Nowadays, the world of web hosting is ruled by free, open source technologies. The names of Linux, Perl, PHP, MySQL and Apache are on the lips of most web developers and webmasters. These tools are free, and as such allow anyone to run a website on the Internet at surprisingly low costs. However, there are still a lot of people who swear by the name of Microsoft ASP.Net. For these people, the free, open source tools do not hold much of a charm. They are more into the reputation of Microsoft in the market. These people need to host their websites on a server based on Windows operating system.
Hosting on a Windows-based server is not an easy task. There are several dilemmas which one may face if he/ she hosts a site on a web server running on a Microsoft operating system. In order to avoid hours of worry and frustration later, it is important to find out as much information as possible before hosting the site with the provider. Make sure the provider is offering the following services:
1.Round-the-clock knowledgeable support – This is a facility that will be a lifesaver if something goes wrong along the way. There are a lot of providers out there who advertise about 24/7 support, but their support personnel can provide little more than a shrug when faced with tough problems. Nothing is more frustrating than watching your site go offline due to technical problems that the support personnel are unable to fix.
2.Considerable amount of hard disk space – Make sure that the provider is giving you at least 1 GB of storage space, along with around 5 GB bandwidth limit per month. Any less than this and you may run into trouble later on. Remember, in ASP, you need to keep a lot of extra files in the server, so make sure that you have adequate space for that. Make sure you find out exactly how much space and bandwidth you are going to get. Make sure you get what you pay for. If you get an offer that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Trust your instincts.
3.Extensive database driver support – Make sure that the provider supports all sorts of database drivers that can be used with ASP. That includes Microsoft Jet OLEDB, Visual FoxPro, Microsoft Excel, Paradox, etc., along with the regular MySQL ODBC drivers.
These facilities should be provided by any web hosting service provider. Make sure you are not getting the raw deal. Always do a research beforehand and choose only the best.