Most of us use some terms in our day-to-day business, but are unaware of its full forms and abbreviation.One has to hunt for knowing the meaning and full form of a particular term, therefore below is a list of some most frequently used terms and phrases in Web Hosting.

.ASP or ASP : Active Server Pages
ASP is a term which is commonly used for application service provider. It is mostly used as a application for hosting. Its basically a Microsoft technology that enables HTML pages to be dynamic and interactive with the use of embedded scripts. Almost any internet browser can work with web pages developed using ASP, as its scripts are run on the server.

Backbone
A backbone usually refers to the high speed internet line and the connections that form a network.There are several internet backbone providers, who play an important role in the web hosting business.

Bandwidth
A bandwidth is the amount of data that you can send through the webserver. A bandwidth is measured in bites per second (bps). Bandwidth is also referred as an alternative term to Data Transfer.

Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
A CGI is a program which is capable of translating data from a web server and then display the same piece of data on a web page or an email. CGI involves the transfer of data between a server and a CGI program (also referred as a Script). This enables HTML pages to interact with other programming applications. These scripts help in making the web pages more interactive. Page counters, forms, guest books, random text/images and other features can be driven by CGI scripts. Some servers have pre-installed/pre-defined CGI scripts, meaning that the scripts are already installed on the server for you to use on your site. Some servers allow user-defined or custom CGI scripts, which means the site owner creates his/her own CGI script and runs this custom made script on the web site.

CGI Bin Access
It is the provision to the customers to write custom programs for manipulating data on their Website/s.

Co-location
Co-location or co-located servers means that the servers owned by a particular group is physically placed in the data center of another company or organisation that offers internet connectivity and bandwidth. To sum it up, in simple terms the hardware is owned by you and the things necessary to get the server online is provided by the co-location service provider.

ColdFusion
ColdFusion is an application that simplifies database queries by allowing a simpler programming language to carry out the functions between the user’s browser, the database and the server.

Control Panel
Control Panel is a tool that helps you to manage different aspects of your hosted Website/s.You can carry out some of the critical functions such as account and server management with lot of ease with the use of a control panel.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
CSS is used for the purpose of adding more functionality to simple HTML pages.

Data Center
Data Center is the most important aspect of any website.A Data Center is the house to web servers on which your websites are placed.It is powered with high speed, redundant supply of power, bandwidth and can have multiple connections of major Internet backbones.

DNS : Domain Name Servers
The DNS Server maintains a database of host names and IP addresses.It is responsible for translating the domain name into IP addresses.

DNS ‘A’ Records
An A record is an abbreviation for Address Record.It contains the maps of domain name/sub-domain to an IP Address.

DNS ‘MX’ Records
MX is an abbreviation of Mail Exchange hence the name MX Records means Mail Exchange Record. It is used to define the email server/s that are willing to accept mails for a domain.

Domain Name
Domain name is nothing but the name of your website, it is a unique name which identifies you from other similar websites.

Domain Extensions
Domain extentions are nothing but the suffix that we use in our website domain name after the dot.For Example: www.abc.com, www.abc.co.in, www.abc.co.uk etc. here .com,.co.in and .co.uk are referred as the Domain Extensions.

E-Commerce
eCommerce or Electronic Commerce is described for websites that involve buying and selling of goods,products and services over the Internet.

FP Extensions : Frontpage Extentions
It refers to the Microsoft Front Page server extensions. We can see at most places its mentioned FP2K, it means that the server supports MS Frontpage 2k.

FTP : File Transfer Protocol
FTP is secure method of transferring data to and from web servers.Some of the very common FTP programs that most of us must be aware are CuteFTP,WS_FTP,File Zilla etc.

Hosting Service Provider
Hosting is a service provided for hosting your website on the server.The enterprize or organisation that offers such servers and technical support is known as the Web Hosting Service Provider.

HTML : Hyper Text Mark-Up Language
It is a coded format of language that is used for creating hyper text files for the Internet.

HTTP : Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
It is the protocol that is responsible for moving hhyper text files across the Internet.A HTTP client program such as the web browser is required at one end and an HTTP Server program ie.the web server on the other end. It is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web.

IMAP : Internet Message Access Protocol
IMAP is a standard protocol that is used for accessing emails from a local server.This protocol is responsible for retrieving e-mail messages from an e-mail server. Some versions allow users to search e-mails for certain keywords.

IP Address : Internet Protocol Address

It is a unique number that is used to specify hosts and networks.It is used to identify machines connected over the Internet. It consists of 4 parts such as 111.222.333.123. Each and every machine that is connected to the Internet has a distinct IP address.

ISP : Internet Service Provider

An ISP provider is the one that offers access to the Internet. The services provided by them act as a bridge between your local computer and your server.

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It is important to know few basic but important things when choosing a web hosting service provider for you business. You should be aware of the requirements of your website/s such as the language used for scripting for example MySQL, PHP, Perl, ASP, ASP.Net etc., you also need to adjust things according to the budget. Once, these things are clear, you can hunt for a suitable web hosting service provider. If you are targeting customers in a particular Geographical location, it is suggested to have your website hosted on servers that are placed in or near those areas.

There are two platforms namely Windows and Linux to choose for hosting your website/s Windows and Linux. If your website is designed using PHP and MySQL, Linux Web Hosting is the most recommended web hosting solution. But, incase you are planning to develop your website in ASP.Net, then you do not have any option other that going for Windows Web Hosting as ASP is supported by Windows only.

Both Linux Web Hosting and Windows Web Hosting have their individual benefits. Web Hosting providers offer various web hosting plans such as managed and unmanaged Dedicated server hosting, Semi-dedicated Web Hosting, Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting, Reseller Hosting and Shared Web Hosting for Linux and Windows platforms. Some web hosting providers also offer customization of Dedicated Web Hosting solutions.

Below are some benefits of Windows Web Hosting and Linux Web Hosting.

Benefits of Windows Web Hosting

A) On Windows server you can host websites the use Microsoft’s .Net technologies such as ASP.Net and VB.Net.

B) If you need a database, it is mandatory for you to choose a Windows Server Hosting plan for having a MSSQL database.

C) Access databases are available only with Windows Web Hosting solutions as Access is a Microsoft product and can be run on Windows Servers only.

D) Microsoft’s Sharepoint service too needs to be run on a Windows Server, hence Windows Web Hosting would be the perfect plan for you.

E) Windows Web Hosting solutions are particularly more costly than Linux Hosting as a licensing cost of Microsoft needs to be paid.

Benefits of Linux Web Hosting

A) Linux is an open source software and is registered under the GNU General Public License, hence you are not required to pay a licensing fees for the operating system. It can be downloaded for free from the internet.

B) Linux web hosting is considered as an affordable web hosting solution. The cost of distribution is borne by the web hosting service provider or the owner of the web site.

C) If you have used PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL or Perl for developing your website, Linux Web Hosting solution would be the most appropriate for you.

D) Linux Web Hosting is comparatively more secure than Windows Web Hosting, hence it is a preferred platform of designers and programmers.

For small business websites, Linux hosting can be more appropriate and affordable hosting solution.

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Cold Fusion is an Adobe product. It is one of the most powerful and most appreciated programming languages available. Cold Fusion is a server side scripting technology used for creating dynamic web applications and web pages. Cold Fusion is much similar to languages such as PHP, ASP and Perl. Cold Fusion enables developers to deploy and create interactive features for content management systems (CMS), E-commerce websites etc. Inorder to use it one needs to find a web hosting provider who supports Cold Fusion.

There aren’t much web host who Cold Fusion Hosting. There are many reasons for opting for a web host that supports Cold Fusion. Below are few of the important one’s:

COST : Cold Fusion is one of the oldest programming language available. Some web hosts offer Cheap Cold Fusion hosting plans, whereas some charge high price for the advanced functionality bundled with Microsoft products.

LIMITATIONS : Choosing the correct Cold Fusion supported Web host is one of the important factors as some environments prevents users from getting complete access such as some providers might provide Cold Fusion with their shared hosting packages with limitations in the use of tags since they are often seen as security risks. This is all because of the structure of shared servers. It may open up the vulnerability of potential threats to others hosted on the same physical server. A cheap dedicated server can prove to be a better alternative to overcome all the limitations. You get complete control of the server and hence the tags used in Cold Fusion.

VERSION : It is always better to choose a web hosting service provider who offers fully managed Cold Fusion Hosting. It is the web hosting providers responsibility to provide the updated versions of the product. This releases you from the head ache of purchasing the updated versions each time you wish to upgrade. It enables users to benefit from the latest features to create powerful, user friendly web pages and applications. It is much easier to integrate the language with the database system one prefers to work with.

Features of Cold Fusion : Cold Fusion integrates seamlessly with popular databases such as MySQL, MS SQL and Postgre SQL.

Despite of all the features and cheap ColdFusion plans, prices may vary according to other factors such as the bandwidth and add-ons associated with Cold Fusion. ColdFusion windows web hosting provide a highly robust and flexible environment, along with a 99.95% uptime guarantee and 24×7 support and monitoring.
Alongwith Cheap Cold Fusion hosting one should not compromise on the level of good quality technical support.

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Some people are yet confused and aren’t sure about the Operating System (OS) to be installed on their servers. Let me clear that doubt, one can have any OS on a server, irrespective of the one they have on their local computing machine. It makes no difference if one has Windows on the local machine and wishes to have Linux OS on the server.

As we all are aware, Windows and Linux are two different operating systems. Windows is widely used on the household/office PC’s. Linux is a newer version of Unix OS. Both contribute to an excellent web hosting environment. Though, we cannot deny the Pro’s and Con’s of each.

An individual usually gets stuck when choosing the OS on the servers. Here are certain factors that may help you to get rid of this confusion.

COST:

Cost is one of the major determining factors when choosing an OS.

Linux is an Open Source OS, which means one does not need to pay the licensing fees inorder to have it. Hence, Linux is comparatively cheaper than Windows. Whereas, one needs to purchase the license of Windows inorder to install it on the machine. A single licensed copy can be installed on one computer. But, with Linux, once you own it, you can freely install it on any number of machines.

RELIABILITY:

Linux is reputed for its stability and reliability. Meaning, Linux server is much less likely to crash than Windows Server. Hence, these servers can offer more uptime to the web-sites hosted on it.

SPEED:

There is practically not much difference in the speed of both the OS, but there is marginally faster speed seen in Linux when processing basic web pages.

SCRIPTS:

Many CGI programs can be found over the Internet. Majority of the Perl scripts, developed on Unix/Linux servers.Most of them can be freely downloaded from the internet.

FUNCTIONALITY:

Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP) programming/scripting language are supported by Windows only. It enables oneself to build dynamic web-pages by connecting to Microsoft’s database such as SQL server or Access. Linux, does not offer any support to ASP and Microsoft databases, instead MySQL database is supported.

Today, more and more people are switching to Linux Web Hosting solutions as it is easy to use, more stable, open source, free updates are available and most importantly it is cheap. Hence, unless ASP and MsSQL database is required by a web site, Linux can prove to be a better choice over Windows.

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