Hi!

G'day g'day!

I'm looking for some words of wisdom form some older wiser heads than mine. Bear with me while I set the scene ... before asking the actual question ...

Because my only previous experience of hosting Company's is free hosting for a limited service. This being a straight-forward Fireworks/Dreamweaver - HTML/Javascript site ...

The new site I'm developing is likely to grow with my expanding skills to include database driven work ... but I'm yet to decide which langauages to learn.

Which in turn means I need a host capable of serving me whichever way I go ... that do both ASP and PHP so I don't have to move the site if I choose a language not covered by my host.

So far I've selected a list of around 10 UK hosts to approach before deciding who to use.

I need to get the site up and running quickly ... and because of this ...

I need to ask this:

When I appraoch these PHP/ASP hosts about hosting what questions should I ask them about the way they provide PHP or ASP services?

What do I need to look out for?

What pitfalls do I need to look for and what sort of questions should I poseregarding terms and conditions and charging for such services (to make sure I'm covering my own back)???

Hope somebody can offer some tips to somebody who is growing as quick as he can but not as fast as he would like

LOL :-)


Craigy B

Well, for starters, know that ASP and PHP are developed for differnet platforms. Although PHP will run on a Windows server, it might not function as well as it would on a unix server. It's even worse with ASP... With Chilisoft ASP you can use ASP on a unix server, but again it's not as good as on a Windows server. Some hosts offer only apache::asp with only allows ASP written in Perlscript.

I know some people will say that there is nothing wrong with PHP on Windows or ASP on Unix, but if you are going to do some serious hardcore programming in PHP, you want a Unix server, and if you are doing it in ASP then you would want to do it in an NT enviroment.

So, just know that you should get hosting on whatever platform you plan to code more for. Say you want to code more in PHP and want to dabble in ASP, go for NT hosting, and vice versa with PHP and Unix hosting.

Originally posted by bigperm
Say you want to code more in PHP and want to dabble in ASP, go for NT hosting, and vice versa with PHP and Unix hosting.


Err, I think you got that last bit flip-flopped. Anyway, aside from that, I agree 100%. As a currently Linux-exclusive webhost, I have to say that ASP support on *NIX is really not worth bothering with. It's buggy, slow, and doesn't support the newest shiniest features. However, PHP on *NIX is wonderful, especially with things like the PHP Accelerator to make it even better.

Not owning an NT server, I cannot definitively state that PHP support is not decent on NT, but I imagine it is much the same idea as the *NIX situation, except reversed of course.

Originally posted by Craigy B
The new site I'm developing is likely to grow with my expanding skills to include database driven work ... but I'm yet to decide which langauages to learn.

Which in turn means I need a host capable of serving me whichever way I go ... that do both ASP and PHP so I don't have to move the site if I choose a language not covered by my host.

Your choice of language would be easier to make if you have a firm sense of what type of projects you'll be involved in going forward. But since you are on a journey of discovery and education, I suggest to you that it doesn't really matter which you choose.

My suggestion would be to learn one - web development is much the same irregardless of the language - and with that advice I'd say pick a Unix hosted language like PHP, Perl or Python. Your hosting options will be greater, and cheaper - not a bad deal when learning.

PHP and Perl run everywhere, both are quite different in nature. PHP is most like ASP so if you think you will work in both in the future, its a reasonable pairing.

Python is my personal favorite, it is a very good language that teaches good behaviour, but hosting options are less common for all but CGI scripting. If your goal is to learn programming, I would not hesitate to pick up Python but it will spoil you for anything else and you'll still have to learn PHP or ASP. Ugh!

If you knew that your future would involve lots of corporate work, intranet work. you might consider ASP instead, since you are more likely, still, to run into ASP / Microsoft IIS Server in those environments.

My two cents.

G'day g'day!

Excellent informative replies from all who've responded so far (Bigperm Nitidnet & mwatkins) of you. Thank you so much.

It's been a big help.

Based upon what I've read (including thoughts on wider picture from mwatkins) I think I'll go the the PHP UNIX route first and expand into new areas later my development needs becvome clearer.

Thanks again.

Wonderful responses! :-)

Craigy B