hi there,

I'm looking at different web hosts and noticing they all seem to have Linux or apache listed as their "server operating sytem".

I don't know anything about these programs. I use windows, dreamweaver, coldfusion etc.

Am I going to be able to communicate with these servers or do I need to find one that uses windows as its server operating system?

Thanks very much for your help.

eithne

It really does not matte what operating system you are using. Apache is not an operating system, it is the actual webserver and it can run on most operating systems including windows. What do you want to do? I'm not sure but I think if you are using coldfusion you may want to go with a windows host. Unix based hosts are usually cheaper and more reliable. If you get a unix host with some sort of control panel (I recommednd CPanel) you won't need to know much if anything about unix. Running your site will involve uploading via ftp or through the file manager. You will need an understanding of file permissions. You can administrate more advanced things like MySQL, CRON jobs, subdomains, etc. very eisily through CPanel. You may also be given Telnet/SSH access to your account. You most likely will only need this for advanced things. I only use it to check on server loads and such. A windows server is better for multimedia type things. If you want to do windows media streaming or real media streaming through the actual servers and not via http you will want a windows server, although for those services it will be very expensive. Their is a product called helix for Unix that will run as a streaming server. You will also most likely need a windows server if you want to do ASP, ODBC, or MS Access. Whichever you choose you will be able to communicate with them using windows. If you get a dedicated server that runs unix there are programs for windows that use something called Xwindows I think and let you remotley run trhe unix programs from your windows system. I know absolutely nothing about that so maybe someone esle can explain. I am by no means an expert so I might be wrong about some things but the basic answrer to your question is yes. You can communicate with a unix server through windows.

Some 3rd-party software solutions will render part of your decision process mute should the end host provide support for them.

Eg. Chilisoft (acquired by Sun); One Active Server Pages:
http://wwws.sun.com/software/chilisoft/index.html