Part 2
(return to Part 1)
Uploads – FTP and Telnet
If you are not doing live "in situ" updates via the extensions, nor using the
FrontPage style HTTP import and export, then you will need a means to upload
your pages and other website files to the server after you complete them. The
most common way to accomplish this is via the "File Transfer Protocol" (FTP).
From the System Administrator’s perspective, there are differences in the ease
of setting up FTP for individual users that tend to make it more commonly
available of Unix servers than it is on Windows. If FTP is important to you, you
will want to check specifically for this feature.
While Telnet access can be provided on a Windows server, it almost never is. Far
more common on Unix servers (which is where it originated) it is, however, quite
rapidly disappearing from them too because of security considerations. Telnet is
useful to you if you are familiar with the Unix or Linux command line utilities
and commands and wish to use them for controlling or manipulating your files.
Almost everything you do with your site through a Telnet session can be
accomplished by other means, which means that the availability of this feature
may not be of particular importance to you.
CGI – Shell Scripts and PERL
The "Common Gateway Interface" (CGI) provides a means to connect or link from a
web page to a program written in a scripting language that runs on the server.
Some people refer to a "CGI Script" when what they actually mean is a Shell
Script accessed via the CGI. Shell scripts are files containing a series of
commands to be executed by the Unix Shell. They are therefore a feature of a
Unix or Linux system. Other types of scripts accessed via the CGI include PERL
scripts. PERL is readily available for either Unix/Linux or Windows. It is
included by default is almost every Linux distribution and is an add-on to
Windows. As a very powerful and popular scripting language, it is available on
most hosting service systems. It is something that you will want to check,
however.
Server Side Scripting – PHP, ASP, ASP.net
There are many other type of Server Side scripting and/or interfaces, including
PHP, ASP and ASP.net. PHP, as an easy to learn, but very powerful scripting
language has gained a great deal of popularity. It is readily available for both
Unix/Linux and Windows systems, but is still more commonly deployed on Linux.
Most hosting companies these days will have made PHP available on their systems
no matter which platform they have chosen. It is still, however, something you
will w3ant to check on if you have any plans to use it.
ASP and the newer ASP.net are native to Windows. They provide, among other
things, access to Visual Basic and the VB Scripting language. I have seen ports
of ASP to Linux, but it is very rare to see it offered by a hosting company
running Linux servers. I have not personally tested the capabilities of the
Linux ASP implementations and so can not advise you as to how compatible they
may be. ASP.net holds a great potential for the future of the web, providing
features that greatly extend the capabilities that web developers can offer to
their clients. A decision to utilize ASP or APS.Net may be a deciding factor for
you in the choice of platform you look for in a hosting company.
Databases – MySQL, Access, SQL Server and others
MySQL is a common database on Linux based servers these days. It is also
available for Windows and is starting to appear on the list of offerings from
more and more Windows based hosting providers. Access, as a Microsoft product,
is available for Windows. Other databases, including the large database systems
such as SQL Server and Oracle can be accessed through interfaces such as ODBC.
There are also ODBC connections to such system as the IBM AS/400, which is
fairly common in medium sized businesses. These interfaces, which are fairly
specialized, are more commonly available on Windows systems, and in the
offerings of hosting companies are usually special request or custom solutions.
If you have a need for such a connection, you will need to talk to the potential
hosting service representatives.
In Summary
Recent advances in operating systems, and especially in the areas of
inter-operability, have brought the available feature sets of Windows and Linux
based website hosting offerings much closer to each other. Where in the past
there have been cut and dry advantages to one over the other for particular
applications, these differences have now diminished to the point where the
choice of operating system a hosting service company makes is frequently not a
concern to the client. With a few exceptions, as noted above, you can often make
your choice of hosting company based on the available feature set and factors
concerning the company themselves, rather than the operating system they have
chosen.
