4: Web Hosting Capacities
If you look at the size of HTML pages, you will see that the average size is very small. But if you look at the size of the images used inside these pages, you will often find the images larger than the page.
Expect each HTML page to take up between 5 and 50KB of disk space on your web server, depending on the use of images or other space-consuming elements.
If you use a lot of images or graphic elements (or sound files or movies), you might need much more disk space.
Make sure you know your needs, before choosing a web host.
Calculate the following: average page size * expected page views per month
Example: If your average page size is 30KB and you expect 50,000 page views per month, you will need 0.03MB * 50,000 = 1.5GB.
Larger, commercial sites often consume more than 100GB of monthly traffic.
Before you sign up with a host provider, make sure to check this:
1 byte equals to 8 bits (and that's the number of bits used to transport one character). Low-speed modems can transport from about 14 000 to 56 000 bits per second (14 to 56 kilobits per second). That is somewhere between 2000 and 7000 characters per second, or about 1 to 5 pages of written text.
One kilobit (Kb) is 1024 bits. One megabit (Mb) is 1024 kilobits. One gigabit (Gb) is 1024 megabits.
These are connection speeds used on the Internet today:
Name Connections Speed per second
Modem Analog 14.4-56 KB
DO Digital (ISDN) 64 KB
T1 Digital 1.55 MB
T3 Digital 43 MB
OC-1 Optical Carrier 52 MB
OC-3 Optical Carrier 156 MB
OC-12 Optical Carrier 622 MB
OC-24 Optical Carrier 1.244 GB
OC-48 Optical Carrier 2.488 GB
Before you sign up with a host provider, surf some other web sites on their servers, and try to get a good feeling about their network speed. Also compare the other sites against yours, to see if it looks like you have the same needs. Contacting some of the other customers is also a valuable option
5 : Web Hosting Email Services
E-mail addresses should appear something like this:
john@mycompany.com
john.doe@mycompany.com
jdoe@mycompany.com
The e-mails are received and held on your internet server until you pick it up with a client e-mail program, like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.
The e-mails are received, and held on your internet server, until you pick it up with a client e-mail program, like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.
IMAP represents an improvement over POP because e-mail stored on an IMAP server can be manipulated from several computers (a computer at home, a workstation at the office, etc.), without having to transfer messages back and forth between computers. POP was designed to support e-mail access on one single computer.
Examples of web-based e-mail services are Gmail and Hotmail.
With e-mail forwarding, you can setup aliases for other e-mail accounts like:
postmaster@mywebsitename.com should be forwarded to peter@mywebsitename.com
sales@mywebsitename.com should be forwarded to mary@mywebsitename.com
6 : Web Hosting Technologies
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.
Unix was the first (original) web server operating system, and it is known for being reliable and stable. Often less expensive than Windows.
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.
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 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.
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 is developed by Adobe.
However, Chili!Soft ASP is a software product that allows ASP to run on UNIX and some other platforms.
FrontPage allows users to develop a web site without any deep knowledge of web development.
Most Windows hosting solutions support FrontPage server extensions for users that use FrontPage to develop their web site.
If you plan to use FrontPage, you should look for a Windows hosting solution.
Dreamweaver allow users to develop a web site without any deep knowledge of web development.
Dreamweaver has support for web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, JavaServer Pages, and PHP.
Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems.
If you plan to do online creditcard transactions, or other types of web communication that needs to be protected against unauthorized access, your ISP must provide a secure server.
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Make sure you get the disk space and the traffic volume you need.
How Much Disk Space?
A small or medium web site will need between 10 and 100MB of disk space.If you look at the size of HTML pages, you will see that the average size is very small. But if you look at the size of the images used inside these pages, you will often find the images larger than the page.
Expect each HTML page to take up between 5 and 50KB of disk space on your web server, depending on the use of images or other space-consuming elements.
If you use a lot of images or graphic elements (or sound files or movies), you might need much more disk space.
Make sure you know your needs, before choosing a web host.
Monthly Traffic
A small or medium web site will consume between 1GB and 5GB of data transfer per month.Calculate the following: average page size * expected page views per month
Example: If your average page size is 30KB and you expect 50,000 page views per month, you will need 0.03MB * 50,000 = 1.5GB.
Larger, commercial sites often consume more than 100GB of monthly traffic.
Before you sign up with a host provider, make sure to check this:
- What are the restrictions on monthly transfer?
- Will the web site be closed if it exceeds the volume?
- Will you be billed a fortune if the web site exceeds the volume?
- Is upgrading a simple task?
Connection Speed
In the early days of the Internet a T1 connection was considered a fast connection. Today connection speeds are much faster.1 byte equals to 8 bits (and that's the number of bits used to transport one character). Low-speed modems can transport from about 14 000 to 56 000 bits per second (14 to 56 kilobits per second). That is somewhere between 2000 and 7000 characters per second, or about 1 to 5 pages of written text.
One kilobit (Kb) is 1024 bits. One megabit (Mb) is 1024 kilobits. One gigabit (Gb) is 1024 megabits.
These are connection speeds used on the Internet today:
Name Connections Speed per second
Modem Analog 14.4-56 KB
DO Digital (ISDN) 64 KB
T1 Digital 1.55 MB
T3 Digital 43 MB
OC-1 Optical Carrier 52 MB
OC-3 Optical Carrier 156 MB
OC-12 Optical Carrier 622 MB
OC-24 Optical Carrier 1.244 GB
OC-48 Optical Carrier 2.488 GB
Before you sign up with a host provider, surf some other web sites on their servers, and try to get a good feeling about their network speed. Also compare the other sites against yours, to see if it looks like you have the same needs. Contacting some of the other customers is also a valuable option
5 : Web Hosting Email Services
Hosting services should include e-mail accounts and e-mail services.
E-mail Accounts
Hosting solutions should include e-mail accounts for each person in your company.E-mail addresses should appear something like this:
john@mycompany.com
john.doe@mycompany.com
jdoe@mycompany.com
POP E-mail
POP stands for Post Office Protocol. POP is a standard client/server protocol for sending and receiving e-mail.The e-mails are received and held on your internet server until you pick it up with a client e-mail program, like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.
IMAP Email
IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP is another standard protocol for sending and receiving e-mail.The e-mails are received, and held on your internet server, until you pick it up with a client e-mail program, like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.
IMAP represents an improvement over POP because e-mail stored on an IMAP server can be manipulated from several computers (a computer at home, a workstation at the office, etc.), without having to transfer messages back and forth between computers. POP was designed to support e-mail access on one single computer.
Web-based E-mail
Web-based e-mail services enable you to access your e-mail via a web browser. You log into your e-mail account via the Web to send and retrieve e-mail. Being able to access your e-mail from any browser anywhere in the world is a very attractive option.Examples of web-based e-mail services are Gmail and Hotmail.
E-mail Forwarding
E-mail forwarding allows you to have multiple e-mail personalities.With e-mail forwarding, you can setup aliases for other e-mail accounts like:
postmaster@mywebsitename.com should be forwarded to peter@mywebsitename.com
sales@mywebsitename.com should be forwarded to mary@mywebsitename.com
Mailing Lists
Some service providers offer mailing list capabilities. This is valuable if you plan to send out e-mails to a large number of users.6 : Web Hosting Technologies
This section describes some of the most common hosting technologies.
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.
Unix Hosting
Unix hosting means hosting of web services that runs on the Unix operating system.Unix was the first (original) web server operating system, and it is known for being reliable and stable. Often less expensive than Windows.
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 Adobe.
Chili!Soft ASP
Microsoft's ASP technology runs only on Windows platforms.However, Chili!Soft ASP is a software product that allows ASP to run on UNIX and some other platforms.
Microsoft FrontPage
FrontPage is a website design tool developed by Microsoft.FrontPage allows users to develop a web site without any deep knowledge of web development.
Most Windows hosting solutions support FrontPage server extensions for users that use FrontPage to develop their web site.
If you plan to use FrontPage, you should look for a Windows hosting solution.
Adobe Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver is a website design tool owned by Adobe Systems.Dreamweaver allow users to develop a web site without any deep knowledge of web development.
Dreamweaver has support for web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, JavaServer Pages, and PHP.
Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems.
Secure Server
A secure server can transmit data encrypted.If you plan to do online creditcard transactions, or other types of web communication that needs to be protected against unauthorized access, your ISP must provide a secure server.
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