Various technologies involved in webhosting

After you have purchased a webhosting plan, you are required to add content to your website. You may get it done with the help of a professional or do it yourself. If you are going for a professional, you must be willing to spend a lot as the services of a professional usually come along with a heavy price tag. If you spend some effort, you can create a website on your own quite easily. However, you need to know about some technologies which you would need to use. Even if you are not going to create your site all by yourself, knowledge about such technologies would be helpful.

Hosting operating system: It is the operating system on which your website would be based. There are two major operating systems which are available. These are Linux and Windows. Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. Windows hosting plans are best suited with Microsoft technologies such as ASP.net and SQL server database. Further, if you are going to use Microsoft Active Server Pages technology, this operating system would be most suitable.

Linux operating system has some advantages over Windows. First and foremost is the availability of various open source softwares. Open source softwares are available at no cost and you can get such softwares easily from the manufacturer's website. Further, it is a well established fact that Linux has better security than Windows. Due to the cost and security related advantages; Linux is the most preferred operating system for hosting websites around the globe. Hosting plans which are based on Linux are available at a fraction of cost of Windows based plans.

Active Server Pages (ASP): ASP is a proprietary technology of Microsoft and is generally used to perform scripting at the server - an important part of the web development process. Using this technology, you can add dynamic content. Adding scripts at the server is preferred over adding them at the client side because of its lesser memory requirements. Using a Microsoft technology is advantageous as it can be aligned better with our computers where Microsoft Windows operating system has been loaded.

PHP: It is such scripting software which is available for free. You can embed it inside your HTML code and it is quite easy to use. There are many databases which can be used along with it such as mySQL and Oracle and the integration is very easy. It is most preferred along with Apache Web Server, which too, is open source software like PHP and can be downloaded for free from the manufacturer's website.

Java Server Pages: It is another server side scripting technology which is based on Java. It is independent of the operating system used and consists of Java code, which can be embedded in the HTML pages.

Microsoft FrontPage is proprietary software of Microsoft which is used for website designing. There are many tools and templates in this software which can be used to design a website. Since it is a Windows technology, hosting plans based on Windows operating system prefer this software. Apart from this, there are numerous other designing softwares available.