Windows Servers

Once you have developed your website, you will need to make it available to the world at large which means having it hosted and that in turn is done by a web hosting company that places your pages filled with HTML on computer having a permanent internet connection and this computer is known as the web server. So, you should expect to find different hosting packages being offered by various hosting companies and quite a few terms as well as expressions will have to be learnt in order to get the best from the web hosting company.

As far as desktop PCs are concerned, the most popular platform is Windows. So, it only stands to reason that you think about using Windows web hosting. However, you should realize that as far as Windows web hosting is concerned, the market for it is rather limited given its higher costs as also the wider reach of Linux and also some more UNIX based operating systems. In addition, when you choose Windows web hosting, you may have to pay for licensed Microsoft software which is not the case with Linux that is available for free. Thus, you have to factor in this additional cost when opting for Windows web hosting.

The other thing that goes against Windows web hosting is its supposed slower speed as compared with Linux and you may also have to contend with errors in its programming and also security is an issue that are most often addressed by Microsoft through repeated security patching which must be installed on the web server. So, there is a certain amount of risk from hackers that may make you have second thoughts about Windows web hosting.

Nevertheless, Windows web hosting is still very popular and many people choose it over Linux and the main reason for this would be its undoubted popularity, and those who opt for Windows for their own PC would not face any problems managing the Windows server which is a far cry from the geeky and more cryptic Linux and Unix operating systems. People that are familiar with Windows in terms of operating system, databases as well as languages used in writing scripts will definitely feel much more comfortable with Windows web hosting.

Typical Windows platforms make use of Internet Information Server or IIS which is the usual web server and it also comes with SQL Server database or even Access and scripting is done via Active Server Pages. If you have to use smaller sized databases you would do well to choose Access that comes with Microsoft Office; otherwise, you can make use of MS SQL Server. And, with Active Server Pages, you get an ideal environment for scripting because there is support for a number of programming languages of which VBScript is a prime example, which being very similar to Visual Basic, lets companies make use of their own in-house capabilities in development of Active Server Pages applications.

With the release of .NET by Microsoft, there is even more functionality possible, which has benefited Windows applications and also Windows web hosting.