Microsoft is the company that develops Windows and most of the Linux distributions are open source and free. Sometimes because of this a Windows server can be more expensive than a Linux server.  This article is written for help to the ones who are confused about what type of server the should choose.

Most of the people, who are beginners in the web hosting world naturally assume that since they have Windows on their PC their server must be an Windows too. That is not true at all. The uploading and updating your site happens mostly through FTP access and both types of the platforms support that feature. However there is a slight difference between the FTP programs because on some the commands are different for both the platforms. Often most of the programs are created with one platform in mind.

The choice for the web server should be dictated by your personal needs. Most people need PHP, MySQL, POP3 and similar services. The Linux server fully provides that. If you however need something developed for Windows like ASP, Access or Windows streaming media, then obviously the choice should be a Windows server.

One other thing, that is being discussed is the stability and reliability of the two types of platforms.  The vast majority of people think that, because Windows is made for home PC’s it is unreliable and is being hacked more often. The statistics however say different – a surprising number of Linux servers has been hacked over the years as well. And in terms of which is faster the answer is that there isn’t a huge difference between both.

The conclusion is that you should choose the web server type on your needs, so choose carefully.

If you have a bigger website, the biggest disadvantage on a shared web server is the lack of control over the software installed on the server.

Many website owners usually don’t care about that fact and they shouldn’t. However, as we mentioned if you own a big website with a lot of visitors every day you won’t feel comfortable on a shared web hosting server. There is a solution to this kind of issue – it’s called Virtual Private Server or the also well used term VPS. The VPS or Virtual Private Server can offer that control over the software resources for the people with more websites under one account or the ones who own a particularly big web site.

To know the advantages over the shared web hosing, first you need to be introduced to some definition for a VPS. The VPS is again a like a virtual account, divided by a Virtualization software, located on a physical machine. This time however, the resources are not shared – every VPS account has own predefined(usually by the webhosting company, depending on the VPS package you have ordered) resources like RAM and allocated space. You have a control over every software aspect on your Virtual Private Server as well and every other configurations, available for a web server.

The main advantage for that kind of server is the access granted to the owner of the VPS. The owner has “root” access to the Virtual Server and this allow him to control the software, configuration and even create other user accounts. In other words, a VPS is like any other normal Server.

The VPS has other advantages like the better security. For example, if a hacker breaches in a shared web hosting server, where all the accounts are stored, he can cause alot of damage to the all these accounts, located on the server. A VPS however acts independently and you can customize the level of security for it on you own preferences.  The structure of a Virtual Private Server is such, that even if a hacker gains access to a VPS, he cannot get to the other VPS accounts, stored on the same physical machine.

Virtual Private Servers can be setupped by the hosting company in many different ways. The most common configuration is depending on the hosting package, they give you defined disc space and RAM. The Operating Memory or Random-Access Memory also known as RAM is very important for a web server, since most of software you will use tend to use the RAM more than the CPU. You can read more for the RAM on Wikipedia if you like. Depending on the Virtualization software the web hosting company is using, there are some different setups as well. For example, a web hosting company which uses Parallels Virtuozzo sets a soft and a hard RAM limit. Once you hit the hard limit, you get a warning that you are exceeding your resources.

The main advantage of a VPS can also be the disadvantage. It is highly recommended that you know what you are doing and have the technical know-how so you can operate with your VPS. The Virtual Private Server is not for people who don’t like technical stuff or are not willing to learn, shared hosting plan is perfect for them.

In general, a today’s VPS packages are highly affordable and are huge advantage to the common big web site owners. If you are wondering what type of VPS hosting package you should order, make sure you are familiar with the software you will be using and how much resources it will take.

The first question is What Type of Website are You Building ?

Will you web site be a Blog, Online buisness web site, E-commerce web site? Will this website be a simple forum or web site with lots of dynamic content? These are all key questions, since as mentioned above you must meet certain requirements in order to successfully build your website.  For example, if you want to build an E-commersce web site first you need to find a SSL provider. Sometimes the hosting company can offer you SSL packages or stand-alone SSL certificates at very affordable prices. The SSL is important for your clients since it protects the confidential information(such as credit card numbers) to be stolen. You should check if your future host provides the Secure Socket Layer(SSL) before going to the next step, which is actually purchasing the package.

An other example is if you are building a personal Blog or something similar that is simple compared to the E-commerce web site. Then you must ensure that the host provides PHP, Perl/CGI Scripting and Database support such as MySQL or PostgreSQL. Also, make sure they have one of the latest versions of these software since the applications you might be running on your hosting could require latest versions of PHP, MySQL and etc.

The other important question is How much allocated disc space you will need?

Again, if you are running a small and static website you shouldn’t need much disc space. However, if you are planning to upload much multimedia content such as videos and pictures, make sure you have plenty of disc space on your host. Another example for a high-demanding of disc space web site is business site or some other dynamic web site, which will have big database. You should watch for such things like what;s the database storage because database storage and disc space can be quite different things on some hosts.

The third important question you might ask is How much traffic should I need?

To be honest, this totally depends on your website. Large, business websites can suck up huge traffic every month. The unlimited bandwith package however might be a bit more costly than the one with limitations and if your website is small like some hobby website or personal site, you’ll probably do fine with these limitations. You can determine the average traffic by the things displayed on you web page aswell. For example, one small logo is about 5kb and if you have multiple banners/pictures in your website their total size won’t be that much. However if you receive many hits per day this size significantly adds up to your total bandwith. Another example are forums. Forums tend to use alot of traffic since there are multiple hits as well as transmitted data per user.

One last thing you should watch for is The Hosting Features You Will Need.

The most important things you should watch are the features a host provides. In most cases, you will need the languages PHP, Perl/CGI, Java installed on your server as well as database support from software like MySQL, PosgreSQL or Microsoft SQL. These days most hosts support these features, but you should watch for the version of these features since the newest software you will be installing will require new versions of the above mentioned features. The other thing you will need as a feature is the FTP support, because that is the easiest way to upload your website on the web quickly and effectively. SSH support is advanced feature which costs more and we do not recommend using it, unless you don’t know what you are doing. One last feature which again most hosts provide is the POP3/Email, but you want to check out if it is available anyways.

The Domain name may be consisted of alphabetical and numerical characters and will identify you on the web. The restrictions for a domain name are that it should be no longer than 67 symbols which include all the 26 English letters, numbers from 0 to 9 and hyphens(-).

You might have noticed that a domain name has an extension, called TLD (Top level domain) which represent the shorter variations for most common used domain TLDs:

• .com Commercial common domains
• .org Nonprofit organizations
• .net Commercial network
• .edu Educational purposes
• .gov Government agency
• .mil Military

You can find some cheap domain name registrations from most of today’s registrars like .biz, .tv, .name, .info

The most hard part is always choosing the correct name which is memorable, suitable and good looking. Here are some suggestions and ideas which might help you on choosing a suitable domain for you. Note that once registered, a domain name cannot be changed and that is why you should choose it very carefully:

1. Start with a keyword which is relevant to your domain name. List keywords, which are relevant to your domain name or to the contents of your website.

2. Try combining keywords which are, short, easy to memorize, hard to misspell. Most important is that they should be relevant to the core of your activities/business.

3. If you still can’t get the right idea, you can try some free domain name generators. These generators usually add some random prefix or suffix to a given keyword. Sometimes the prefixes and suffixes might be a bit awkward, but others can be quite good suggestions or at least give you some suggestions. You can find many of these free generators by simply searching Google.

4. You like some domain name, but it’s taken! Do not fret. You can find the same domain free, but with different TLD. It is not the ideal solution, but however it cansatisfy your needs for a cool domain name. Also, the domain name which you like, but is taken can be for sell on SEDO ( website, which specializes in domain name auctions).

5. “Should I choose to add hyphens to my domain name?”. There are some advantages and disadvantages for this which you should consider very carefully. Most people tend to forget hyphens and in most cases they will misspell your domain and end up on the site of your competitor. The advantage is that hyphened domains are good for your SEO (Search engine optimizing). Search engines like Google can distinguish the names in your domain while hyphened and this can get you on better rank.

6. “Which ones should I choose – .COM , .NET , .ORG etc.” The answer isn’t that simple as you might think. It can depend on the type of your business, like for example you are running a business in your country only. Then it is logical to choose a country specific TLD. If your business is located in the UK it is wiser to choose a .CO.UK domain for eaxmple.

If you case is that you are running a business on international scale? A .net and .org domains are quite acceptable tlds, but you should have in mind that the tld describes the organization. For example icann.org is a non-profitable organizations and therefore it is running on a .org domain name.

Ultimately, if a .com domain name is free, probably it is best choice to take it, unless you have a specific reason to take the other common TLD’s  like we have mentioned above. There is also another advantage to this – when you type a word in your browser’s address bar without its tld, for example “apache”, the search engine first goes through .com and after that .net, .org and etc.

7. If you have a brand of your business, start registering all the free common TLD’s of that domain name!

8. Ultimately, once you have chosen your domain name check its availability through any WHOIS check website. Again, Google is your best tools since there are tons of such tools on the net!

I hope you liked these tips, if you like them feel free to comment.