PHP hosting is a server-side scripting environment that is used to create dynamic web pages. PHP is an abbreviation for Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source language widely used by programmers and web developers. The fact that it is open source gives it a lot of advantages over proprietary programming languages. Due to this reason, PHP has been the most famous server-side scripting language and almost all hosting providers offer PHP hosting services nowadays.

PHP is an object oriented language. The way PHP hosting works is that the web server would filter a request document using PHP and generates the output from PHP to the web browser. These documents are usually in HTML format with PHP tags inside. The tags can be run on both Windows and UNIX servers. In terms of output text, PHP is capable to generate any format such as XHTML and XML.

With PHP, web developers would be able to perform any CGI tasks, such as generate dynamic contents or send and receive cookies. PHP is also capable of outputting PDF files, Flash videos and images on the fly at high speed. This is possible due to its ability to save the required files in its file system and forming a server-side cache.

There are a host of advantages of using a PHP hosting. For beginners, it is a relatively easy language to learn and work on. While for seasoned developers, there are a lot of advanced applications and features that comes with PHP hosting. In terms of cost, it is one of the cheapest hosting solutions as it is an open-source technology. There are also programming tools that come free with PHP hosting, contributed by programmers worldwide.

PHP is especially strong in relational databases, which are used for dynamic contents, product catalogs and e-commerce applications. The relational database application that comes with PHP is called MySQL, which is also open-source. It is known for its high reliability, precision and flexibility. These advantages have made it the more preferred alternative compared to proprietary databases systems.

Overall, PHP hosting is one of the most complete hosting packages available in the industry. It is perfect both for beginners who require easy-to-use hosting services and for advanced users who require powerful web applications. The value that it offers is even more significant due to its inexpensive pricing, especially compared to proprietary hosting services.

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.

E-commerce hosting is a hosting package designed for customers who require a complete online business solution for their websites. E-commerce hosting providers provide the infrastructure, systems and applications needed for a website to perform online transactions. Hence, it has become a very important requirement of online businesses since it enables the customers to transact over the internet easily and more importantly in a secure environment. Thus, it is of no surprise that e-commerce hosting has become one of the fastest growing hosting services, looking at the rate in which people are doing business through the internet.

The most common features of an e-commerce hosting are shopping carts that are used for online transactions. This service offers a fast and convenient way for online buyers to manage their purchases and make payments. The convenient navigation and ease of going through the motion of buying products has increased the popularity and take-up of shopping carts in websites. From web developers? point of view, shopping carts provide the ability to manage the complexities of web purchases in a systematic and simplified manner. There are so many available shopping carts in the market that it is normal for one e-commerce hosting package to include three or four shopping carts to choose from. Names like Zencart, osCommerce and Agora are among the established shopping cart providers, providing end-to-end medium for purchases to be done over the web. These companies would normally provide a 24-hour technical support to provide immediate response to queries.

The other must-have feature of an e-commerce hosting is the Secure Socket Layer (SSL). With SSL, the security of an online website is going to be taken care of by the hosting provider. Since security is one of the most important, if not the most important feature of an e-commerce website, SSL guarantees the peace of mind of making transactions safely. With SSL, private information such as credit card numbers, telephone numbers and personal information can be sent through encryption that is virtually safe from theft.

The other functionalities that are important to look for especially for beginners are web templates for an e-commerce website. It would be of great advantage if users can tap in from the ready-made web pages of online stores and forms for customers to view, browse through and select products. These web pages can be very complex to develop, and thus it would reduce a lot of hassle and errors of doing it from scratch. Web developers can always build on these templates to create more advanced add-ons. The list of crucial e-commerce hosting services goes on with features such as online catalogues, customer order management, data collection, inventory management and analyses on customer demographics.

Overall, for online business owners and individuals alike, e-commerce hosting brings a lot of benefits due to its complete package, from the marketing of their products, purchasing by customers, and collection of data to eventually improve the business. Web owners can expect to proliferate their businesses, contributed by the convenience, security and credibility that come with a full-fledge e-commerce website.

Windows hosting is referred to web sites that are served through Microsoft Windows NT or 2000 Internet Information Server (IIS). It is an NT-based server that is installed with Microsoft Windows Server Edition such as Windows XP or 2003.It is widely regarded as having powerful end-to-end management, scalability and reliability features, hence its popularity for integrating businesses with the internet.

Windows hosting is the solution that you should go for if you intend to use specific Windows applications such as Active Server Pages (ASP), and if you plan to develop your website with Microsoft FrontPage. Furthermore, if your website will be developed with .NET, MS Index Server or Visual Basic scripts , Windows hosting is the better choice compared to UNIX. In terms of database, MS SQL is compatible for both UNIX and Windows hosting, but MS Access database is served only by Windows hosting.

The advantage of Windows hosting is for users to easily integrate any Microsoft products to websites due to the fact that millions of users are using Windows and use these Microsoft products. With Microsoft?s technology, you will also be able to integrate cross-browser script libraries from Java Script with ASP. Certain features such as ODBC database connectivity and ColdFusion may only be used for Windows hosting and may not by UNIX.

Cost-wise, Windows hosting are known to be expensive to set up due to its proprietary software and the use of Windows servers. However, when using a remote server, Windows hosting becomes very affordable and is very competitive compared to the price of UNIX hosting. Added to the fact that the good performance and the robustness of Microsoft application that this hosting type offers, the minimal extra cost is definitely worth spent.

In general, Windows hosting is the best for integrating your website with Microsoft products. Although it is slightly more expensive than UNIX hosting, the advantage of integrating all powerful Microsoft-proprietary application and scripts into this hosting environment far outweighs the costs incurred.

So you?ve decided to blog, but aren?t sure whether you should host the blog yourself or sign up for a free service like blogger.com. It?s a dilemma that many bloggers face. There are pros and cons to both, which makes the decision difficult for many. Neither is perfect, and neither is for everyone. Fortunately, you should be able to make the best decision for you if you are armed with adequate knowledge of both. In this newsletter, we?ll go over services like blogger.com and others, plus software that allows you to host your own blog. We?ll also go over the pros and cons of each. After reading this, you will know which is best for you.

Who offers free blog hosting?

Many sites offer free blog hosting. Among them are Forumer, Blogger, BlogEasy, Aeonity, BlogThing and Blogates. A quick search for ?free blog? on Google reveals many possibilities.

What software can I use to host my own blog?

Like free blog hosting, there are many possibilities for software that makes hosting your own blog easy. Most of them are free to use. These include:

WordPress(the most popular software)
Apache Roller
Blosxom
Geeklog
Textpattern
LifeType

There is also blog software which you can purchase for use on your site. These include:

Community Server
Movable Type
Radio UserLand

One negative about using software and hosting your own blog is that the process can often times be complicated. You have to download the software and install it to your server, which doesn?t always go easily. It?s particularly hard for those who don?t have a lot of experience installing things on servers.

Why should I remotely host my blog at a place like Blogger?

Places like Blogger allow you to host your blog there. It?s a good option for many people.

The Pros

? It?s easy to set up and maintain a blog. You don?t have to go through the trouble of installing software and configuring it to work on your server. All you have to do is sign up for an account and start posting.

? It?s friendly for beginning bloggers. Sites that host blogs offer good tutorials on how to make your blog postings, so that even someone who is completely new to the concept of blogging can do it easily.

? Most blog hosting sites are completely free to use. There is no need to pay for things like a domain name and hosting.

? Monetizing your blog is easy. Rather than having to manually put HTML/Javascript codes on your blog to manually set up things like AdSense and Pay Per Click advertising, you can select an option on most blog hosting sites that does much of the work for you.

The Cons

? You don?t have as many options to customize your blog. Remotely hosted blogs are admittedly somewhat limited in terms of what you can actually do on them. You have to stick with what is provided to you in terms of look and features.

? The URL you get is always yourname.BLOGSITE.com. You don?t get to have a custom domain name like YOURNAME.com. This can possibly hurt traffic to your blog.

? Blogs hosted on free blog sites don?t look as professional as self hosted blogs.

Why should I self-host my blog?

The Pros

? You have more options and more flexibility. You are able to tweak the blog to your liking.

? Your URL is your address for your blog. Rather than having go to where your blog is hosted to read it, they can read it right from your site.

? The ability to make your blog look professional. Blogs that are hosted on sites of their own tend to look a lot better than those hosted on free sites.

? More space for your blog. Free blog sites usually place a restriction on how much space you have for things like photos and music. By hosting your own blog, you are able to use as much space as you need.

The Cons

? There are sometimes problems with setting up blog software to run on your site and server. If you aren?t experienced when it comes to working with mySQL, the process will be hard.

? Updates aren?t as easy to post.

? You have to manually set up programs to monetize your blog. However, if you are good with HTML/Javascript, this shouldn?t be too hard.

? You have to pay for your own hosting and domain

As you can see, there are pros and cons to both. Which should you choose? Well, it depends on who you are and what you intend to use your blog for. If you intend to use it for business, then a self-hosted blog is the best idea. If it?s a personal blog, then a free hosted blog will probably be fine for you.

Closely examine all of the pros and cons mentioned above. That way, you?ll be able to make the best decision for you!

I’ve decided to take a scientific approach to weeding out the green scams from the real green ideas. Basically, I will attempt to disprove the environmental benefits of any given idea - and my hope is that I fail. I was looking for a webhost the other day when I stumbled over what seemed to be an audacious claim: carbon neutral webhosting. This reeked of scam to me right from the start. Its not like we’re talking about manufacturing cars or something legitimately industrial with large environmental implications… I mean they just have a computer running in a room somewhere right?

Well there’s no sense in just guessing let’s be scientific and do some research!

“The energy consumed by data center servers and related infrastructure equipment in the United States & worldwide doubled between 2000 and 2005.. the electricity consumption for data center servers in 2005 was equivalent to 14 power plants”

- http://www.thinkhost.com/socialchange/renewable-energy-hosting.shtml

Hmm.. Well that sounds impressive, but is it? Plus they’re in the “carbon neutral web hosting” business, we can’t just take their word. More research is needed.

Doing a few Google searches and following links from thinkhost.com yielded the original article http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197006210. To spare you having to read it yourself, I’ll summarize. Data Centers in 2005 were responsible for somewhere between 0.6% and 1.2% of power consumption in the United States. The article states that as being similar to the power consumed by all the color televisions in the United States. That sounds significant to me! So as far as using wind and solar power to run web servers goes, I’m all for it.

But wait, using alternative power is not what most of these web hosts are about! Reviewing http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/ I find yet another web host claiming to be carbon neutral, but with no mention of wind or solar power. According to webhostingbuzz.com, they’re carbon neutral because they invest in tree plantation projects. Well I wish they would’ve provided some more information on that topic, because in my research the word “plantation” means that trees will be planted and then cut down. If the resulting timber is burned then I don’t see how that would be carbon neutral.

Well thats two menthods of claimed carbon neutrality: using alternative energy, and planting trees. The third and apparently most common method is purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates, whereby a company offsets their power usage by paying for an equivalent amount of renewable energy to be fed back into the grid. Here another webhost discusses their claim to being carbon neutral on account of Renewable Energy Certificates http://www.drak.net/about/green.html.

I set out to prove that carbon neutral web hosting was a ploy - yet another scam marketed towards those of us who want change. Much to my surprise I’ve found some real legitmacey to carbon neutral web hosting. My new opinion: carbon neutral web hosting, it couldn’t hurt.

I have been building and publishing websites for a quite a few years now and started out with exceedingly minimum needs. At the kickoff I was gratified with a free package that managed the needs I believed I needed at that time. This was a introductory package that was included free with my high speed internet package.

When you make use of these web hosting packages, the number of features is notably limited but it will introduce you to the business. Although they might be totally unacceptable to the experienced webmaster, they do fulfill a basic need. This is a way to glean the basics at no cost.

As I learned more about web site development the itch for a better website took me through another stage of and development. This was still in the free web hosting packages realm though. I began experimenting with the other types of free websites offered by webhosts such as Yahoo and Geocities. This seemed like a great elevation for me at the time and I was quite proud of the achievement.

Again, although these web hosting packages would be considered of no value by the practiced webmasters, they filled a need. I learned more about creating websites for free while experiencing a gentle learning curve.

It was at this point that I took the big step into paid web hosting packages. This permitted me to create websites that exhibited that I had much better control over the appearance and functionality. The learning curve grew a bit steeper since then. The web hosting packages today allow anyone to create professional looking websites that sanction interaction with the website users. Most packages have server side web site creating applications to build very nice looking websites that will serve most basic requirements.

Most of the web hosting packages today are very similar in pricing and features. There are a few features that I suggest you consider very carefully. In my view these would be the most meaningfuldifferences in the offerings.

One consequential feature you should comprehend on signup is the term bandwidth. Many web hosting packages applications such as the very fashionable blogging can generate a great amount of traffic and resources demands on your web site hosting packages. This is whereweb hosting packages may diverge greatly. Some web hosting packages simply do not permit the resource load (bandwidth) that many generic applications require. This could be reason for them to suspend web site activity at any time without notification. This will be very frustrating for you.

I have left another issue to the end because from my experienced point of view it is the extremely most significant and perhaps misrepresented by some providers.

It really does not matter how experienced you are in building and uploading websites; there are times when you are going to require support from your web hosting packages. Now some of these people go to great lengths to declare that is a priority. Unfortunately that is not always the truth. Nothing is more frustrating than having a website that is not operating properly and not allowing potential viewers to access it.

Your patience will be tested to the very limits if you have an concern and you can’t get anybody to answer to your repeated requests for help from your web hosting packages. I strongly put forward you study customer testimonials or forums to substantiate their record regarding customer happiness. Remember that if you have good support, you can resolve any issue in building, publishing and maintaining your website.
For a great web site hosting package I suggest you investigate the benefits of Hostmonster Web Hosting at http://www.hostmonster.the-rite-site.com .

• Personal Email Hosting Plan

1,000MB Web space
Free 1 new domain
10 GB data transfer
25 POP3 mailboxes
25 Email Aliases

• Small Business Email Hosting Plan

10GB Web space
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• Business Email Hosting Plan

30GB Web space
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5000 Email Aliases

View see: web hosting

With thousands of web hosting companies in the market it can be difficult if not impossible to know which web site hosting companies truly provide an excellent hosting solution at an excellent price. When you have an established domain name with a good web hosting company, you can get reports on your traffic and which of your pages your customers are visiting most often, as well as many other statistics.

Your web host will charge you a fee for monthly service that ranges from $10 or $20 to the more expensive $50.00 per month. Plan to pay between $300 and $500 per year to your web host.

Always avoid free or very inexpensive web hosting services, because you may experience bouts of server downtimes and you are likely to have significant limitations in storage, number of email addresses, FTP upload etc.

Be sure your web host can accommodate e-commerce and storefronts, wireless capability, bogs, forums, chats, online interactive helps and anything else you want to add onto your site.

Estimate what your growth needs are and ensure that this web host can serve you as you grow. The last thing you want to do is change host mid way unless you absolutely have to do so.

Check your bandwidth capability to be sure that, if your website traffic grows rapidly, your customers will not have to wait to download or view information. Three things to look for in a web hosting company are:

1. Excellent Customer Support: Your hosting provider should be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem. Ask them how long it takes for them to typically respond to your problem. A good test is to call them in the mid night to check if you get to a live, level 3 support.

2. A Sound Infrastructure: Check whether they offer a multi-homed network powered by multiple bandwidth providers to ensure redundancy. Some offer a 100% guarantee on its network availability or network uptime.

3. Financial Stability: If you’re running very critical operations, you can’t afford to be with a hosting company that may not be in business in a few months.

All Reseller Hosting Packages come with Unlimited Disk Space so that you as a hosting Reseller can take advantage of Overselling, which is the general trend in the market, and can keep a higher profit margin for yourself. Your Reseller Hosting Package will only be limited by the number of domains you can setup under your hosting reseller account. This enables you as a Web Hosting Reseller to be more competitive and not only survive the cut throat competition prevalent in the market but also prosper and grow your Reseller Hosting business.

One of the major advantages you get from being our web hosting reseller is that you get to concentrate on your business rather than catering to your customers complaints. It is true that customer complaints will be minimized by over 80% due to our superior server performance and speed. You get more time doing you should be doing, growing your Reseller Hosting business.

• Multiple Domain Hosting Plan

Unlimited Web space
15 Domains
10 GB data transfer
150 mailboxes
15 MySQL Databases
1 MS SQL2000 Database

• Reseller Small Web Hosting Plan

Unlimited Web space
50 Domains
30 GB data transfer
750 mailboxes
50 MySQL Databases
3 MS SQL2000 Database

• Reseller Starter Web Hosting Plan

Unlimited Web space
80 Domains
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2000 mailboxes
100 MySQL Databases
5 MS SQL2000 Database

• Reseller Business Web Hosting Plan

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• Reseller Premium Web Hosting Plan

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MySQL Databases
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Source: web hosting