Web Hosting Blog

Parallel’s Plesk Control Panel is considered to be a highly recommended and one of the most used control panels in the Web Hosting Industry today. Plesk control panel can operate with Windows as well as on Linux platforms.

Plesk is an ideal solution for Dedicated, Shared and Virtual hosting. Plesk control panel is the most stable and secure multi-platform web hosting control panel available for users. Most of the leading web hosting service providers use Plesk for the purpose of increasing their per server profitability. There are many benefits of using Plesk Control panel. Windows and Linux server’s can make use of Plesk.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Plesk’s RPM installation and modular design allow Dedicated Hosting providers to satisfy the needs of tech savvy customers. It deploys and is ready in a very short time. It provides high performance solutions which is comprehensive yet inexpensive. There are many unique features such as XML-API which automize the provisioning process and integrating 3^rd party applications, included in Plesk. It includes a complete Software Development Kit with multiple backend utilities delivering service providers and customers more power to adapt their offerings as well as an avenue for easy up selling and additions.

Shared Web Hosting

Plesk’s tiered self administration and uniform multi platform design is perfect for the management of a shared web hosting environment. The control panel strengthens providers for managing multiple domains running reliably on highly scalable  architecture optimizes for the reseller channel. A person with no technical background too can easily create, manage and set-up accounts while customers can administer their virtual domains without the support from the technical staff. Plesk satisfies the needs of both simple and complex web hosting system configurations at the same time allowing full customization.

Virtual Web Hosting

Plesk efficiently delivers management power with a small footprint making it an ideal for Virtual Private Server Hosting solution. With the use of Virtuozzo, Plesk users can deploy templates of Plesk control panel systems. Virtual servers provide an isolated dedicated server environment. Getting upgrades has never been so simple before from a single VPS console. Plesk and Virtuozzo are unsurpassed in their ability to increase ROI and generate revenue for the professional web hosting provider.

If a user is planning to launch a website, s/he will needs to decide on a web host and a best suited package. And with so many options available in the Web Hosting industry, both in terms of the number of hosts and the types of packages, this can be quite confusing.

An Explanation : About the difference between Linux and Windows web hosting?

Different Types Of Web Hosting Services

Web hosting generally comes in two flavors: Windows Web Hosting and Linux Web Hosting. To decide which is better for the users website, is important to know the differences between the two, as well as their relative benefits and limitations.

Windows Web Hosting

Windows hosting is a good option for people who are familiar with Microsoft technologies, as this is a Microsoft product and easily integrates with other MS products.

Windows hosting supports various popular frameworks such as ColdFusion and ASP.net., as well as SQL databases.

Linux Web Hosting

Even more widespread than Windows, Linux hosting is one of the most common web hosting options available today. The main reason for its popularity is that it is very affordable. As a result, a majority of new businesses opt for Linux hosting in order to minimize start-up costs.

Linux supports popular languages such as PHP, Perl, and Ruby on Rails, and serves MySQL databases.

The Important Factor Of Cost

The major difference between Windows web hosting and Linux web hosting is cost. Linux services are much lower-priced than Windows services. This is due to the fact that many Windows technologies are licensed, which drives up costs.

Additionally, if you opt for Windows, your added costs will not stop at hosting fees. In addition, it is likely that your will pay more to have your website developed. Why? Most open source or free programs are written in PHP and developed for a Linux platform. This means that by opting for Windows hosting, The users might not be able to use hundreds of free applications. Instead, users will have to pay the  developer to build the applications from scratch.

In the end, it is probably best if users choose Linux hosting. However, it is important to consult the professional who will be developing the web-site. Most likely, they will have a preference as to which host to select and what plan to acquire. Additionally, the web professional will have a better idea of what resources users website will need to run effectively.

The users who have hosted their websites on a Windows server do not get access to the operating system. Yet the operating system plays a crucial part in the web hosting account. It enables direct control, operation and administration of the server on which the website is installed. There are two types of operating system platforms to choose for hosting a website: Linux and Windows platforms. Below is a quick introduction of benefits of hosting a website on a Windows OS platform.

Advantages of Windows Hosting for hosting a website on a Windows Server

One major benefit of Windows Web Hosting is the ability to easily incorporate the number of Windows compatible technologies in the website. As we all are aware that Microsoft products are widely used across the world, the vendors constantly develop solutions to support the Windows platform. Alongwith ASP, one can make use of the programming languages like JavaScript, Cold Fusion, PHP and VB Scripts. Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) can be decided when choosing a Windows Web hosting solution on a dedicated server. This feature is not supported on most of the Unix and Linux systems.

Understanding the Windows Technology

Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 are powerful softwares that take the responsibility of serving the web pages on a Windows platform. These systems are capable, offer dynamic back end management and simple accessibility features. The Windows system supports variety of Microsoft technologies which can be used effectively as development tools.

Microsoft Office Suite’s popular application “The Front Page” is a building tool that allows creating pages without any necessity of experience. This can also be done online with the associated server side extension. ASP (Active Server Pages) is another common technology offered by Windows, it is a Microsoft patented server side scripting language. Dynamic web pages can be created with the use of this programming language. While Unix or Linux platforms usually makes the use of of open source database systems such as the Postgre SQL and My SQL. Windows Web Hosting offers Microsoft Access or SQL Server. The different technologies are valuable features which offers many advantages to the website.

Price Difference

Previously Windows Web Hosting seemed to be more expensive hosting solution due to the exclusive use of Microsoft based servers and commercial products that require providers to pay licensing fees for its usage. But recently after the introduction of Linux Servers to the web hosting industry Windows Servers faced competition. Hence Windows packages can now be affordable though not as cheap as Linux packages.

Summarizing everything and coming to a conclusion, Windows hosting no doubt yet remains a better option specially if user believes in Microsoft technologies.

Windows Web Hosting means Internet hosting providers make the use of Microsoft’s Windows software to host the web server for the customers websites. Depending on the Windows Web hosting service providers offers the customers an environment to run ASP.net web applications. Microsoft’s Windows and Linux are the two majorly used platforms in Web hosting industry. If compared with the Linux Web hosting, Windows hosting offers a much better user friendly interface as Microsoft owns almost all of the products and services. In the field of web development, Windows hosting supports all the popular web services. It enables users to create a website or web based application in any of the preferred language.This is quite understood about newbies getting confused in choosing the web hosting platforms among Linux web hosting and Windows web hosting. Windows could always be a better option to go for, as todays web hosts offer PHP and My SQL which is a sort of Linux server feature in their web hosting plans of Windows 2008 and Windows 2003 server. Web hosting providers install PHP and MySQL as an add-on on their servers enabling users to get some most important features of the Linux Servers within the same package of Windows web hosting without any extra payment.

Windows hosting is more user friendly and has more benefits which is the major reason for its wide usage. Though both the operating systems has its own unique features and encompasses different Advantages and Disadvantages. The .NET and .ASP technologies are not supported on Linux  platform, which means if a website owner has designed their websites using Microsofts .NET technology then the benefits of Windows hosting service.

Windows web hosting is cost effective as it make an effective use of the hardware whereas even though Linux too is highly efficient and offers some cheap hosting packages but it fails in supporting the applications such as ASP and ASP.net.

Provision of 100% focus on Advanced Microsoft Windows Hosting on Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2003 comes with Internet Information Service (IIS) 6.0. The Windows 2003 web hosting IIS 6.0 uses a new request processing architecture and application isolation environment which enables individual Web applications to function within a self contained, self managed process. This kind of an environment prevents one application such as a Web site from stopping another, reducing the amount of time that the administrators need to spend to restart the services inorder to correct application related issues.

Windows 2003 enhances a secure infrastructure and a powerful application platform for building web solutions.

Features Of Windows Server 2003

Security

Internet Information Services IIS 6.0 is configured for maximum security to increase Web Server Security. The Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0 offer one of the most dependable, connected, productive and integrated Web Server solutions. Along with these features it also provides fault tolerance, automatic application recycling, requesting queuing, caching and application health monitoring.

Scalability

Through scale-up, enabled by symmetric multi processing (SMP) and scale out enabled clustering, Windows Server 2003 offers scalability.

Availability

In case one of the nodes in a cluster is unavailable due to some failure or because of maintenance then another node starts offering services immediately, this process is known as “Failover”. The Windows Server 2003 has enhanced clustering support and provide significant improvements in scalability, availability and manageability.

Clustered web hosting is designed to eliminate the problems inherited from the typical shared web hosting technology. This type of hosting provides customers with a clustered handling of security, load balancing and necessary resources.

Human interference is not required in clustered hosting as the clustered hosting platform is data driven. The resources are virtualized beyond the limits of a single physical server which removes the limitation of the website to be present on a single server. The processing power and application resources are shared in Cluster web hosting. Incase of any changes done to a customer’s account then it gets propagated to each server present in the cluster. Whereas in shared web hosting changes to a configuration file takes effect after the server is re-booted. In clustered hosting multiple layers of security are integrated into the platform whereas in other types of web hosting the security layers are not integrated in the platform. The Clustered hosting network layer protection require intelligent routing, built in firewalls and proxy technology. It comprises of redundant switching fabric.

Shared web hosting service refers to the hosting service in which many websites are hosted on a single server. Each website is assigned a particular limited space (Depends on the Shared Hosting Package) in which the web server resources are shared between many web-sites hosted on the same server. Shared web hosting is the most economical type of web hosting service available. Shared web hosting requires web based control panel such as cPanel, Plesk, Direct Admin etc. The servers might have Windows or Linux operating systems installed on them. Both have similar interfaces and functionality with only difference in the operating system. As the resources offered by a single server are used by each website optimum performance cannot be expected which is not the case with dedicated web hosting service. The secure websites are not properly supported in shared web hosting platforms. All the websites share the same IP address and the same domain name. Improper configuration of file permissions with shared files might lend access of file to other users present on the same server.

Web Hosting Package details as per Users Requirements.

Personal Web Hosting : Personal Web Hosting is cheap, reliable and affordable.

Who should go for such web hosting package?

• New WebMasters.
• Users that intend to build a web site using few simple steps.
• Users that want to host multiple domains.
• Users who want to migrate to a better web hosting service provider.

In this kind of a web hosting package the website building tools are provided free of cost.

Business Web Hosting : The business web hosting package is hosted on powerful shared hosting platform. Business hosting can be suggested for users who already own a website but because of increase in the sites web traffic require maximum stability, performance and best uptime is essential.

Who should go for Business Web Hosting Package?

• Users who are Business owners.
• Owners of E-commerce web sites.
• Programmers and Webmasters.

Windows Web Hosting : Users have an option to opt between two control panels : Plesk and Hosting controller. Windows hosting can be chosen if users require special server side scripting support for .ASP, .Net, MS SQL and MS access based applications.

Who should opt for Windows Web Hosting?

• Users that require Windows 2003 environment.
• Users who are Webmasters and Programmers.
• Users that require support for .ASP, .NET, MS SQL, MS Access.

Reseller Web Hosting : This type of web hosting provides both cPanel hosting and Windows reseller hosting. Reseller hosting can be opted for either Linux (cPanel) and Windows (Plesk) platforms. Reseller hosting is suitable for the users who want to start their small web hosting service, web designers or for the users who intend to manage many websites with separate control panels. This type of web hosting is also known as affordable web hosting.

Who should select a Reseller Web Hosting Package?

• Web hosting resellers.
• Web designers.
• The users who want to manage multiple domains in an affordable manner.

VPS Web Hosting : VPS means Virtual Private Servers. VPS hosting includes Windows VPS and Linux VPS hosting services. Such hosting service is ideal for the web sites that has heavy traffic may it be in the form of downloading or number of visitors. The VPS web hosting is a cheaper alternative to dedicated web hosting with the same server resources as that of the dedicated server hosting.

Who should select a VPS web hosting service?

• Web hosting resellers and designers
• Websites that have heavy traffic.

Dedicated Server Hosting : Dedicated server hosting is best suited for the users that require full power, control and complete accessibility. In this type of web hosting web server can be customized to its complete power.

Who should opt for Dedicated Server Hosting?

• Online stores and e-Commerce companies.
• Large and heavily loaded websites.
• ISP’s and web hosting service providers.
• Mid to large sized companies.

With the use of latest web technology, Windows Web Hosting can be very easily achieved. As the name suggests Microsoft Windows which is the most popular operating system till date is used for Windows Web Hosting. Windows if used in such a way can prove to be fruitful for many businesses as well as individuals purposes. Windows not only provides an Operating system but also a web hosting server which is used for Windows web hosting services.

Windows has developed many standard tools which are now-a-days used by users across the globe to design and develop different web-sites. Windows OS is a useful highly web compatible operating system(OS) . No matter if you have a Linux operating system installed at our local computer, yet one can opt for hosting your website on a Windows web hosting server. Users usually prefer a Windows web hosting, incase they intend to build the website for personal purposes or for the purpose of their small businesses. Internet Information Server is a built-in technology by the Windows Web hosting service. Internet Information Server (IIS) has its own server which sends out that provides web-pages to web browsers, it also supports Windows NT operating.

REASONS TO CHOOSE WINDOWS WEB HOSTING

Users are assigned a new e-mail account and web tools as a part of Windows Web hosting package/service provided by the web host. The web host provides a control panel, with the help of which a windows web hosting server can be setup. The simplest control panel well suited for Windows is Plesk designed by Sw-Soft. It is more user friendly because of its GUI (Graphical User Interface) which simplifies designing and developing the websites. The scripts supported by Windows are HTML, CGI and PHP which can be used in developing websites. Many of the software’s and programs are offered free of cost.

As Windows have developed many easy to access tools, it has become one of the most preferred web hosting services and also Windows being the oldest player has developed efficient end effective technology and support.

TIPS TO CHOOSE A SERVICE PROVIDER

There are many web hosting providers active in the market, but to chose between them one simple method is searching Google and chose from the ones on the first page itself. The web hosting provider should have excellent customer and technical facility. The provider should have highly trained professional staff who are available on a 24×7 basis for the purpose of getting instant solutions. The web hosting provider should have all the three mediums of communications: Over the phone, Chat and E-mail. Reputation of the service provider too is very important.

Linux Vs Windows

Debates on certain topics started right from the early days of the Internet. One of the few topics which did not end is which operating system is the better one, Linux or Windows. This is the topic which is still in debate. Many of the people tried to find an answer to this but unfortunately could not. However, this topic is much related to the factors which are in regards to the Web Hosting industry and this is due to the client’s needs and requirements, but which operating system provides the usability and a secured environment is the matter of concern. Microsoft has been in this industry for a long time now and has released many versions for almost every scenario in due course. Linux however is not much used as an operating system for desktop computers but is much used as an operating system for servers.

Windows

Windows is the world’s most commonly used operating system at the moment and this is a big achievement for Microsoft as nowadays Computers and the Internet industry is one of the most rapidly growing industry world over. Windows is one of the most recognized operating systems and has many versions which you have to buy if you want to use them. It is Windows due to which Bill Gates is now the richest man on the Earth and is also one of the famous personalities in the world. The main versions of Microsoft’s operating system at the moment are Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003. Windows Vista is widely used as an operating system for desktop computers and Windows server 2003 is used as an operating system for servers. The latest version of Windows server 2008 has also been launched this year which is yet another option for Windows server users. The reason that Windows has become so famous and is preferred by many people around the world is Windows was the first main-stream computer operating system due to which it got a very good start in the market but as time is passing by, other Unix based systems like Linux and Mac OSX have started capturing the market and the market share of Windows is decreasing because of this reason.

If you are using Windows you will have to spend money for the operating system as well as for some of the anti-virus software’s and internet security software’s as currently there are thousands of viruses that are able to cause damage to your Windows operating system and your computer if you have Windows installed on it. Developers do not prefer windows for use and the reason for this is Windows is not very versatile to use as you can only run a few selected languages on windows and these languages also are a product of Windows. The main languages are Microsoft’s classic ASP and ASP.NET. However, you can also run RoR and PHP to run on Windows.

Linux

Linux is also an operating system like windows but Linux is an ‘open source’ operating system, this means Linux is available for free. Linux has many versions or say distributions; they are called distros for short. One of the best features of Linux includes the flexibility for use that is not the case with other operating systems. For example: - The Ubuntu Linux which is one of the distros of Linux was actually produced as an operating system for home computers or say desktop computers only but now it can also be used as an operating system for servers also. Comparatively, Linux is more secured than Windows. The reason for this is, Linux has a very less number of viruses in comparison to Windows and the few which exist as viruses for Linux do not affect Linux. In fact, viruses do not affect Linux even if they are present in the Linux environment. Viruses can reside in the Linux environment but Linux operating system is not affected by them. So this is a great benefit for the users of Linux as there are thousands of viruses that can affect Windows operating system and can cause damage to the system.

Linux is less resource intensive in comparison to Windows which means, Linux can also run on machines which are old or on machines which do not have a good specification. If you are a web developer than Linux can be a better option for you in comparison to Windows as you can work easily with Linux rather than Windows and this is due to the fact that you can run many languages on Linux which is not possible on Windows. Also, there are many free resources and scripting languages that can work efficiently within a Linux environment and this is a great benefit for developers working on Linux. When web hosting is concerned, Linux servers are available at a cheaper rate than Windows servers as the software price of Linux servers is much cheaper or nothing in comparison to Windows server software.

Conclusion:-

As both the operating systems provide many features you can choose any operating system from Linux or Windows, make sure that enough support is available with Windows in comparison to Linux as you are paying for the operating system or the software. Linux is free so you will receive support only from the Linux community and it is possible that you might not get the answer you need for your question, but there are enough websites available on the internet that can help you if you have any of these operating systems. If you think that your prior requirement is the security then you should go for Linux but if you think that you are able to spend out extra money for windows security software’s then you can go for Windows.