Where Is Your Hosting Backbone?

Your hosting company's backbone is critical to today's Internet Marketers need for speed. No, this doesn't mean that your hosting company has to stand up straight and throw its shoulders back and zoom off someplace or exhibit some adolescent bravado with a hot car!

A network backbone can take several forms, the simplest being devices attached to a long cable, like in a small library or office. A simple network can be created with several computers, all connected by cable connections to the same server or database.

All of these different networks serve a specific area, large or small, through a series of hubs, switches or routers that that make up the network's backbone, controlling data transfer speed, direction and delivery. Some deliver the data packet to a specific computer, others to a specific network initially, with the router on that end sending it on to the next stop on the way to its final destination.

Your hosting company's backbone is a high-speed series of connections that become a major pathway within a network. The better this backbone network functions determines how fast the web sites that run on their servers load when your customers click on your link.

The Local Area Network covers a small area like a building or group of buildings, an office or a single home. Their notable characteristic is much higher speed for data transfer than a WAN.

A more complicated form of a network backbone involves Hubs or Switches. A Hub is a computer connecting several other computers together. Network switches are capable of inspecting data packets as they are received, determining the source and destination device of that packet, and forwarding it appropriately.

Other networks riding on backbones of various sizes are PANS (personal area networks), CANS (campus area networks), MANS (metropolitan area networks).

Some examples of a Wide Area Network could be a university backbone, connecting several campuses for student, faculty and alumni access or a major corporation's backbone serving offices all over the country, or in other countries. The most famous WAN is the Internet, connecting the entire world through routers and networks.

When the devices are routers to Local Area Networks (LAN) or Wide Area Networks (WAN), you have a backbone of considerable size. A router is a device that extracts the destination of a packet it receives, selects the best path to that destination, and forwards data packets to the next device along this path. They connect networks together; a LAN to a WAN for example, to access the Internet.

Cost-wise, this hosting type is known to be expensive to set up due to its proprietary software and the use of Microsoft servers. However, when using a remote server, it becomes very affordable and is very competitive compared to the price of UNIX hosting. Added to the fact that the good performance and the robustness of Microsoft application that this hosting type offers, the minimal extra cost is definitely worth spent.

Windows hosting is referred to web sites that are served through Microsoft Windows NT or 2000 Internet Information Server (IIS). It is an NT-based server that is installed with Microsoft Windows Server Edition such as XP or 2003. It is widely regarded as having powerful end-to-end management, scalability and reliability features, hence its popularity for integrating businesses with the internet.

Windows hosting is the solution that you should go for if you intend to use specific Microsoft applications such as Active Server Pages (ASP), and if you plan to develop your website with Microsoft FrontPage. Furthermore, if your website will be developed with .NET, MS Index Server or Visual Basic scripts, this hosting environment is the better choice compared to UNIX. In terms of database, MS SQL is compatible for any hosting environment, but MS Access database is served only by Windows hosting.

The advantage of Windows hosting is for users to easily integrate any Microsoft products to websites due to the fact that millions of users are using Microsoft products. With Microsoft's technology, you will also be able to integrate cross-browser script libraries from Java Script with ASP. Certain features such as ODBC database connectivity and ColdFusion may only be used for Windows hosting and may not by UNIX.

What Is Windows Hosting

For businesses, web-hosting companies can also provide Eftpos facilities or a place for your customers to order goods or services from your website. Customers can pay on the spot and the website owner can have the goods or service delivered to them.

More and more traditional businesses are realizing that it is important to have a website to complement their business. Many customers turn to the web for information before they will visit a traditional shop. Websites and traditional businesses are a lot alike in the way they are set up. Once you understand the basics of business, then you will understand how web-hosting works.

Web-hosting companies are a lot like that. They require you to sign up and agree to terms and conditions. Once you have signed up, you are provided with your "keys" or login information to access your own piece of cyber space. With the login information, you can then begin to upload or transfer the things you need to make your website viable, whether it is data or pictures.

Another thing that you will need from a web hosting company is an address. Just like a conventional business, you will need a way for your customers to find you. These addresses are known as domain names and always begin with www. The important thing to remember about a domain name is that, if you don't pay a yearly fee on it, it could get sold to someone else.

When you think of a web-hosting company, it is a lot like a real-estate agent. When you want to open a shop in the traditional sense, you see a real-estate agent, find a suitable shop, sign some forms that say you agree to the rental terms and conditions, then you are given the key to your shop. Once you have the key to your shop, you can begin setting up your business just the way you like it.

A web hosting company is like the gateway to having your website published on the Internet. Without a hosting company, it would be very costly and nearly impossible to have a website. There are many reasons people want to have a website of their own. Some of these reasons include wanting a business, showcasing and teaching hobbies or wanting to share information with those in the worldwide community.

Web-hosting companies also provide their customers with email access from their website, a lot like having your own fax machine or message bank in a traditional business setting. Email servers will allow you to communicate and receive information or requests from customers or people interested in getting more information about your website.

If you were planning to rent a building for your business, you would want to shop around and not take the first place that you saw or go with the first real estate agent you spoke with. Web-hosting companies are the same. There are thousands of different companies out there and each one varies in price and in the services that they provide. The cheapest hosting company is not always best for your business.