Monday, 5 September 2011

ASP .Net Web Hosting

ASP.NET is Microsoft’s current scripting framework that website developers can use to build websites based upon Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server databases that can have high levels of interaction with the server on which they are hosted. ASP.NET is the successor of the hugely successful and popular classic ASP scripting language, on which ASP.NET is built and in some cases is still used because it was so easy to learn in a short amount of time. ASP.NET is used by many to create large enterprise level websites and applications that are designed to be scalable, since they are going to get used more and more heavily as time goes on, and so need to be able to cope with demand. However, since ASP.NET is a framework, there are two different languages that can be used to build websites and applications around it; these two languages are VB (Visual Basic) which is an old language created by Microsoft, and C# which is seen by many as superior to VB.



Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server are the two different database systems that are developed by Microsoft, with Microsoft SQL Server being more advanced and scalable and a Microsoft Access database would be. In most cases ASP.NET scripts and web pages are created to be used in conjunction with either type of database so that data can be stored in one central location. Most ASP.NET web hosting packages allow you to host as many Microsoft Access databases in your web hosting account as you want, since Microsoft Access databases are file based where as Microsoft SQL Server databases are file based in the meaning that web pages need to use the server to connect to them, meaning that you are normally limited with the amount of MSSQL databases you can create in one web hosting account. In some cases, you can also get separate SQL server web hosting packages since some web hosting providers don’t like to run the Microsoft SQL Server service on their shared web hosting servers.


ASP.NET web hosting normally comes with a Plesk control panel so that you are able to manage the ASP.NET websites and applications that you have under your web hosting account with ease from a web based control panel. Plesk is a control panel developed by Parallels with Windows and ASP.NET web hosting in mind, meaning that using it for management of ASP.NET web pages needn’t be a hard task. You can use Plesk to setup and configure Microsoft SQL Server databases in your web hosting account as well as to set permissions on any files that you have hosted on ASP.NET hosting account, allowing you to ensure that your websites are able to function correctly in this type of web hosting environment. Plesk also allows web based management of the web.config file that you have in the base of your ASP.NET website, which in most cases contains different setting to ensure that your website is able to function correctly in the web hosting environment that you have been provided with.


ASP.NET‘s predecessor was classic ASP, which didn’t act in the same way as ASP.NET itself since it wasn’t a framework that you could build your own websites and applications on like ASP.NET itself is like. This means however that many developers who did use classic ASP to develop their websites are now moving over to using ASP.NET to build their websites with. Since ASP.NET had a solid base of classic ASP to build on, it has been hugely successful and many developers have found it easy to get use to the new structuring of ASP.NET since some of it is based on classic ASP as it is. ASP.NET web hosting, just like any form of Windows based web hosting should also allow the basic hosting of classic ASP hosting since in most cases it is natively supported by the most recent versions of the IIS web server.

Support for ASP.NET is provided by Microsoft, meaning that finding literature on how to use the language effectively isn’t too hard. There are also development communities around which feature some experienced web developers who in most cases are willing to give up their time to aid those who need help with a certain part of the ASP.NET framework. Although Microsoft doesn’t provide any official means of interactive support, there is still official documentation that you can refer to if you need to both in terms configuration and development of the framework. If you are new to ASP.NET web hosting, then it is probably important that you try and learn a bit about the language before starting to use it in websites since it is an enterprise level framework meaning that parts of it can be very complicated. Other things you may want to take into consideration before purchasing an ASP.NET web hosting package also include the level of support that your web hosting provider will be able to provide you with.

In conclusion, ASP.NET is an enterprise level web page scripting framework that can be used to develop large corporate websites and applications. ASP.NET web hosting normally comes in the form of Windows web hosting, meaning that finding a web hosting plan that is able to support your ASP.NET web applications doesn’t need to be hard. ASP.NET web hosting should also be able to support Microsoft Access and SQL databases to ensure that you can store all your website data in one central location.

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