In Web hosting there are two different worlds. One that uses Windows OS and the other that is powered by Linux systems. There are many differences between them but here are a few that are crucial for deciding which hosting type to choose.

1. Supported technologies
If you use some of the following languages or databases you need a Windows hosting:
.NET scripts
Microsoft SQL
Microsoft Access databases
ASP or ASP.NET scripts

There is a simple reason they will only work on Windows servers.

On Linux on other hand you will be able to run:
PHP scripts,
MySQL databases,
Python,
XML and many other languages yet to come.

The main reason for that is because Linux is an open source system where anyone can contribute to development.

2. Price
The fact is that Linux hosting plans are much cheaper than their Windows fellows. Why is that? The reason hides in price of the software that hosting companies have to buy. Windows server software is quite expensive while Linux is free of charge. Smaller costs for hosting company means smaller costs for you.

3. The open source

Linux is an Open Source code, which enables people from all around the world to contribute to its development. That fact has given Linux the leverage to kick out Windows out of hosting game. Because of its extreme versatility Linux has become a platform for many new technologies that became widely used in hosting industry. This means that Linux is giving you far more options as an user that Windows does.

Conclusion

Many people even don’t know what their page is hosted on. Currently (2006) Linux servers are dominating the hosting world. If you do not need support for Microsoft products or use ASP go for Linux hosting. It is cheaper, and gives you more freedom.

Copyright © 2006, http://www.EasySiteGuide.com – The Easy Site Guide

Hostgator Shared and Reseller Web Hosting

What are the benefits of Hostgator Shared and Reseller Web Hosting? For a start, you get a free billing manager, a free merchant account, free optional hosting templates and a free eNom domain reseller account! How is that for just some of the benefits?

This offer gives you the ability to host unlimited sites where you can create your own packages and prices. Your customers do not even have to know who you are. You can be anonymous, which allows you to act independently as a hosting company.

This offer is not limited to just English speaking people either. In fact, the Control Panel supports 23 languages and 52 scripts are available for free use. Simple to follow instructions are found on the home page of this web site to get you started on entering into the reseller hosting industry.

The latest buzz on the hosting coupons web site is Hostgator’s offer of Roundcube Webmail integrated in its web hosting plans. Roundcube is built on Ajax technology and the great benefits arising from this is enhanced interactivity, and through it’s interface offers spell checking, message and contact list search, multiple sender identities, multi-language support, unlimited users and messages, built-in caching for accelerated mailbox access and custom message folders.

The constant development of open source projects is strongly supported by Host Gator which helps keep the costs down for reseller customers and web hosting customers.

I understand that it can be hard to run a business and that extra help cuts into the profits, but from a customer’s perspective it is very annoying to have to wait around while the only person in the shop takes care of everything. I love being around artists. They have a wonderful perspective on things and can make everyday life a little more enjoyable. But if they don’t have a clue how to run a business they are only going to upset their customers and lose out on prospective repeat customers and referrals. It seems like a better idea would be to go into it as a partnership where one person runs the business and on person does the tattoos, and then add people as needed. I for example have little to no artistic ability, but I am great at customer service. I would love to own a tattoo shop, mostly because I could get work done anytime I wanted, but I would never be able to be the artist and the owner and the front desk person etc. And I don’t think any one should do all that, unless they want to limit their shop’s potential. Both place my family and I visited were doing well enough, but I bet they would benefit from a little more organization and forethought.

Linux Hosting vs. Windows Hosting

If you’re an amateur to the web world specially web hosting then there are many decisions you have to make. Hosting provides the concrete base on which every E-business works as well as blooms. There are numerous choices available in the market but it’s the Linux and Windows hosting which heads the list. Everyone has their own knowledge bag according to which they govern their business but which is profitable to you may not be profitable for someone else. That’s why majority of the people are in trouble waters while choosing the hosting server for their business. Let’s delve into each hosting and get the clear picture. The usual cost involved in running a server generally doesn’t affect the cost of complete web hosting package. Windows Hosting is owned and developed by Microsoft whereas Linux is an open source and free too. The crux is that using Windows Hosting can be more expensive at times but it has its own benefits too.

According to the common myth people assume that because their computer runs Windows they too have to buy Windows hosting package. But this myth is absolutely wrong. You can normally access your web account through FTP or a control panel and both the servers support these methods. But the major difference lies in the FTP commands that are somewhat different in Linux and Windows. In short, occasionally when you try to get your FTP program to do something it returns an error message. Still, this won’t happen very often. Linux and Windows Hosting provide same features that include PHP, mySQL, POP3 and many more. The major difference arises when you want to create your site using Access, Windows Streaming Media, ASP, .NET environment, FrontPage or any other Microsoft technologies. Then you’re bound to use a Windows as your hosting server. However, in Linux there is a limited support for these technologies and what all are available are very expensive. That’s why it’s wise to think twice before selecting a hosting server as shifting from one server to another can be very hard.

The next points to argue are the reliability and stability of the servers. Windows is far more insecure in comparison to Linux. Windows is widely used operating system for home PC’s but not Linux. However, Linux is equally insecure as whooping number of successful hack attempts have been made on it till now. Thus, in the end we can say that the security of both the servers usually depends upon the competency of the system administrators. Herein, if you’re security minded then you’ll choose the best and secured hosting company irrespective of the chosen server. Now discussing the performance there isn’t much difference between the two. Linux is faster than Windows as Linux is loaded with extendable implementation. Whereas Windows tries to provide “‘all in one” package which isn’t fruitful at times. There isn’t much difference between both the servers but in terms of performance Linux outshines Windows.

Thus, if you’re hunting for the server for your E-business then think before you jump on any conclusion and don’t leave any stone unturned.

Linux Hosting Vs Windows Hosting

Linux hosting traces its birth from ‘Linux’, an open-source computer operating system based upon the concept of free software available to anyone to freely use, improve, modify and even redistribute. Windows hosting, on the other hand, relates to Windows operating system wherein the software is proprietary item of Microsoft.

Since being an open-source operating system, Linux hosting tends to be cheaper than Windows hosting. Besides, Linux hosting is considered as one of the main pillars of the LAMP server-software combination – Linux, Apache, MySQL and Php/Perl/Python. Popularity of Linux hosting among web developers can be judged from the fact that a great many open-source software have been created and are being continuously created for free use among discerning web enthusiasts.

Whether one chooses Linux hosting or Windows hosting will to a great extent depend on what the webmaster proposes to do with his website. Here is a quick rundown of both Linux hosting and Windows hosting.

Linux Hosting

Linux hosting is a good choice if you consider that you have perpetual options of using open-source software for your hosting needs. Linux hosting would mean that the operating system is fully compatible with PHP, which is steadily becoming the most popular programming language.

It is important to remember that Linux is a breeding ground of practicing programmers all over the globe and innumerable applications are being authored, re-written and tested all the time. What this means in simple terms is Linux hosting will always keep the door open to let in fresh air of new discoveries. For an avid user, nothing beats Linux hosting in this aspect.

The other advantage with Linux hosting is that it is cheap. Why? Since most application software are free to install and use, the hosting cost is reduced to only maintenance of servers. Since proprietary software are not installed, many overhead expenses are avoided in case of Linux hosting. This enables hosting providers to pass on the cost-advantage to its customers of Linux hosting.

Here are some examples of popular open-source application software, mostly in PHP, that can be easily used in Linux hosting.

Ecommerce Shopping Cart : OS Commerce, Zen-Cart

Content Management System : Drupal, PHP-Nuke, Mambo

Blog : Wordpress, Nucleus CMS

Photo Gallery : 4Images, Coppermine

Windows Hosting

Windows hosting makes use of Microsoft’s proprietary Windows software for the host server. In contrast with Linux hosting, Windows hosting allows integration primarily with Microsoft’s own products and services. For example, if you plan dynamic web content, you have to use ASP (Active Server Pages) or the advanced ASP.NET as your programming language, both created by Microsoft to be linked to SQL databases.

Interestingly, if you choose MySQL as your database, you may opt for either Linux hosting or Windows hosting, but in case your choice for database is MS Access, your option is only Windows hosting.

Windows hosting has limited support for CGI / Perl, so if your favorite scripts are in Perl, it has to be Linux hosting for you. On the other hand, good news for FrontPage users is that though it is essentially a proprietary Microsoft-owned software application, many Linux hosting do support FrontPage extensions.

There is an argument that the user interface for Windows hosting is much simpler between the two. However, of late Linux hosting too has improved on this score.

Coming to cost analysis, Windows hosting is costly not only because of proprietary software, but also due to the fact that Windows servers as such are costly, compared to servers used for Linux hosting.

Summing Up

Glossing over, what emerges is that it is the purpose of your website and its future plan that are the determining factors between choosing Linux hosting and Windows hosting. To be sure, all serious hosting providers will, in varying combination, offer a choice of both Windows hosting and Linux hosting.

General Idea of Ftp Site Hosting

FTP Site Hosting can not be done easily, rather it entails the ample amount of technical proficiency and experience in many areas, that is basically associated to the transfer of data of any type and size—e-books, graphics, videos, music and images.

Due to the advancement of the software programs, the size and assortment of the files is also escalating. The programs like AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, and many more can craft the files up to 300 MB in size. Basically the data is of perceptive, premeditated and confidential in nature, and that destined for precise individuals or companies. It may also be quite expensive.

User should be very much aware regarding the security purpose as if the data is accessed by any erroneous persons due to negligence of security etiquette; the suppliers or end-users of that specific data may cause huge financial losses. A user should plan properly about the aspects of the data transfer before hosting the FTP site. The FTP site management is responsible for arranging all the tools that are concerned to setting up and managing FTP accounts, as well as organizing FTP sessions, via the client to connect to sever. Besides this it also contains setting up of unspecified accounts to allow free access to particular constrained areas of one’s program, further managing FTP sessions also can reduce it if it leans too long. Users should definitely have the toll-free telephone number of the host, as well as the host should response to its clients with proper courtesy.

A symptom of good site manager is that he does not restrict the amount of bandwidth for transferring files, and the transfer of information. The service provided by them should be uncomplicated as well as easy to implement, and in the mean while they should also allow the file transfer from Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. The customer is not bound to purchase software from them, where as he can buy it from any where as per his choice.

Get to Know More About the Linux Host Hobbit

If you are thinking of availing of a virtual host plan, you can choose from a dedicated server or a shared server. While there are some website developers who go for the former, there are a lot of individuals who choose to avail of a shared hosting plan. This decision to stick to the latter is due to various reasons. The general benefit that you will be able to get from your shared host is the opportunity to get low-cost services. What is more, there are several other benefits and privileges that come with your decision to go for this type of server.

Linux – Your Cheap Alternative at The Magic Host

There are various web hosting companies who offer affordable hosting plans to their clients with free setup services. One of these companies is The Magic Host, which provides operating systems like Oracle, Solaris, Linux, and Windows. Among these O.S., Linux offers cheaper alternatives. There are four Linux host plans, which are:

• Linux Host-Dwarf – which has 200GB bandwidth, and 50GB disk space, along with free domain name and setup

• Linux Host-Hobbit – 2,000GB bandwidth and 200GB disk space, along with free domain name and setup

• Linux Host-Elven – 3,000GB bandwidth and 300GB disk space, along with free domain name and setup

• Linux Host Wizard – 400GB disk space and 4,000GB bandwidth

You are not obligated to pay for set-up fees when you choose these hosting plans. Within a span of thirty days, you are allowed to get your money back if you are not contented with the services of The Magic Host.

The Magic Host – Offering You Free Setup Services and Cheap Hosting Prices

The Magic Host offers budget host plans. This type of plan is very appropriate for you when you are tied to the long terms of the previous plans of your hosting provider. If there are some terms which you are tired of, you can choose another hosting company to buy out these terms. Or else, you can also buy terms from other web hosting providers. Other than providing you the privilege to buy out other terms, you can also avail of the following from The Magic Host:

• Host your website without setup fees.

• Host your multiple websites, if you have more than one site. This service is offered without costing you.

• You can choose from various reseller terms and privileges at low prices.

When you go for the Linux Host Hobbit, there are various package features offered to you. The first is your private disk space which consists of 200GB. On the other hand, the bandwidth of the Hobbit for each month is 2,000GB. Your disk space and bandwidth are upgradeable according to your requirements. This Linux hosting plan is also comprised of triple backup. This means that your hosting provider stores data for you without asking for charges. Its multiple websites and databases are unlimited; as with its sub domains and its FTP accounts. You can avail of a free domain name throughout the whole term of your plan because you’re the registrant. Since the host plans of Linux has lesser number of accounts with a maximum number of 150 accounts, your server control is less complicated.

Linux is a cheap host which offers you reseller privileges. The first is a dedicated IP, followed by a private nameserver. There is also a WHM for the cPanel, and a WHMCS ticket and billing system. This reseller host (new) also has a rapid SSL or WildCard. You can avail of a customized design for your website. Another privilege that you can get from your Linux Host Hobbit is the submission of article or directory. You can also get an account as a Directi Reseller, along with a Directi Live Chat. What is more, you are offered with RV Skin. If you want to purchase more domains, you can do so for $6.49 per year. When you want an affiliate program, you will get a $150 signup bonus.

Why your Website Needs Managed Linux Hosting

Managed hosting is a type of outsourcing to ensure that your business websites function correctly 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Outsourced hosting is a necessity for many commercial organisations, as IT knowledge is usually minimal and the costs are significantly higher to host in-house and therefore outsourcing is essential to guarantee that server uptime is almost one hundred percent.

There is a large number of hosting companies offering managed hosting to various clients from all over the world. Many hosting companies provide their services through dedicated servers and the server uptime is almost one hundred percent. Leased servers are also available from some of the hosting companies exclusively for many businesses that require dedicated applications or database applications. Hosting service providers also manage hardware maintenance and network security, bandwidth and site monitoring.

Websites generally require managed hosting for smooth functioning of the website and any application or email traffic that is necessary.

There are generally two types of hosting – one is Windows hosting and other Linux hosting. There are several advantages of managed hosting and depending on the requirements, suitable hosting can be selected for a specific website. Generally a team of professionals looks after the managed hosting and it is good for you to find a reputable and honest company that offers their outsourcing services at the most cost effective rates. Many new companies are coming up in this high growth sector area and you have to ensure that you balance price with professionalism and server infrastructure.

A commercial, managed hosting company provides detailed IP addresses of website visitors during the entire month as well as also providing visiting trends, anti virus, spam control and daily backups. Website statistics or analytics are very useful, especially for commercial websites. Many Windows and Linux hosting providers offer full database support and this is vital to the stability of your websites applications.

Linux hosting provides many features and many people prefer it to Windows hosting. All commercial service providers generally have twenty four hour customer support through phone or email and provide a personal control panel for easy and efficient administration.

Service providers have support in almost all areas such as Perl, PHP, MySQL, CGI bin, SSH access and Python. Some additional features such as POP, SMTP, Webmail, Anonymous FTP connections and FrontPage extensions may also be provided to the customers.

Service providers have dedicated IP addresses and excellent database support and therefore in our opinion Linux hosting provides many additional features. So, it is necessary for large commercial organizations and business houses to go for managed hosting as it provides not only hosting in a dedicated server, but all types of customer support that is required for smooth running of the website. Although Windows and Linux hosting are available, in our opinion Linux hosting is a better option.

Contribution of VOIP in the Present Stand of Web Hosting

At present condition there is no head to stand in front of Voice over Internet Protocol VOIP) and internet telephony in common. This technology has reached to a sort of crescendo right across the overall internet world within a little span of time and currently stands as a red flag in front of old well established phone companies across the world and in the land of communications and telecommunications in the manner which everyone knew. In the course VOIP has effected web hosting in several ways, as mentioned below:

a. One of the important contributions of VOIP is that it has located demands on web hosting which was absent earlier. It requires not only stable and extremely reliable link but also requires brilliant service from a web host as supportive for effective output. It is a fact that now-a-days corporate world has swiftly embraced VOIP, saving immense fortunes in phone company bills and associated costs and has intended that the hosting enterprises which are better had only got advantage from it.

B. while dealing with non-VOIP web hosting it is quite a simple task to get rid from careless and unreliable services. Specifically with VOIP, and most important where most corporate companies needs communications lines to be left open every time, careless or poor quality web hosting enterprises are immediately found out and stopped. It is a fact from the early days of web hosting where many web host servers were located in cellars somewhere and school dorms. It was driven by majority of people to opt it as a hobby which was for them an extremely profitable part-time work that needs no attention from the busy schedule and vigilance could be given by the user in the free time.

These people restricted to that level of service because the Internet was a latest thing launched in that period of time. In addition too, due to lack of sufficient knowledge in those days majority of people were not very much concerned about it, it is best to left the user alone fully understood the impact of web hosting. Thus just being not able to get through a website was not really considered a big issue.

One can say that, today’s webmasters have progressed a lot, as these days webmasters flows money and valuable time like water to magnetize some amount of traffic and bear tension very soon as traffic unable to reach their site for any reason. This means they are not only losing the money but also diminishing their repute in front of public.

Affordable Linux Hosting Plans

The success of your small-business web site depends a lot on how you choose partners at each step of its development, right form designing your small-business website to hosting it over the net.

When you are at the start of your business, you don’t need a big website and a huge disk space on the server and probably look for companies offering affordable web hosting plans.
Let’s say, you have got your Domain Name (www.yourdomain.com). Its time to check for a good hosting service provider to have your files uploaded in the domain.

If you go for a Linux Based Hosting Plan, make sure you have the following included in your plans:
1. Control Panel – This is the nucleus of your website. In a Control Panel, popularly known as CP, you can literally do anything. The moment you signup for a hosting plan, you must be provided with a CP to manage your web space.

2. POP3 email Ids & Aliases – yourname@yourdomain.com is an example POP3 ID. You must be provided with ample of POP3 email ids depending on your package size for better mail administration.

3. FTP Accounts & Virtual FTP – This is your online folder where you upload your files, delete them, and update them. Make sure you have handful of FTP sub-accounts to provide your clients/users with password protected directories. This is very much useful wherein your clients/users can use the FTP to upload /download files from designated password protected folders.
4. Backup – Most quality hosting service providers take automated backups. While choosing your hosting plan, make sure of this.
5. Web Statistics – Say, your website has been launched and you get NIL Visits or More than 100 Visits per day. Whatever the case may be, visitor analysis plays a key role in the success of your website. You can view the Report using Statistics Application that run in the server backend.

6. Bandwidth – Choose the hosting plan that gives enough bandwidth for your website. Even though you cannot judge at the beginning, as time progresses, you can easily calculate the bandwidth required.

7. PHP & Mysql Support – All the Linux Plans support PHP & Mysql. Make sure you get this free of charge when you buy the hosting plan. Few Hosting Providers may charge extra for MYSQL Database Support & PhpMyAdmin.

8. Webmail & SMTP – Email becomes key part in your life once you launch the website. Check if the hosts provide WEBMAIL (mail.yourdomain.com) to check your mails through a web based interface using Squirrelmail or Horde. Corporate users prefer downloading mails thru Email Clients such as Eudora or Outlook Express. Only if SMTP or IMAP support is enabled you can use this option. Hence check if SMTP support is provided.

9. SPAM ASSASIN – No email user is free from a spam attack. Hence you need to have Spam Filters installed on the server where your website resides.

10. IP – If your website requires SSL Support (https ://), make sure you get a DEDICATED IP. Most of the websites are hosted on shared IPs. Ask your Hosting Provider about the extra charges involved in getting a dedicated IP and SSL Support. Note: For SSL (https ://), you need to buy a Digital Certificate.

These are the basic ingredients of Linux hosting plans.
Choosing your hosting provider is perhaps the most crucial element in the success of your website. You need a good hosting partner for hosting your well-designed web pages on the server to be viewed by your potential customers.
The right web partners help you to get good footing on the net from the very start of your small-business, be it in the terms of building your brand image and presence, search engine optimization or providing small business hosting solutions.

What is Unix Hosting

UNIX hosting is the most common web hosting platform today. The term UNIX refers to a computer operating system which provides the base operating system architecture for many open source companies including Solaris (Sun), Linux (GNU) and others. UNIX has been around for years and is the choice language for mid-frame computer users. UNIX hosting solutions is considered more available due to open source distribution of its operating system. LINUX hosting is a version of UNIX that has gained popularity because of its stability as an operating system. You will find these two terms being used interchangeably, which effectively refers to the same type of hosting solution.

When it comes to choosing between UNIX and Windows hosting, the main thing to look for is what functions and programming languages that will be required by your website. Primarily, it is a choice between PHP and ASP, in which the former comes with UNIX hosting while the latter comes with Windows hosting. In addition, for plain and ordinary web sites which uses HTML pages with no or little database or dynamic pages, in most cases UNIX hosting would be the best option. UNIX should also be the option should your web site requirements include the use of PERL, PHP or Python.

UNIX hosting is associated with reliability, security and high-performance. UNIX hosting is an open system, which means that its source code is publicly available for free from various web sites. In addition, UNIX hosting providers usually provide free tools and applications that have been written primarily for the UNIX community. These companies are also more technically oriented and most of the systems on offer are custom designed. In terms of complexity, UNIX hosting is a very cost-effective choice, due to its efficient use of hardware. This enables an increased web sites per server ratio, resulting in a decrease of cost of hosting. Naturally for this reason, UNIX hosting is normally cheaper than Windows hosting.

For those concerned on e-Commerce solutions, most UNIX website hosting plans come with features such as free shopping carts. Websites hosted in UNIX web hosting services normally have very high up-time in the order of 99%. Therefore, UNIX website hosting for e-commerce is the logical choice and has become a trend in the market.

The main disadvantage of using UNIX hosting is that your provider may only allow access to your account via Telnet or SSH. Also, when considering the UNIX operating system and UNIX hosting, users need to consider their own technical abilities. A strong working knowledge of UNIX commands is an advantage in order to do customizations beyond the basic needs. There’ll be some minimal time required on learning the basics before you can fully utilize the advantages of UNIX hosting.

In conclusion, the UNIX hosting solution should be your choice if you are using PHP scripting for your website, and also if your website is pretty basic with mainly HTML language. It is also a more affordable option compared to Windows hosting due to its open-source concept. On top of all, it is widely regarded as more stable, secure and scalable.

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