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.

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Web hosting is the backbone of your online business and it is one of the most crucial services that ensures your online presence. There are thousands of web-hosting service providers and all of them claim to be the best. Therefore, it is a difficult process to identify the right web hosting service provider.

There are a few important questions that you must ask your web-hosting service provider before you sign up. Normally, the first question people ask is about the cost involved. Though it is an important factor that will help you make your decision, cost should not be treated as the primary factor. There are other crucial factors that need to be addressed.

You must first ask your web host about their average server uptime. Most of the hosting service providers advertise 99.9% uptime, but, in reality, it may not be so. There are a number of server related problems that can keep the visitors off from your website.

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The advent of blogging and free blog space has brought about a revolution in web publishing that pushes the boundaries of terms like “webmaster” and “website.” In today’s brave new world of Internet publishing for the masses, the traditional means of building and hosting a personal website has fallen out of favor for many new webmasters.

If you count yourself among the many bloggers who use a free subdomain blog account, you’ll have to think about web hosting sooner or later. Unfortunately, most don’t consider the ramifications until it’s too late. In the beginning, a free blog account or ad-supported web hosting seems like the obvious choice for a personal site. Unfortunately, this decision – or lack thereof - can cause problems down the road. Issues with free hosting and subdomain hosting range from SEO complications to ownership and control issues. Both free and paid hosting have their own merits and drawbacks, of course, so the ultimate decision is yours to make. But understanding these pros and cons is the first step in making a good decision for your site.

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Most webmasters on the net today are familiar with what the industry calls "shared" web hosting accounts. A shared hosting account is where you rent a small amount of space on a server which is shared among many other users.

This is a cheap way to get started online but it has many disadvantages - you will encounter email delivery problems because of spam complaints against other sites on the same server. You will find your site's grinding to a halt when someone else does some heavy database work on your server. You might even find your site going down because of a denial of service attack against someone else hosting hacking or piracy related material on your server (these type of sites attract antisocial elements!)

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If you have spent much time earning a living on the Internet, few things will surprise you. However, I am always amazed with how many companies and individuals make astounding claims without backing them up.

Web hosts and ISPs make such claims all the time: 99% uptime. Some web hosts post on their site live results of their uptime from a third-party web site monitoring company. However, those hosts are very few.

Here are four reasons why every web host and ISP (Internet service provider) should post uptime and connectivity statistics from an independent, third-party web site monitoring firm, with an external monitoring network.

Monitoring reports are excellent marketing tools

This is the most obvious reason a web host or ISP should post monitoring reports on their site. Don’t tell me you have 99% uptime. Even the worst hosting companies and ISPs can make that claim, but it does not make it true. Prove it to me. Posting a report right on your home page, or posting a link to the report up front on the home page tells me you not only can make claims, but you can deliver!

Make sure to post your uptime statistics for the last day, week, month and year, so the customers know you are in it for the tong haul.

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The Basics of Linux & Windows :

Linux (and its close relation Unix) and Windows 2000 (and its close cousin Windows NT) are types of software (known as operating systems) that web servers use to do the kind of things that web servers do. You do not need to know any real detail of either to make a decision as to which you need but here a few guidelines.

Just because you use a windows desktop PC doesn't mean you have to opt for Windows web hosting (and the reverse is true as well). The operating system you use on your desktop has little to do with your choice of web hosts. As long as you understand how to use your FTP or web publishing software, your can use either operating system.

But what is important is that you know what you want your website to do and what you want to offer on it. This is what will ultimately help determine the type of web hosting that will work best for you. As mentioned earlier, interactive websites usually rely on ASP, PHP, or Perl type languages.

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If your web host only allows you to host 1 domain name with 1 hosting account, please read on to learn why you have been taken advantage by your web host!

Also, if you own multiple websites and you are hosting each of them with a different hosting account, you are paying too much! You can actually host all your websites into one single hosting account and save a lot of money. This type of hosting account is called “multiple domain hosting” account, which just get popular recently.

The web hosting industries are now switching to the next important trend. Many web hosts have started to offer multiple domain hosting account. What that means is that you can host multiple websites under 1 hosting account! You don't need to pay for a full account if you want to host more websites.

This is a very important trend because nowadays, most web hosts are offering incredible amount of disk space and bandwidth with their hosting account. Unfortunately, the client is only allowed to host one website with each giant hosting account. And the reality is that most clients don't even use up to 10% of their disk space and bandwidth!

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Choosing a hosting provider can be a daunting task with the many hosting providers and options available. It need not be an exhausting exercise though, if you know how to look for the features that are important for your website. Below are some of the more important aspects you should consider when choosing a hosting provider.

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I constantly encounter people that want me to design or update a website for them, and they are already signed up with a hosting company. The only problem is that many of these people should never have signed up with that particular hosting company. I'm dealing with a client now who is paying almost two and a half times more a month than she should, and the service the hosting company provides is substandard.

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This article will define what various terms used by web hosting companies mean. It's not possible (and sometimes insulting to the reader) to cover everything so this will just cover the most commonly used and important terms.

Bandwidth (or Transfer or Data Transfer)
Bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is sent (and recieved) by your website. It is usually measured in gigabytes (GB), where 1 GB = 1024 megabytes (MB), and it is usually allocated on a monthly basis, for example you could have 5GB/month of bandwidth, which means that there is a limit of 5GB of files that can be downloaded from your site within a month. Bandwidth is only a concern if you host a lot of files, for example images or movies, as webpages are usually small file sizes.

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