Choosing ASP Hosting
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if your dynamic websites was created using the ASP.NET language you will require ASP web hosting. ASP web hosting should ideally be based on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system (Windows 2003 Server) which ASP.NET was designed to run on.
Microsoft ASP web hosts will provice access to a control panel to fully manage your ASP application, running on their Windows servers. The Parallels Plesk control panel and Helm which both allow you to manage all aspects of your ASP.NET based web applications are very popular with web hosts at the moment.
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 standard web hosting your host will provide you with FTP access to your ASP Web Hosting account to allow you to upload your web data. Popular software such as the Microsoft Visual Web Developer have a built FTP in upload function, whereby you enter your FTP settings and upload.
Every web hosting account allows access via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to allow files to be uploaded to their web space. Its also 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.
“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 has been around for quite a while nowand was only recently replaced by Microsoft’s improved ASP.NET platform. ASP web hosting was originally a “niche market” with just a few hosting specialists, but has increased in popularity, partly due to ready developed applications. Backwards compatibility was maintained so your older asp applications should work on servers running the newer scripting environment.
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. Windows based ASP web hosting package is really only required if your scripts or applications demand ASP and ASP.NET.
Some people have chosed Windows Web Hosting in the past 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 host, unless you have used your own PC to develop Windows applications.
