Windows Hosting

Windows hosting means hosting of web services that runs on the Windows operating system.

You should choose Windows hosting if you plan to use ASP (Active Server Pages) as server scripting, or if you plan to use a database like Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server. Windows hosting is also the best choice if you plan to develop your web site using Microsoft Front Page.

Linux Hosting

Linux hosting means hosting of web services that runs on the Linux operating system.

CGI

CGI scripts are executables that will execute on the server to produce dynamic and interactive web pages.

Most ISPs offer some kind of CGI capabilities.ISPs often offer preinstalled, ready to run, guest-books, page-counters, and chat-forums solutions in CGI.

CGI is most common on Unix or Linux servers.

ASP - Active Server Pages

ASP is a server-side scripting technology developed by Microsoft.

With ASP you can create dynamic web pages by putting script code inside your HTML pages. The code is executed by the web server before the page is returned to the browser. Both VBScript and JavaScript can be used.

ASP is a standard component in Windows 95,98, 2000, and XP. It can be activated on all computers running Windows.

PHP

PHP is the widely-used, free, and efficient alternative to competitors such as Microsoft's ASP.

PHP is perfectly suited for Web development, and can be embedded directly into the HTML code.

The PHP syntax is very similar to Perl and C.

PHP is often used together with Apache (web server) on various operating systems. It also supports ISAPI and can be used with Microsoft's IIS on Windows.

PHP supports many databases, such as MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.

JSP

JSP is a server-side technology much like ASP, developed by Sun.

With JSP you can create dynamic web pages by putting Java code inside your HTML pages. The code is executed by the web server before the page is returned to the browser.

Since JSP uses Java, the technology is not restricted to any server-specific platform.

Cold Fusion

Cold Fusion is another server-side scripting language used to develop dynamic web pages.

Cold Fusion is developed by Macromedia.

Web Databases

If your web site needs to update large quantities of information via the web, you will need a database to store your information.

There are many different database systems available for web hosting. The most common are MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, and MS Access.

Using the SQL Language

SQL is the language for accessing databases.

If you want your web site to be able to store and retrieve data from a database, your web server should have access to a database-system that uses the SQL language.

MySQL

MySQL is also a popular database software for web sites.

MySQL is a very powerful, robust and full featured SQL database system.

MySQL is an inexpensive alternative to the expensive Microsoft and Oracle solutions.