1. Operating System viz. Linux or Windows
2. Web Space / Disk Space
3. Bandwidth

We provide reliable and customised hosting solutions. We help you make the correct choice for your web hosting needs.

CHOICE OF OPERATING SYSTEM

Linux server hosting

1. Linux is an open source software product and thus it does not need the high licensing fees that other operating systems do.

2. A Linux website can easily be converted to a Windows website without much hassle. Also, the website can easily be changed as the requirement of the user grows.

3. Linux web hosting is economical as Linux is a free operating system. Usually, only the cost of distribution is borne by the host or owner.

4. When the scripting language like PHP, MySQL, or Perl etc. are required for your website then Linux server hosting is the most reliable and cost effective solution for you.

5. There are many kinds of databases that run on Linux hosting, but the most widespread most likely among web host providers are MySQL and PostgreSQL. These databases are relational by nature, and permit vastly optimized communication with your website for rapid reclamation of data.

6. By lots of circles Linux hosting is supposed to be much secure than Windows hosting, and for that reason only Linux server hosting is a more popular choice for web designers and programmers.

Windows Server Hosting

1. .NET technologies like ASP.NET VB.NET, C# are available on this platform. If you have a website built with Microsoft .NET technologies then you will have to choose a Windows server hosting plan.

2. If you need an enterprise class database or need Microsoft's MSSQL database, a Windows hosting plan will be your best choice.

3. Access Databases are only obtainable with a Windows server hosting plan. Access can only run on a Microsoft Windows platform and thus it is unavailable on a Linux hosting. If your site needs particularly this feature then you will have to go for windows server hosting.

4. If you are using some of the Microsoft's Sharepoint services a Windows Hosting plan is the only reliable choice for you.

DISK / WEB SPACE

Web space (disk space) is the amount of data you can store on the hard disk of the web server. Each web hosting accound comes with a certain amount of space, usually over 50 MB and less than 1000 MB.

Obviously, the amount of needed space depends on the size of the website. Most websites are composed of html (text) pages with a few images (gifs or jpegs) or even a little bit of Flash animation. Text is very economical; it occupies very little space. Images and flash are more expensive; they require more space. If you're new to the web you might think it's great to have a lot of colorful images to make your website really beautiful. Don't make this common mistake!

Your aim should be to say as much as you can on a page while maintaining it's size under 100 KB including images. The reason? There are still lots of people using slow dial-up connections of under 56 Kbps. For them a 150 KB will take more that 21 seconds to load. A 60 KB page will take more than 8 seconds to load. That's still a lot of time! A good page size is under 100 KB. A maximum page size is 100 KB.

Considering an average page size of 100 KB, you can put approximately 10 pages on 1Mb of space. If you have 10 MB of space available, you could host 100 pages.

The idea is this: unless you run a busy forum your needs for space are likely to be rather modest. Just keep in mind to achieve an average of 100KB/page and you should be more than fine even with 10 MB of web space.

BANDWIDTH

Bandwidth is the amount of data that you're allowed to transfer per month. It includes all uploads and downloads regardless of the protocol used (HTTP, FTP, POP etc.). Bandwidth depends very much on the average page size, but it also depends on the number of visitors your website will have and the average number of pages they visit. For an average page size of 100 KB, 20,000 visitors per month and 3 pages per visitor your website will need about 6000 MB (6 GB) of bandwidth per month. Most low cost hosting packages include that amount of bandwidth. Not to mention that 20,000 visitors per month is only a dream for most websites. Most don't even have 2,000 visitors per month.

We took you through all those numbers just to give you an idea how to estimate your needs. If you're just launching your website you will not need neither a huge amount of space, neither a huge amount of bandwidth. For 99% of people a hosting account with 10MB of space and 1Gb is more than enough.

Conclusion: Unless you have reasons to believe that your website will definitely have lots of visitors and unless you'll offer movies or music for download (legally of course ), we see little reason for you to worry about space and bandwidth.

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