What is the difference between CGI and CGI-BIN?

CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. CGI is not a programming language, it defines how data is passed between software and databases to the web page. CGI programs can be written using a variety of languages, such as Perl, C, PHP and others.

CGI-Bin is the directory where executable files are located

How do I create sub-directories within my website?

using the “create directory” feature in your FTP client software, u can create sub-directories

hi,
I have a website.now i want to make sub-websites within my domain? can i do it and how?

for making a sub-Web site, first create a new directory (or folder for MAC users) and then upload the main loading page (index.html) to that directory then u can set up as many sub-Web sites as you wish

How does Windows hosting different from Unix Hosting regarding features?

Here is a short comparison of key features

Here is a short comparison of key features, and which are available for the Windows and Unix platforms.

Unix Features:-

MS FrontPage 2000, 2002
Flash
Shockwave
Real Audio/Video
Cgi Scripts
Perl
PHP
SSH (Secure Telnet)
MySQL
Web-Based Control System
Anonymous FTP
Web Site Graphical Statistics
Web-Based Email System
Miva/ML
Cold Fusion
ASP (Active Server Pages)

Windows Features:-

MS FrontPage 2000, 2002
Flash
Shockwave
Real Audio/Video
Cgi Scripts
Perl
PHP
SSH (Secure Telnet)
MySQL
Web-Based Control System
Anonymous FTP
Web Site Graphical Statistics
Web-Based Email System
SQL 2000
Miva/ML
Cold Fusion
ASP (Active Server Pages)
MS Access
Visual Basic Scripts
Windows Media

Is free hosting really free?

Today, there are more choices than ever if you are looking for free hosting services. In fact, there are new companies popping up all the time offering some type of “free” hosting plans. Unfortunately, there are just as many companies going out of business and leaving their customers in a sort of hosting purgatory, unable to deliver the “free hosting for life” they had promised them and too often causing even more serious headaches.

With so many user complaints and horror stories surrounding free hosting, we decided to take a closer look and offer some insight for those considering it. So here’s the usual deal. To get “free” hosting, you must first pay a one-time setup fee that ranges from $35 to over $100 to transfer your domain. If you don’t already have a domain, you may also end up paying a premium of $35 or more for a new domain. You probably will also have to agree to become part of a forced advertising database, and receive daily email marketing, that your free host is selling to whomever they want. In return, you are promised “free hosting for life” that is restricted by how much disk space and monthly bandwidth you get. Your free host is hoping that you will exceed your allotted amount so they can upsell you to a paid hosting plan later.

Besides the fact that it’s not “free”, there are some other problems with this business model. To start with, your free host only gets paid by its customers one time – when they sign up – but they have to provide on-going service to them indefinitely. If for any reason new sales are down, there can be a big problem quick. Credit card fraud is also a costly problem for free hosting companies – it’s a favorite way for thieves to quickly check if a stolen card still works. To be profitable, a free host is dependent on a constant flow of enough setup fees from new customers. Which means they must keep operating costs low and advertising spending high. It’s important to understand how keeping their overhead as low as possible can directly affect the level of service that free hosts can provide their customers in the areas of uptime, security, data backup, customer service and tech support.

When it comes to uptime reliability, you want to be sure your free host owns their own servers. If your free host is actually reselling hosting on a third party’s servers and there is a problem, they may not be able to control when and how it gets fixed. Or worse, if there’s a dispute between your free host and the third party hosting company, your Web site may be left in limbo until it gets straightened out, which sometimes is never. Even if your free host owns their own servers, there can still be a big reliability problem if they haven’t devoted enough resources to maintenance and Internet security. Most free hosts are not going to pay for the expense of heavy duty, state-of-the-art firewall protection. You must be prepared for the possibility that you are vulnerable to hacker attacks that could easily bring down all of the sites they are hosting. And don’t rely on your free host to backup your site – make sure you have regular backups of everything you don’t want to lose.

When there is a problem, be prepared to be very patient for a response. Most free hosts only offer customer service and tech support via email. Keeping overhead low often means understaffing in these areas. Even if you have a serious problem such as your site being down for days or weeks, it’s highly unlikely that you would ever be able to speak to someone about it. If you want fast and efficient support, you’re much better off with a paid hosting provider. For this reason, only someone who is experienced and knowledgeable about the Web should consider free hosting since they are likely to need much less support. We don’t recommend free hosting for anyone who is new to the workings of the Internet.

When you take a closer look, the free hosting business is a gamble, whether you are the provider or the customers. In any industry there are honest business people and not so honest ones and it’s the same with free hosting. Unfortunately, even the honest ones can’t guarantee they’ll be able to live up to the promise of “free hosting for life” in a business so full of potential problems.

Is Windows XP A big deal?

The release of Windows XP late last year is being heralded as another landmark achievement from Microsoft akin to the release of Windows 95 almost 7 years ago. So what’s the big deal? Operating systems are upgraded all the time to improve performance, right? I figured it was time I checked it out for myself. Far more than just another tweak, Windows XP feels like you’re operating in a whole new ballpark.

First of all, it’s the fastest Windows ever – 27% faster than Windows 98 SE and 34% faster than Windows 2000 in side-by-side analysis. One of the ways this is accomplished is through more efficient organization of disk input/output (I/O). During boot for example, XP overlaps requests by “prefetching” much of the operating system at the same time that devices are initialized. Then, after booting a few times, Windows XP actually “learns” how to optimize the placement of code and data on your disk needed for subsequent boots. This allows large disk I/O requests to be handled efficiently with high throughput. Prefetching also speeds up the initialization of network logons by safely eliminating many interactions across the network. When resuming from standby, Windows XP uses newly rewritten algorithms to overlap device initialization with ordering that minimizes the time required for each device to return to an active state. Likewise, the speed with which hibernation can be completed has been improved by optimizations in the compression algorithms, and by overlapping compression with Direct Memory Access (DMA) transfers to disk. As a result, the compression time is almost completely overlapped with the I/O for most hardware.

OK, obviously better performance when booting or resuming from standby and hibernation is really convenient, but let’s face it. Most of your experience with Windows XP will come from the system performance you get when it’s in its “steady state.” How well does Windows XP handle application startups and resource management?

Actually, many of the same mechanisms that allow a more efficient fast boot also streamline application startup. You can launch apps in Windows XP up to 50% faster – especially for those that used to take the longest using earlier versions of Windows. Much smarter than the average OS, Windows XP “watches” each application launch and learns how to accurately predict the I/O that will be needed and issue hundreds of requests at a time. Plus, it recognizes file access patterns during launch and uses them to periodically optimize the layout of files on the disk. This also greatly improves performance while you’re actually using your applications to get work (or play) done.

Which brings me to resource management – the main thing an OS does for you. Things like memory management, the CPU, and I/O. Windows XP is built on the Windows NT kernel and shares much of its approach to resource management but with many significant advances. For example, Windows XP uses idle times to perform system activities rather than relying on timers that may startup while you are working and slow down performance. Plus, Windows XP learns and adapts to its environment – constantly self-tuning itself to your hardware. This self-tuning also extends to the layout of file metadata, allowing Windows XP to decrease the footprint in memory – optimization that makes a big difference with today’s large capacity disks. Windows XP even reduces the amount of physical memory needed to operate your apps by learning to anticipate use patterns and figuring out what combination of physical and virtual memory will satisfy every memory access.

There are two other features exclusive to Windows XP Professional that I found very attractive– Remote Desktop and the Encrypting File System (EFS). Remote Desktop lets you set up your computer for connection from any other Windows-based computer which is great if you accidentally leave a file at home or don’t want to drag your laptop along. EFS allows you to encrypt your files and folders for added security of sensitive data against theft or hackers – need I say more?

Bottom line: if you connect to a large network or consider yourself a “power user”, Windows XP is a sophisticated high performer particularly well-suited for you. Stay tuned to see if it turns out to be as reliable as Microsoft promises.

who is the A1 goodhost?

To put it simply (and obviously) a good host like Cpwebhosting.net/.com makes it easy for you to create and maintain your web site. A bad host gets in the way and makes you angry, unhappy and gives you an ulcer.

The key point to remember when evaluating hosts is the most important quality is responsiveness – of your site and support people. Your site should be up virtually all of the time (unfortunately computer crashes do happen but they should be rare and far between) and it must be fast. In addition, all good hosts react in a timely manner to support issues and questions. You can tell when a host is going bad from the failure of these key areas – unresponsive technical support, slow servers or constant downtime.

This information is intended as a kind of checklist – what is essential, essential if you need it, optional and not important at all? Look it over, then when you go sign up you will know we have all listed and much more at Cpwebhosting.net/.com.

Essential Qualities of Cpwebhosting.net/.com

There are a few attributes which are not common to all good hosts but are are Cpwebhosting.net/.com.

Reasonable support – This is something you won’t know until you’ve started using our services and I know you will not need much support. However, when you have a question, concern or problem, it’s essential that you have a way to contact our support staff. Just as important is the handling of the issue needs to be fast and efficient. We do provide more than reasonable support as we have a toll free number for you plus on every page a live support link to us. This is up and running for you to reach us 75% of the time as we do have to rest too. But you can always us it to send email which gets answered quickly. Or just call on the toll free number.

Even if you don’t have any particular reason to contact support, it’s a good idea to send off a message occasionally just to see if we are on the ball.

Access to control panel -We give you access to a well defined control panel. What does this do for you? It allows you to control the features of your web site (account) from your web browser. For example, using the menu you will be able to upload files, protect directories, add auto responders and so on.

Excellent automation – This is perhaps one of the more important features that Cpwebhosting.net/.com has. Automation. You will be able to access everything you want from a well designed menu and do virtually anything without involving a human being.

Control of creating protected directories – Sometimes it doesn’t seem important, but sooner or later you will almost certainly want to create a protected directory. This is a directory (or
folder or file) on your web site which requires a username and password. We’ll allow you to do this directly from your account menu.

Error pages – Create your own 401, 403 and 404 errors pages. You’ll like the idea of letting visitors know in a nice way when there is a problem. We allow these files to be maintained from the control panel, also you can edit your .htaccess file directly.

Reasonable performance – A web site must load quickly. It’s hard enough to get page sizes down to the point where they load reasonably quickly without your web host slowing things down. We won’t let this happen and every server is monitored for performance to make sure this won’t happen.

Domain Parking – It’s incredibly useful to be able to park a domain on your web site. This can be useful for having several closely related domain names (internet-tips.net and internet-secrets.net for example) as well as to just reserve domains for future use. We allow you to do this.

Good stuff to have if you need it and we at Cpwebhosting.net/.com provide them when requested.

Telnet access – Being able to access your site from Telnet (command line) is useful, but most webmasters will never need this function. This is especially true because functions such as CRONTAB (scheduling tasks) can be done through the control panel .

Custom CGI scripts – Every site can install your own CGI scripts. This is not important, of course, if you don’t plan on including any of your own scripts.

PERL Support – If you use PERL routines, then this is essential. Again, this is not absolutely necessary if you are not using PERL.

SSI Support – Server Side Includes are a very nice way to make it easy to make changes to your web pages. Again, you either need it or you don’t.

PHP Support – PHP is a great server-side scripting language (far superior to ASP). We provide you this resource.

MySQL Support – MySQL is database tool. This allows you to get input from visitors, store it on your web site and allow your visitors to retrieve it later. You can do many more things but again this like many of the resources you many never use but we provide it just in case.

Unlimited auto responders – Auto responders are a great way to automate your web site, so it’s a good idea to have them.

Direct access to server logs – You can get along without accessing server logs, but it sure makes it easier to tell how you site is doing. We provide them to you

Upload from the control panel in addition to FTP access – Not essential, but nice to be able to use once in a while.

SSL Support – This is needed if you want to run secure web pages from your site. We provide this interface.

Subdomain’s – A subdomain is a domain in the format of subdomain.domain. For example, shop.rcrrich.comt is a subdomain. These are very useful for separating functional areas of your site. We allow you to have as many of these on your site as you want.

FrontPage Support – Well, if you use FrontPage then you will obviously need to be able to upload pages and use the Frontpage extentions.

Not incredibly useful to most people

Some bells and whistles.

Search engine submission – You can use to submit your site to the search engines.

PERL modules – We will install PERL modules for you. This is a way to extend the functionality of PERL, and it’s not very useful to most webmasters.

ASP Hosting refers to what ?

ASP web hosting refers to web hosting companies who provide support for ASP (Active Server Page). If you want a dynamic data-driven web site you may wish to embed ASP code into your web site’s HTML Pages. When a user is viewing a web site that is developed using ASP, the pages can change depending on the actions of the user. ASP code allows you to link your web pages to a database, where users can interact with the webpage by logging in and using their own personal settings or they can interactively place orders on your web site. What is ASP?

ASP stands for Active Server Pages. Active Server Pages are HTML pages with embedded ASP scripts that are processed on the server before the page is sent to the user. ASP allows you to create dynamic database driven pages, a user can access data in a database, and interact with page objects such as Active X or Java components.

When you type a URL in the Address Box or click on a web page you are asking the web server to send a file to your computer; if the file is standard HTML, then, when your web browser receives the web page it will look exactly the same as it did on the web server. However if an ASP file is sent to your computer from the web server, firstly, the server will run the HTML code; and then, run the ASP code. For example: the ASP code could be the current date, or time; and other such information. How to find an ASP web host You will need to find a web host who will host your website on a Windows 2000 server. It is safer to host your ASP pages on a Windows 2000 server as they are more stable and most ASP components work with IIS (Internet Information Services), specific to Windows. You also need to consider if your web site uses a database (e.g. SQL, Access) and then make sure your web host provides support for the type of database your web site uses.

Changed Website Host?

In many cases, your web site is the first and only thing that your customer sees (besides, hopefully, your product after they make a purchase). This is especially true if your company does not have a real-world presence such as a store or office. Thus it is important that your web site be available to your visitors (and customers if your site is commercial) twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Not only must it be available, but your web site must load quickly. If your host computer is too slow, it doesn’t matter how much you optimize your graphics and HTML, cut down page sizes and perform other actions.

Other features must work properly. These include CGI routines, autoresponders, PHP, ASP and SSI scripts, and, very importantly, shopping carts and credit card services. Ofcourse only if you use these optional features, as most peoples sites won’t require them.

All of this is so important that you must keep an eye on your site. I have programs running all the time to monitor my servers. These programs ping my servers occasionally to determine if they are up. Any errors are reported to my email inbox. Why do I do this? Two
reasons: (a) it’s critical that my servers be online all of the time, and (b) these programs provide a third-party record of any downtime, which is useful when refunding our 99.9% uptime.

These programs also measure response time, which is very useful to determine how well our servers responds to your users browsing requests. These two factors, uptime and response time, are the most critical measures of web site performance. A consistently bad number in either measure is more than enough reason to find another host so we try to do everything possible to stop that from happening.

Of course, if your CGI routines stop working mysteriously or your autoresponders stop responding, then by all means shoot off a trouble ticket to us. You have a right to expect these types of issues to be quickly and politely fixed.

Getting Ready to Move to Cpwebhosting.net

There are a number of tasks that you should be performing on a regular basis. There can be many reasons to change web hosts. It could be that your old hosts are suddenly sold and their level of service drops, or they upgrade their computers which causes a series of new problems. You can be sure that you will only find out about these things when your web site stops working or becomes unstable.

Another reason to be performing regular maintenance tasks is the possibility of disasters. A hacker could deface or even destroy your web site. Your credit card could be closed, which might cause your host to close down your site until you pay. Any number of other disasters could occur, which make it very imperative that you have a continual set of procedures in place to be prepared for anything.

What do you need to do regularly?

Monitor your site – As I stated earlier, be sure you ping your site to keep an eye on your web site. That way you will know immediately if something happens.

Backup your site – You should perform all edits to your pages on your own computer and upload them to your site. Never edit your site pages directly. This, by it’s very nature, ensures that a copy of your site always exists on your own computer system.

However, you may also have databases stored on your web site which do not originate from your computer. These might include mailing lists, demographic data, links and other similar things. These items must all be copied to your own hard drive on a regular basis.

You can set up your favorite FTP program to do scheduled downloads of selected databases, or you can just manually copy them on a regular basis.

In addition, your web host should be backing your site up daily. In many instances, these backups are available to you as downloadable zip files. Be sure and copy these down to your system once in a while – perhaps once a week.

Don’t forget about such things as autoresponders, CGI routines and anything else which you may enter at your site control panel. You must ensure that you have a backup of everything.

Keep a log – Be sure you know everything that you’ve done to your site. You should list all of your autoresponders and their names, track any subdomains which you have set up, and anything else which you may do. This way if you have to change you can recreate your site quickly and efficiently.

Moving To Cpwebhosting.net Host

If you are lucky, you get to make the choice about moving. In that case, you can simply upload your new site, get it all working, then transfer the domain and cancel the old site. This gives you a large amount of control, because you don’t have to transfer the domain and cancel until you are happy with Cpwebhosting.net, we give you 30 days money back.

If for some reason your web host has cut off access to your site, then you have to move fast. This is where the monitoring services come in handy – you know immediately when your site fails.

These are the steps to follow.

1) Ideally you are the one making this determination. Of course, if your web host decides for you, then you have to perform the rest of these steps very quickly because you are down.

2) If you need a storefront, shopping cart and/or merchant status, be sure you resolve any issues you may have before laying out any money. You can check out our service after you have signed up.

3)Get the right size package, but the minimum amount of time (one to three months if your buget is tight). This gives you some time to check us out without laying out too much money up front.

4) Once the site is active, start uploading files.

5) Modify any scripts as necessary. Test all of them to be sure they work.

6) Upload any autoresponders and set up your email forwarding as desired.

7) Create any subdomains, if you use this feature.

8) Of course, set up any databases. If your other site is still active, then just load the databases on the new site with data from the most recent backup – you just want the data for testing purposes. If it’s not active, then load the databases with the most recent values you have.

9) Set up your storefront, merchant services and credit card processing, if necessary. Test as thoroughly as you can.

10) Once everything works and is tested, transfer the domain to our DNS Servers, NS1.CPWEBHOSTING.NET and NS2.CPWEBHOSTING.NET.

11) If you have the option, freeze your databases on the old site about 12 hours after transferring the domain. Disable all activity to the old databases, then copy to the new site at Cpwebhosting.net.

12) Once the domain transfers (usually a day or two) test thoroughly again. Unfreeze the databases as soon as you can.

13) Once everything works, cancel the old account.

14) Depending upon the circumstances of the move, demand a partial or full refund. It does not matter what the hosting companies policies are – presumably you moved because they were not fulfilling their contract. This means they are in breach of contract, so demand your money back.

15) If they will not give it back (and they probably won’t), check with your credit card company to see what your options are
– if you’ve paid within 60 days via credit card, you may be able to get the credit card company to get your money back for you. This is where your monitoring logs come in very handy (assuming downtime or response time was the reason you left) – you can prove your case using third party data. Try not to do this too often, as your credit card company will not like this and will then tend to side with the old host.

16) Why the focus on getting a refund? Because the hosting company did not provide contracted services – and no one should be rewarded for failure to fulfill their contract. The only real weapon you have is your money. Demand a refund.

hi, what is the first vital step towards having our own website.

Choosing a web host is the first vital step you’ll take toward having your own website. Your web host will provide space on the Internet for your site so that the whole world can view it. But, choosing a web host is not as easy as it may seem.

There are a few mistakes to avoid while choosing your host. I’d like to share these with you below, and explain why it’s important to avoid these mistakes at all costs – especially if you wish to start an online business.

3 Mistakes to Avoid

1. Free Web Space – Remember seeing all those ads that mention “free web space”? Please avoid participating in these services. In most cases, the reason it’s free is because the company will place advertisements for other websites all over your web page. This defeats the entire purpose of having “your own” web business.

Why should you have to give your potential customers away? Shouldn’t you be able to keep the visitors that you have paid to receive through your own ad campaigns?

With “free web space” sites, you’ll give away more business than it would cost you to get your own domain and hosting service. It’s not worth it.

2. Limited hosting – Avoid hosting packages that will not allow you to add order forms, statistics, or multiple email accounts to your website. These are necessary tools for any webmaster who desires to open an online business.

It’s best to choose a hosting service that offers many options such as:

— Multiple POP Email Accounts — Dedicated Hosting — Secure Servers — Web Usage Statistics — Web Space Allocation (you can get how much web space you’ll need) — URL Redirection — Autoresponders

These are just a few “necessary” services to look for when choosing a web host for your new website.

3. Low Cost Hosting – Watch out for very low cost hosting packages (i.e. $2.50 per month). They usually require something in return, which can take away profits from your online business.

I must admit that it does sound appealing to sign up for free or very low cost hosting, but count the costs before signing up…

– Each time an advertisement banner is placed on your website, it’s designed to get your visitor to click out of your website and go some place else. Most free or low cost web hosting services place these banners at the very top of your web page – giving the visitor an opportunity to click out of your site before getting to the first words of your presentation.

– One complaint that comes to mind about a free hosting service was that the company’s server became overcrowded and the customer could not get their website to come up 50% of the time. When this happens, your business is closed – and you have no control over this situation.

One final point about hosting before closing. If you get your own domain name, and your own hosting, your visitors will have more confidence in your site, and will be more willing to buy your products or services.

Search for a web host that offers fabulous service, affordable rates, and everything you’ll need for your online business. You’ll be glad you did!