Hi! I just have a few basic questions, I have a web site and am trying to decide what web host to go with.

What is "virtual hosting"? Is that just regular hosting?

What is "co-locate"?

What is "reselling"?

What is the difference between getting web space and getting SSL, and e-commerce? And CAN I just get web space and simply get SSL for one or two pages that I need forms on which contain personal information?

After searching the forums it seems like Ventures Online would be a good company to go with, I want something reliable but not too expensive that can offer SSL.....I think I might be confused, please feel free to tell me if I'm not making any sense. Anyway, my website is for my company (created to save the rainforest!) and I need to be able to process personal information- but I DON'T need a program to process credit cards, I can do that myself for free. I don't need big bandwidth (at the moment) and I don't need huge webspace, and I definitely need Frontpage 2000 server extensions- I don't think I need anything else.

Anyway, feel free to tell me if it sounds like VO would be a good choice...thanks in advance!

virtual hosting - just what you would consider normal old hosting. you get space on a server somewhere, and usually a control panel to make mail accounts, databases, etc.

co-locate - you buy a server and then you put it in a colocation facility that will provide you with space for your server and a connection to the internet (bandwidth) . a dedicated server is just the same, only the hosting facility provides the server and bandwidth for you

reselling - you get a virtual hosting account that has tools to resell the space, and in essence allow you to be your own hosting company on someone elses servers

SSL - refers to a secure connect, no a type of webspace. if a host offers SSL you can have as many or as little pages use it as you want. any page can be accessed securly or insecurly (http://dom.com/file.htm --> secure --> https://dom.com/file.htm or https://hosting-company.com/~username/file.htm) . some hosting companys offer SSL at your domain (requires dedicated IP address), others share a certificate (same security) so you have to use their URL to access your pages securly

e-commerce - refers to webspace specially suited for a business, for example it may include shopping cart software

Ventures Online - I believe they would be a good choice, good luck

let me know if any of this is confusing ~ gem

oh, so it sounds like you just need webspace with SSL and frontpage extensions. no need for an e-commerce package

Thanks very much! Ok, now I still have just a couple of questions before I finally purchase an account, I want to make sure I understand all of this...

What is a "parked domain"? As in, "up to ten parked domains to main account domain".

Is a shopping cart one of those programs which allows visitors to your site to keep selecting items and then just pay for them all when they leave?

What the heck does "CGI" mean?

What is a "MySQL" connection and a "MySQL" database? Will I need a "MySQL" database in order to send the results of a secure form to a database? (I understand that I cannot, at least through any means which my internet literacy will allow me to take, simply send the results of my form in an e-mail to myself, as that e-mail would not maintain the encryption from the SSL...so I take it that I have to have a database of some kind to send it to)

And finally, if I use a shared SSL certificate (which should come free with an account at Ventures Online) for a form I'm using, the URL would look something like "https://www.venturesonline.com/mysitename.html", right? So would I be able to give the page the background and format that I would want? Would I still be able to make the page look like all of the other pages on my site?

Thanks again in advance!!!

Originally posted by mrambassador
Thanks very much! Ok, now I still have just a couple of questions before I finally purchase an account, I want to make sure I understand all of this...

What is a "parked domain"? As in, "up to ten parked domains to main account domain".

Is a shopping cart one of those programs which allows visitors to your site to keep selecting items and then just pay for them all when they leave?

What the heck does "CGI" mean?

What is a "MySQL" connection and a "MySQL" database? Will I need a "MySQL" database in order to send the results of a secure form to a database? (I understand that I cannot, at least through any means which my internet literacy will allow me to take, simply send the results of my form in an e-mail to myself, as that e-mail would not maintain the encryption from the SSL...so I take it that I have to have a database of some kind to send it to)

And finally, if I use a shared SSL certificate (which should come free with an account at Ventures Online) for a form I'm using, the URL would look something like "https://www.venturesonline.com/mysitename.html", right? So would I be able to give the page the background and format that I would want? Would I still be able to make the page look like all of the other pages on my site?

Thanks again in advance!!!

Rather then trying to explain it all here, you could try VO's user forums as they are probably better answering questions on things directly/only related to them (vo). :)

But I will go ahead and answer a few of your questions.

Parked Domain means you can have your account setup with "yourdomain.com", you could then have, for example, "yourname2.com" and "yourname3.net" pointed to your main website (which would be "yourdomain.com").

Yes, you are correct about the shopping cart.

CGI is a programming language such as ASP, PHP, etc.

As for the shared SSL:

To use their shared SSL you would use the following:

https://secureXX.vosn.net/~yourusername

(XX would be replaced with the server number you are hosted on. Your username is the name they give you when you signup)

You would need to have all of your images on the page you would be using the SSL to:
https://secureXX.vosn.net/~yourusername/yourfile.gif/jpg

Otherwise you would get an error (still usable, but irritating).

Hope that helped,
BC12 :stickout

P.S. Please overlook any mis-spelled words ;)

Isn't this why F.A.Q.'s were developed? :eek: I don't want to say it was a mistake posting here at all.

Originally posted by smidwap
I don't want to say it was a mistake posting here at all.

Referring to me or him? :uhh:

BC12:stickout

CGI is a script language usually strongly connected with Perl, but you can write cgi-scripts in C if you like. Perl has the advantage of being free and it comes with Linux, and Apache servers understands it if Perl is installed on the system.

Cgi-scripts is very often used as shoppingcarts and other forms, but you can use it to create special webpages as well. Or control a server or other computer.

If you don't want to help out Smidwap, then don't help out and just don't pay attention, why should you care if I ask a question of those willing to help out? But after being told numerous times that I could feel free to post questions of this variety on this forum and that people would be happy to answer them, I figured I would give it a shot. No one is forcing you to participate ;)

Originally posted by smidwap
Isn't this why F.A.Q.'s were developed? :eek: I don't want to say it was a mistake posting here at all.

This forum is made for people to ask questions and have other people answer them. Other people might also learn something from this thread. This kind of comment is quite unnecessary...

To expand upon a couple things, CGI which is a type of language allows you to run scripts written in CGI. This might be a counter, a guestbook, etc. Visit www.hotscripts.com and look in the "perl" section to see what you can do with CGI(perl) scripts. The words essentially refer to the same thing.

Format for shared SSL:
https://sub.domain.com/~username/<pages/folders/etc>