Editor's note: This is the fourth in a 12-part, "hands-on" series about the wonderful world of adult Website building. The resulting site will have been built by real people who have no Web-building experience and no inside experience in the adult industry. Their names have been changed to protect their real identities and their mainstream business interests.
Xatia and Inspector Gadget decided to sign a contract with a company that offers virtual hosting on both Linux- and Windows-equipped servers. Alhough some companies also offer a Macintosh hosting option, neither Inspector Gadget nor Xatia had any experience dealing with the Macintosh platform. In fact, Macintosh servers are best left to die-hard Macintosh fans as they can be temperamental and not much ancillary Web software exists for them.
After examining several what-you-see-is-what-you-get Website authoring packages, the couple decided to use Microsoft's FrontPage 2000 to design, build and maintain their site. Neither had any knowledge of hypertext markup language and no real desire to learn "hand coding" before beginning the project. FrontPage, although a bit more difficult to learn than some other beginner-appropriate WYSIWYG software, offers a good degree of power and allows inexperienced Webmasters to generate several snazzy effects - like JavaScript rollovers, guest books, "chat boards," server-side includes and navigational aids - almost automatically.
Because they would be using FrontPage to build and manage their Website, the couple decided the site would best be served from a machine running one of the Microsoft operating systems. Although it is possible to install FrontPage extensions - a set of tools that provide additional server-side functionality and site-mapping capabilities to sites created with FrontPage - on servers running many of the Unix-like operating systems, such cross-platform convergence can cause the extensions to run poorly or not at all.
Server operating systems play a major role in the construction and maintenance of Websites, so they deserve a good deal of consideration during a project's planning stages. The choice of OS is dependent upon a number of factors, including what HTML authoring software will be used, cost, and the user's familiarity with or ability to learn how the OS operates.
Server OSes come in three basic flavors: Windows, Unix-type and Macintosh. Macintosh is seldom used - except its video server, which performs remarkably well - and the other two have their own sets of benefits and drawbacks.
For the majority of wannabe Webmasters with no computer experience outside their daily interaction with desktop systems, Windows may be the most logical choice. Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, both of which are in widespread use at hosting facilities and both of which include their own Web server software, will be comfortably familiar to such folks, at least at the interface level. There are a few new things to learn about Website structure in the server architecture, of course, but the familiar "tree" hierarchy of directories and files at least provides a familiar point of reference. In addition, Microsoft Corp. claims Windows 2000's uptime has proven to be 99.999 percent in repeated tests - putting it in the same reliability category as legendarily bullet-proof Linux - though some hardcore anti-Microsoft types dispute that.
Directory and file permissions are non-issues for sites hosted on Windows boxes, and executable programs are executable simply by virtue of the fact that they exist in a specific directory on the server - which is not the case with Unix-type operating systems. In addition, database integration can be much easier on a Windows-based server, because database capabilities are integrated with the operating system.
Security remains an issue with Windows OSes, unfortunately, but Webmasters relying on virtual hosting necessarily have to rely on the knowledge and dedication of their hosting provider to identify and deal with any potential security holes.
Windows OSes also offer the option of using programs written in VBScript to run certain portions of a site, and they are the only server OSes that allow Active Server Pages (ASP), which are becoming more popular as interactivity and dynamic content become bigger issues on the ?Net.
Unix, a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system that has been in use in networking environments since its development by AT&T in 1969, forms the basis for the OS that operates the lion's share of Web servers currently. Distributed freely to governmental agencies and educational institutions, Unix has been modified by a number of commercial operations over the years to produce propriety operating systems: Silicon Graphics' Irix, Sun's Solaris, Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX, and others.
The Unix platform is specifically designed to accommodate heavy traffic and server load. In addition, the OS requires only about one tenth of the hard-drive real estate required by any Windows platform.
One of the most notable of the "Sons of Unix" is Linux, an open-source OS, the kernel (or core code) of which was developed by Linus Torvalds in 1990. Linux is very stable and secure, and it's core code remains free and readily available on the Web. FreeBSD, originally developed by Berkley Software Division and now maintained by the University of California at Berkley, is one of the freeware versions used extensively on Web servers.
Of course, commerce being what it is, Linux has been privatized in several models, as well; notable proprietary versions include RedHat, Corel and Mandrake. Generally, proprietary forms of Linux offer additional features - such as graphical user interfaces, administration tools and user manuals - that are not part of the basic, free distribution.
One of the drawbacks of Unix-like OSes, especially for those who have no experience with the DOS operating systems that preceded Windows, is that to interact with the OS and any Web server software installed on top of it (Apache or Netscape, for example), one must familiarize himself or herself with command-line functions. This can be a bit taxing for rank beginners, but the technical support staffs at most hosts, fortunately, are willing to help.
The benefits of Unix-type hosting are legion, and most serious Webmasters find that at some point in their careers, they want to host at least some of their sites on Unix/Linux-equipped servers. For one thing, there are far more common gateway interface (.cgi) and Perl scripts written to run under Unix/Linux. For another, Webmasters who use the OS swear by its reliability, some going so far as to say they've had servers running for years without having to restart them.
Once an operating system has been decided upon, new Webmasters should determine approximately how much disk space their site will require. A basic rule of thumb is to contract for at least 10 megabytes of space, even for a small site. Ten to 20 MB of disk space should suffice for a site with 50 to 100 images - depending upon the file size of the images, of course.
A quick formula can help in calculations: Multiply the number of pages the site will contain by .05 MB to determine the amount of disk space needed (pages x .05 MB = disk space in megabytes). The resulting total will provide a general guideline; when in doubt, always opt for more space.
Space considerations are only one of the cost factors in virtual hosting. Bandwidth represents another. Both variables can be manipulated by savvy Webmasters to keep costs in proportion to revenues.
Next: Drive space and bandwidth.
Previously: Finding a host.
