There are various features that will help you to identify Windows web hosting packages from Linux web hosting packages and it is such unique features that will lead you to choosing a specific web hosting platform over another. Regardless if whether you choose Windows shared hosting or Windows dedicated hosting, you can be sure that there are features that will provide you with the web hosting experience that you require which Linux hosting will never be able to provide you with. The main feature that makes Windows hosting unique is the support for classic ASP and ASP.NET web pages and scripts that is offered because Linux isn’t able to support either of these features; as a Windows web developer you are likely to be using either or both of these scripting frameworks as the basis for your web applications to provide you with a stable base from which you can develop a scalable web application. The extent to which Windows hosting will benefit you is going to be dependent on the exact requirements of your website as to some degree it may be the case that Linux hosting is going to be more beneficial to you in the long term.
Posts Tagged ‘windows vps hosting’
Windows Hosting Features
Monday, January 3rd, 2011Using Windows Hosting
Saturday, November 27th, 2010As an alternative to Linux web hosting, you may wish to consider Windows web hosting as a way of meeting your web hosting requirements if you have needs that can only be met by the Windows operating system. Any good web hosting company will be able to offer you Windows web hosting if needs be as Windows hosting services can be offered in the same way as Linux hosting services; all it takes is for a Windows web hosting provider to install a control panel application on a Windows server and they can then start to provision Windows web hosting packages to clients. A Windows web hosting package will be able to offer you greater support for a wider variety of scripting languages and applications that may be specific to the platform and not available for other operating systems; this is applicable to all forms of Windows web hosting, whether it be a Windows shared hosting package or a Windows dedicated server. Like any hosting platform available, you can choose from a wide variety of hosting options so that you can use Windows web hosting regardless of whether you require a shared hosting environment or have a budget that will allow you to pay for Windows dedicated hosting.
Windows Shared Hosting
If you are on a tight budget for your Windows web hosting service but are looking to make the most of your money, a Windows shared hosting package will provide you with the bare necessities require to make Windows web hosting different from Linux web hosting. You can expect support for classic ASP and ASP.NET websites and scripts to be offered so that you can develop dynamic web pages and scripts that integrate well into the Windows architecture – Windows is the only platform that can support either of these scripting languages. Although support for Microsoft SQL Server databases may not be possible with the most basic of Window shared hosting packages, you should be able to purchase them as an optional extra; however, support for Microsoft Access databases will be a standard feature of any Windows shared hosting package. Managing shared hosting accounts is made as simple as possible these days because web hosting companies want to appeal more to inexperienced users whilst reducing the support that they’ll need to focus on shared hosting users; with Windows web hosting this view is achieved through the use of web-based control panels that will allow you to manage every aspect of your account, reducing the reliance that you will have on your web hosting provider.
Windows VPS Hosting
If you have a need for dedicated web hosting but feel that the cost of dedicated server hosting puts it out of your reach, VPS server hosting has been designed to meet your needs through the means of offering you a dedicated hosting environment within the context of a virtual hosting environment. Although you are provided with guaranteed dedicated resources and a dedicated Windows hosting environment when using a Windows VPS server, you are still restricted to sharing a physical hosting node with other Windows VPS servers meaning that you will never be able to fully utilize the processor that you have access to. As you are able to choose from different versions of the Windows operating system, you have the choice to use a newer version such as Windows Server 2008 that will offer you the latest features from the Windows OS or Windows Server 2003 if you have legacy applications that won’t work with newer incarnations of the product. Although management may be restricted to Remote Desktop only with Hyper-V based Windows servers, Virtuozzo based Windows VPS servers can be managed using the Virtuozzo Power Panel that will accompany any installation of the product.
Windows Dedicated Server Hosting
If you are a business or have a larger budget for web hosting then you may find a Windows dedicated server to be more appropriate for your requirements because you will be provided with a dedicated hosting environment that will offer you your own physical server and hardware that you can make full use of. Although Windows dedicated server hosting may seem expensive for what you are getting, you need to take into consideration that you won’t have to share any portion of your web hosting environment with any other users therefore meaning that you won’t have to worry about considering the reliability of other websites apart from that of your own. As is the case with a Windows VPS server, unless you choose to install your own control panel on your Windows server the only way that you will be able to use it is via Remote Desktop; although Remote Desktop provides you with direct access to the Windows GUI, it is still important for you to be well versed in server management so that you know which options to select when performing a configuration task.
Remote Desktop Access vs. Control Panel Management
When managing a Windows server you will notice that depending on your choice of software, you may have the choice to manage your server either from a web based control panel or using the GUI that is accessible by Remote Desktop. Control panels are very intuitive and can be used very easily, whereas Remote Desktop is more specific to server managers and requires some practise if you wish to be able to perfect Windows server management. It should be noted that Remote Desktop clients are available for Mac as well as Windows.
In conclusion, using Windows web hosting is very easy if you are an experienced user of web hosting and are fully aware of what you require from a Windows web hosting package. If you are unable to specify particular features in a Windows web hosting package that make it important for you to have one then the chances are that a cheaper Linux web hosting service will be more appropriate to your needs. At the end of the day it is down to what you can afford more than anything because there is no point in over spending on a web hosting package that you won’t be able to make the most of.
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Advantages of VPS Hosting
Saturday, July 17th, 2010A VPS server is seen as the form of web hosting that falls in between reseller web hosting and dedicated server hosting when you consider the features and resource assignments that a VPS server will be able to offer. The price that you pay for a VPS server will vary greatly depending on the specifications of your chosen server; the good thing is that more web hosting companies will allow you to customize the specifications of your VPS server during the order process resulting in a VPS server that will suit your requirements perfectly meaning that you won’t end up paying for resources that you don’t really need as this is a problem that can sometimes arise when using dedicated web hosting. A VPS server will be able to provide you with a higher level of uptime than you may be use to if you are using shared web hosting or reseller web hosting as a VPS server will provide you with your own dedicated web hosting environment; this means that the actions of others are unlikely to influence the reliability of your web hosting environment that much meaning that you will only need to keep an eye on your own resource consumption.
A VPS server will be able to provide you with your own dedicated web hosting environment meaning that you will be able to install any applications of your choice on your VPS server without having to worry about affecting the performance of anyone else’s websites; furthermore shared web hosting services won’t allow you to install your own applications. If you have chosen a Windows VPS hosting service then you will be provided with Remote Desktop Access whilst SSH access is provided if you have a Linux VPS server; in either situation access to your server using either method will provide you with direct access to the heart of your VPS server hosting service.
Reliability is another benefit of using VPS server hosting as the dedicated web hosting environment coupled with your own guaranteed resources will allow you to come to expect a higher level of uptime from your new web hosting service than would be achievable when using a lower end form of web hosting. High uptime is something that most businesses are now coming to expect from any web hosting service that they use and so it is important for web hosting providers to be able to meet this demand. However, it is important to note that in some situations where the hosting node’s CPU is shared between all of the VPS servers, you may have problems with regards to a single VPS server overloading the entire hosting node.
If you are currently using a shared web hosting service then you can be sure that you will be able to achieve a more acceptable level of security when using a VPS server hosting service. The dedicated web hosting environment that you are provided with will allow you to install any security applications of your choice on your VPS server meaning that you will be able to secure it to a level that suits your requirements. Furthermore you will also be able to take any additional security measures that you see as appropriate as you won’t have to worry about affecting the performance of anyone else’s servers.
The performance of a VPS server is related to the dedicated resources that you will have available to use on your VPS server. Every VPS server hosted on a node will have its own guaranteed resources that are in fact part of the hosting node’s overall resources; however, the point is that no other VPS servers will be able to make use of these guaranteed resources.
In conclusion, a VPS server will be able to provide you with many advantages when compared to what lower end forms of web hosting because of the features that are on offer, although you can also benefit when using a VPS server instead of a dedicated server because of the price of a VPS server when compared to that of a dedicated server. VPS server hosting is only useable to a certain extent and when you find that your requirements start to outstrip what your VPS server can offer, you may wish to upgrade to a dedicated server.