Servers for the Information Age

Handling the ‘Data on Demand’ needs of a New Generation! -

One of the most confusing decisions someone new to web hosting will have to make is which platform their server should be on. There are a number of different choices out there but the main two are Linux and Windows web servers. There are also a lot of sources of information about hosting, but the majority of them are tainted by the author’s biased personal opinion unfortunately confusing the issue. Having just put in some solid hours researching the topic I have come to the conclusion that in general it quite probably does not matter which server you use. For the majority of people it will be far more important to choose a really good web host than to worry about the server-type that they implement.

Microsoft developed and owns the Windows operating system. Linux is open source and generally free. This means it can often be more expensive to set up and run a Windows server. However, this fact doesn’t really affect you unless you are actually setting up a server for yourself and if you’re reading this article then I’m guessing that it’s safe to assume you’re not. This article is going to offer information for those trying to decide which hosting company to go with. The cost involved in running a server does not affect the cost of a web-hosting package as much as you may think. Despite the general opinion that Windows servers are more expensive to run, buying a Windows hosting package can often turn out to be just as cheap or even cheaper than an equivalent Linux hosting package.

Some people naturally assume that because their PC runs Windows they need to buy a Windows hosting package. This isn’t true. Access to your web account will most likely be through FTP or a control panel and both servers support these methods. The main difference is that some of the FTP commands are slightly different between Linux and Windows and some FTP programs will be designed with one or the other in mind. This means you may occasionally find that when you try and get your FTP program to do something it returns an error message, but it won’t happen very often.

Your choice of server platforms should be dictated by the use to which you intend to put it. The majority of web features run fine on both platforms including PHP, mySQL, POP3 etc. If you intend to create your site using ASP, FrontPage, the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other Microsoft proprietary technologies then you probably need to use a Windows host. There is limited support for a number of these technologies in Linux, but they can be expensive and are usually lacking in features. It is probably worth considering the fact that if you use server specific technologies and then change hosts you’ll have a much harder time of it than if you use technologies that can be run on any system. Having it run generic technologies removes the need to focus on specifics and allows you to focus on the quality of service itself.

The reliability and stability of the different platforms have been the topic of many long arguments. The main reason that Windows is seen as being insecure is that it is the most widely used operating system for home PC’s. People spend more time looking for flaws in the most common system. With Linux being the most common server type, it has a surprising number of successful hack attempts made on it. In the end the security of both platforms comes down to the competency of the system administrators. If you are security minded then you’ll do better to make sure that the hosting company is reputable and highly skilled than to worry about the server they use.

In terms of performance there’s not a huge difference between the two servers. Linux reportedly performs faster because Windows (as usual) attempts to offer an ‘all in one’ package instead of the extendable Linux implementation. You’ll generally not notice a difference but if performance is of utmost importance to you then maybe this will influence your decision.

I’ve come to the conclusion that unless you are specifically using features that are unique to one platform or another your time will be much better spent looking for a really good quality host than a really good quality server. Developers are constantly improving both Linux and Windows so they should be fairly close in terms of features, security, and reliability for a long time. It’s the people implementing them that you should be basing your decision on.

By Daniel Punch
M6.Net Web Helpers
http://www.m6.net

Daniel Punch is a writer working at M6.Net: ‘The web-hosting company for humans.’ M6.Net is working hard to help humanity experience the power and freedom to develop their own part of the Internet, to share their information and connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Handling the ‘Data on Demand’ needs of a New Generation! -
First of all, some people are worried that they will not be able to use Linux hosting because they run Windows on their PCs. However, what operating system you run on your own PC is irrelevant to which web hosting environment you can use, because the latter is run remotely on a web server, where your website files will be uploaded.

Linux and Microsoft Windows are two different operating systems. Windows is a well-known household name and does not require much introduction. Linux is a new version of the Unix operating system. Both these operating systems make excellent environments for web hosting. However, there are some differences between them.

To help you decide whether Linux or Windows hosting is better for you, we look at the following elements:

Cost

Linux is known as an “open source” operating system. i.e. there is no licensing fees to pay. Therefore, compared to Windows, Linux is very cheap. Starting with Windows XP, Microsoft has begun enforcing software activation. This means that a single copy of Windows can only be installed on one computer. With Linux, once you own a copy, you are free to install it as many times as you wish on any number of computers.

Reliability

Linux is reputed to be very stable and reliable. This means that a Linux server is much less likely to crash than a Windows server. Subsequently, a Linux server will mean more ‘up time’ for your website.

Experience

Linux has many more years of experience than Windows in hosting.

Speed

There is no real difference in speed between Linux and Windows, but Linux is slightly faster in processing basic web pages.

Functionality

Windows support ASP (Active Server Pages), a Microsoft programming/scripting language, which allows you to build dynamically database-driven web pages by connecting to a Microsoft database such as SQL Server or Access. Linux does not support ASP nor Microsoft databases, but uses MySQL database instead.

If you use Microsoft Frontpage to create your website, it doesn’t mean that you have to choose Windows hosting. All Linux accounts come free with Frontpage extensions, which allow you to upload your Frontpage website to your web space on a Linux server.

Scripts

There are many CGI programs available on the Internet. The majority of these are Perl scripts and have been developed on Linux / Unix web servers. So they tend to install more smoothly and operate more reliably on a Linux server. Moreover, many Perl scripts are downloadable from the Internet free of charge.

To summarise, most users find that Linux hosting is easier to use, more reliable, provides free, open source software and is much cheaper than Windows hosting. So unless you particularly need to use Windows specific features such as ASP and an Access database, it is probably a better choice to choose Linux over Windows. For more information on Linux hosting, visit <www.frontierpowerhosting.com>.
About the Author

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Handling the ‘Data on Demand’ needs of a New Generation! -
ASP pages (Active Server Pages page sounds a bit melodramatic but
its easier to refer to them like this) are nothing but web pages.
The difference is that they have an extension .ASP and you write
the code in a Server Side Scripting language.

Do we know what’s Server Side Scripting? This doesn’t actually
matter if we delve into such nitty-gritty, but let’s sound a bit
philosophically intellectual. Now, there are two sorts of
scripting languages:

Server Side (the hosting server where all the pages and programs
reside)

Client Side (the web surfer using the browser - actually the
browser is the client)

No, we are not talking about some corporate politics with all
this “siding” talk. Ok, before I begin with my bad sense of
humor, “Client Side Scripting” is what we generally see when we
code basic Java Scripts in our web pages to validate HTML forms
or implementing those cool image rollover effects or opening
custom popup windows etc. When you view the source of an HTML
page, and if the Java Script has been written in the page itself
(they have external Java Scripts too, but then that’s a different
story), then you can see the script with all it’s gory details. A
simple example of a Client Side Script written in Java Script is:

And then you can use it when the page loads:

A Server Side Script, on the other hand, does not manifest itself
when you try to use the “View Source” option of your browser. It
is a server side matter so unless you have the actual access to
the server, you cannot view the portion containing the server
side coding. But yes, the rest of the HTML matter is visible.

A typical ASP page looks like:

==> Page Begins < ==

< %@Language=VBScript%>
< % Option Explicit %>

< itle>

< %
Dim SayThis
SayThis = “Finally, I’m learning ASP!”
Response.Write SayThis
%>

==> Page Ends < ==

Provided you’ve configured your PWS in an amicable manner, this
docile file should show up without fuss. You can copy/paste this
page as it is using your preferred editor, and save the file as
“basic.asp”.

As you know, a basic HTML web page begins with the tag,
when you begin to work with an ASP page, try to make the first
line as:

< %@Language=VBScript%>
< % Option Explicit %>

The first line tells the concerned authorities that the following
code is going to contain VBScript syntax.

The second line forces us to declare every variable before we use
it. We’ll come back to this later when we are in a more aware
state of mind.

My preferred script for ASP is VBScript, so most of my ponderings
will be in this language. A few daredevils write their ASP pages
in Perl too, but personally I feel it is an overkill and they are
just trying to either show off or the features they want to use
only exist in Perl. For that matter, even C++ is used for making
ASP pages.

Anyway, done with the first line, are we?

As you can observe, we have all the quintessential HTML tags in
an ASP page too, but they are only necessary if you intend to
display the page to your visitors. If the page just includes a
script that performs some programming function and then loads
some other page, you can simply have the pure ASP code with first
line as < % and the last line is %>.

==> End of Chapter Two < ==

Note to the Reader: If you found this chapter useful, please let
me know at mailto:amrit@bytesworth.com.

About the Author

Amrit Hallan is a freelance web designer. For all web site
development and web promotion needs, you can get in touch with
him at http://www.bytesworth.com. For more such articles,
visit http://www.bytesworth.com/articles and
http://www.bytesworth.com/learn.