What is the difference between UNIX hosting and Windows hosting?
Linux and Windows are two separate types of operating systems that web hosting servers run on. What is right for you depends on your needs. If you need to support Microsoft products such as ASP, MS Access, or VBScript, then Windows hosting would be better. Furthermore, if you are comfortable with IIS and do not have the time to understand how UNIX works, Windows hosting would again be a better choice. Even if you use Front Page and its extensions for your site design, you can find many web hosts that will support these extensions on a Unix system using our Advanced Search page.
Should I use a Unix or Windows NT (Windows 2000) based server?
Which operating system you decide to use should depend on what features you need. For example, if you are already using IIS, ASP, VBScript, Windows Media, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, or Visual InterDev, and you don't have the time to learn Unix-based solutions, you'll have to choose a Windows NT or Windows 2000-based host. Just because your desktop is Windows-based doesn't mean you should use a Windows host. You may notice that Linux-based operating systems and Apache Web servers are most common among web hosting companies. This is due to Apache's many shared-hosting features, a good track record of stability and performance, and because Linux and Apache are free. In addition to cross-platform products like Java or Cold Fusion, it is also possible to find hosts that run unusual combinations that for example let you use Apache on Windows NT or ASP on Linux.
What are sub domains?
Ssubdomains as an extension of your domain. For example, your site is www.example.com. A subdomain would be test.example.com, and another would be webhosting.example.com. subdomains are usually treated as separate sites from the main domain site. subdomains can be used to better manage the contents and your web site layout and flow.
What is bandwidth and how do I improve my bandwidth usage?
Bandwidth is a measure that reflects how much data can be transferred over a data communication channel. In web hosting plans the allowed bandwidth generally indicates how much data can be downloaded from your web site per month, and therefore indicates how many web pages and pictures your visitors are allowed to download. If the average amount of page views per visitor is assumed constant, the allowable bandwidth restricts how many visitors you are allowed to have per month.
Just as important, however, is how fast the communication channel between your web host and the Internet is. The amount of data that can be transferred per second is also called the bandwidth of this channel, and this bandwidth is shared by all the web sites hosted by the same provider. If this bandwidth is insufficient, you'll sometimes notice a slow down in the display of your web pages. In most cases, however, such a slow down is more likely to be caused by an overload on the web server itself.
You can reduce your own use of bandwidth by optimizing the graphics on your web site. Many GIFs look just as good with fewer colors, and many JPEGs look just as good with a higher compression level. There are plenty of free graphic optimizing products available online. You should also analyze the HTML of your site. Make sure you use relative paths, so that images are not downloaded more than one time. Remove any extra spacing and when linking to other pages, use relative paths and not absolute links. While many hosts already have it, you could also see if your host has mod_gzip installed. This can save you a lot of bandwidth. Best of all, optimizing your page like this makes the user experience better as your site will load faster for them!
What is Domain Parking?
Domain parking lets you buy a domain and then have a 'coming soon' page on it. This is not needed - if a domain is not parked it will simply be inaccessible to anyone. Most domain registrars provide this by default. This could also be a good tool if your trying to sell a domain that you have registered as you can add a "for sale" link to your parked domain.
What are PHP, ASP, perl, etc?
These are all programming languages which are referred to by their acronyms.
PHP - PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
ASP - Active Server Pages
Perl - not an acronym
Each programming language has its own benefits and uses. It is best that you research on your own to find one that best fits your needs.
What is MySQL, MS SQL, etc?
MySQL and MS SQL are database systems. Depending on what your host provides, you can use a database to organize your data. MySQL is a open source free products while MS SQL is a Microsoft product that is not available for free. How Do I Register a Domain Name?
Registering a domain name is very easy. First you will have to make sure that the domain you want is available - using something called a WHOIS lookup at sites like Register.com or Whois Source you can make sure the domain you want is available for registration. Afterwards, you simply need to visit a registration site(most web hosting companies can do it for you) to purchase your domain name.
What is shared (virtual) web hosting?
Shared (or virtual) web hosting is the most fitting way of hosting for 99% of web sites. It means that a web hosting company will have one or more servers (computers constantly connected to the Internet that run a web server software such as Apache or IIS) that will be running multiple web sites (it will be shared). Unless a web site is exceptionally busy or requires a lot of bandwidth, this is the least expensive way to get a real web site. You can still have your own IP address with virtual hosting and the site won't look any different to users. Other options are dedicated, co-location, or doing it yourself web hosting. In those options you have the whole computer to yourself and you can do things like install your own software.
Virtual hosting is often used as a synonym for shared hosting, e.g. you host your web site on a web server with hundreds of other web sites and you share the IP address with these web sites.
The term virtual hosting should imply, however, that while you share the web server it looks from the outside world that you are the only web site on that server. That means that with virtual hosting you should not only have your own IP address, but also a dedicated bandwidth to the Internet and a dedicated slice of the computers processing power. So, if a web hosting provider uses the term virtual hosting, have a close look if these features are offered before you decide on paying a premium price above standard shared hosting.
How do I upload my site?
The main method of uploading files to your site's account is by using FTP. When you sign up with a host, you will probably get an FTP account that lets you access files in your account (usually ftp.yoursitename.com, your main account name and password). Then you can use a built-in Windows or Internet Explorer FTP client, or some other software that supports FTP such as CuteFTP, WS_FTP, or Total Commander, to transfer files from your hard drive to your account. If you don't get an FTP account or if you prefer a Web interface, you can use your account control panel's File Manager instead. Yet another method is to use an SSH or telnet client software, such as SecureCRT, to upload using Zmodem protocol (sz and rz commands).All these methods will work fine, but we recommend using dedicated FTP programs as the preferred solution because these programs have the best user interfaces and support advanced options like setting file permissions and resuming aborted file transfers.