Sep 02
2008More dynamic websites are now being created using the ASP.NET language,resulting in web hosts rushing to provide customers with ASP web hosting. ASP web hosting really needs to be based on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system (Windows 2003 Server) which ASP.NET was designed to run on.
Your ASP web hosts will provide you with a control panel to fully manage your ASP web hosting, running on Windows servers. The most popular Windows based control panels at the moment are the popular Parallels Plesk control panel and Helm which both allow you to manage all aspects of your ASP.NET based web applications.
Both Control Panels also provided you with access to the installed of Microsoft SQL Server, ensuring full integration between your ASP.NET applications and MS-SQL. From the online control panel you will be able to create and delete your remotely hosted databases, create users, set passwords and define permissions and security settings.
Like any standard shared hosting account your host will provide you with FTP access to your ASP Web Hosting account to allow you to upload your web files and scripts. Development software such as Microsoft Visual Studio have built in FTP to allow you to upload.
Also its possible to upload files using the Control Panel’s built in File Manager, which has an “Explorer” like interface allowing your browse, drag and drop files from your desktop to server. Virtually every web hosting package allows access via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to allow files to be uploaded to their public web space with ease. Alternatively you can use a free FTP client, such as Filezilla.
“Classic” ASP and ASP.NET should really only run on Microsoft Windows Server operating systems. Some hosts do offer “ASP Hosting” running on Linux servers, using using the Sun Chilisoft ASP Environment. If you have developed your scripts in a Microsoft environment you may find it more reliable and less frustrating to host them on Microsoft servers as there are a few subtle differences between Linux and Windows hosts (such as file and case sensitivity).
ASP hosting was originally a “niche market” with relatively few specialists, but has increased in popularity, partly due to ready developed packages and greater awareness and competition . Backwards compatibility was maintained by Microsoft, so older asp applications should work on servers running the newer scripting environment.
You should only choose a Windows based ASP web hosting package if your scripts or applications required ASP and ASP.NET. If your web site only needs static html pages, or perhaps open source scripting technologies such as PHP, Perl or Python then a standard Linux shared hosting package should suffice.
Some people, simply choose Windows Web Hosting because thats what their desktop PC runs. The choice of your home PC operating system has no bearing on your choice of Linux our Windows Hosting, unless you are using your own PC to develop Windows applications. If all your web site requires is static html pages, then you would be wasting money on an ASP Web Hosting package.
