Every online business owner has to start somewhere, and usually the very beginning of their online business endeavors start with the creation of a website. The usual questions arise first, such as – What is HTML? What is PHP? What is CSS? And of course, What is web hosting?

Many small business owners would like to diversify their revenue streams by broadcasting their products or services to the entire world. Even people that have owned storefronts for twenty years or more may have no clue how to do business online. Regardless of the task at hand, you never want to make a large investment without assurance that you could potentially receive a substantial return on your investment. Purchasing a web hosting plan is certainly not easy, especially when you are not familiar with the various options you have to choose from. If you fall under this category then you may want to consider shared web hosting as a starting point for your online business.

Minimal Investment – Maximum Learning Opportunity

Since you are just getting involved in the industry of online web hosting, you may want to try a cheap hosting plan that will give you the chance to learn without spending a lot of money to do so. Although shared web hosting does not offer a lot of server resources in comparison to other hosting plans such as dedicated and VPS hosting, it does provide all of the resources needed to run a small business online. Shared web hosting plans can be purchased for as little as $5 per month from some companies, and most companies include free 24 hour support. If you are trying to use shared web hosting as a way to learn the web hosting industry then I would strongly recommend starting with shared web hosting as a way to learn the ins and outs of the web hosting industry.

What Do You Need to Learn?

There are a lot of things for the new online business owner to learn, especially if you are planning on being successful and performing to the best of your ability. The first thing you need to learn about is how to use your web hosting control panel effectively. Your control panel is like the backbone of your website; without it you would not be able to control your website. Updating content, organizing content, and every other aspect of website management and operating has to be conducted within your web hosting control panel. Once you learn how to operate your web hosting control panel you can move on to promoting your website.

Downside of Shared Hosting

Unfortunately, like everything else shared hosting has a downside. The main downfall of a shared hosing plan is the lack of resources, which ultimately causes your site to operate slowly. However, with a shared web hosting plan you also have to share your IP address. This means you will be sharing responsibility with other people. In other words, if someone that is sharing your IP address gets deindexed from Google, then you run the risks of having the same thing happen to you. The best solution would be to start with shared hosting, and once you have become comfortable with your control panel, you can upgrade to a more comprehensive hosting plan.

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Traditionally dedicated servers have been used by businesses to store their confidential information. These servers allowed companies to securely retrieve and manipulate files on an exclusive connection.

This popular type of hosting has spilled over into the gaming industry. A growing trend is using dedicated hosting to house online games. Since the popularity of online games has significantly grown, the need for this service is also constantly growing.

Popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft is situated on multiple dedicated servers to accommodate the millions of players and resource-intensive graphics. Of course these gaming companies opt for the best equipment and service to ensure maximum uptime.

In the past, it was possible to run a game server in a household. As gaming technology has grown, a single residential connection to a server will not be reliable enough to handle the thousands to millions of players online.

When shopping for a dedicated gaming server, there are a few factors that must be considered including:

* RAM
* CPU
* Disk Space
* Bandwidth
* Pricing
* Data center support

Since many online games are in a first-person three dimensional environment, the amount of RAM and the speed of the CPU are imperative to reliability. Today’s graphics are so resource intensive, a large quantity of RAM and multiple CPU’s are a must.

Another major factor is the amount of disk space available on the server. Many hard drives must be available as a contingency for traffic spikes and the addition of new players. Also bandwidth should be unlimited due to the amount of players logging in 24/7 from every corner of the world.

Pricing can be a complete deal-breaker. Most clients highly base their decision on pricing alone. Make sure to understand the price of everything and ensure there are no hidden charges and fees so there are no surprises when the bill comes.

Finally it’s imperative to have a top-notch data support team. In the case that a major issue arises, the support team must be diligent and efficient at targeting the problem and concocting a solution. On that note, access to backup and recovery servers are vital.

Dedicated servers that host online games must maximize their uptime with quick support solutions when the systems go awry. These gaming companies rely on their dedicated hosting providers to supply top notch quality, speed and support ensuring customer satisfaction.

Our dedicated server solutions include high performance servers, configurable add-ons and optional 24/7 management service.

When browsing through the offerings of various web hosting companies you are sure to notice that some offer UNIX hosting and others offer Windows. Some hosts even offer a choice of the two operating systems. What are the differences and which one is better?

First of all, when choosing a host, it doesn’t matter what kind of operating system you develop your web site on or what you use on your own computer. Web sites hosted on both UNIX and Windows servers are universally accessible because the data they serve is identical. The difference lies solely in the software used to serve that data.

In terms of reliability UNIX systems have a slight advantage. They are known to extremely stable and able to run for years without rebooting. Windows is also very reliable – slightly less so than UNIX but still able to handle the demands of modern web sites.

The majority of web hosts use various flavours of UNIX like Linux and FreeBSD. These operating systems are free and reduce the costs of a hosting operation. Windows costs thousands of dollars so some hosts charge extra for Windows accounts if they offer both types.

As well as being free, Linux and the other UNIX varieties are open-source software. Anyone can alter the source code and make improvements, updates, and additions. There is a large pool of dedicated enthusiasts who use their free time to work on this software. Windows, on the other hand, is Microsoft proprietary software so users are dependent on Microsoft to release updates. There is no way for an individual user to modify the code.

The main difference between the two types of operating systems is the type of software each can run. Windows is suitable for Microsoft products such as MS Access databases, ASP for delivering dynamic content, and VBScript for site enhancements. UNIX cannot accommodate these technologies so if you absolutely need ASP or VBScript you should pick a Windows host. UNIX hosts deliver dynamic content by using software such as PHP, CGI, and MySQL – technologies which are also available on Windows hosts.

Windows is necessary for hosting Windows media files such as videos and audio. Other types of media such as MP3, Flash, Shockwave and Real can be handled by either UNIX or Windows. Websites created in Microsoft FrontPage (a graphical HTML development package) can also be hosted on either type as long as MS databases or dynamic content are not included for use on a UNIX host.
Which is Best?

Before deciding which type of hosting to use for your website, consider carefully what kind of technologies you will need. Do you need a dynamic site?  Will you have multimedia content such as streaming video or audio?

Both UNIX and Windows can provide dynamic content with PHP, MySQL, as well as CGI, and there are thousands of dynamic scripts readily available. Multimedia can also be hosted by either type of server, although Windows media (WMA and WMV) need to be hosted on a Windows server.

If you absolutely need Microsoft databases, ASP, and Windows media you have to go with a Windows host. Otherwise most websites are probably better off with a UNIX host. The advantages of UNIX over Windows include greater choices in web hosts, slightly better reliability, and (sometimes) cheaper hosting costs.

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