The web hosting business is driven by powerful systems and technologies, most of which are enabled by software tools. Software is also a major draw of hosting packages as web hosts tend to offer a myriad of free programs. Let’s go over some of the software you are bound to encounter when on the hunt for a web hosting service.
Control Panels
One type of software you will have frequent and direct access to is the control panel. This application will provide the interface that allows you to set up email accounts, manage your webmail, add on domains and various other administrative tasks. Some web hosting providers offer third-party control panels such as Plesk and cPanel while others develop their own custom programs. Although the features and functionality may vary, all control panels strive to meet one goal – provide you with authority over your web hosting account.
Site Builders
In the web hosting world, site builders are exactly what they sound like: tools that allow you to create your website. Almost every hosting provider offers some type of site builder or at least support for others. This could be integrated utilities such as RV Builder or compatible applications like Microsoft FrontPage or Dreamweaver. Regardless of the vendor, most site builders cater to the users by enabling you to build a site from scratch with pre-designed templates and drag-and-drop functionality.
Content Management Systems
A content management system or CMS, can be viewed as a more robust and capable alternative to the traditional site builder. These programs offer features that surpass the norm, allowing you to effectively manage the content on websites of various sizes. Some of today’s most well known content management systems are totally free to use. These variations include open-source applications like Mambo, PHP-Nuke, Drupal and the award-winning Joomla CMS. The CMS has become so popular that many customers flock to hosting solutions based solely on the content management tools offered.
Server-Side Scripts
Although server-side scripting refers to programming technologies, these languages and frameworks are actually enabled through software packages. For example, a web host that offers PHP, Perl or ASP.NET is able to do so because they have these software applications installed on their web servers. This allows you to enhance your HTML pages with dynamic, interactive features. Server-side programming languages get more advanced with each release so there is virtually no limit to the functionality your site can enjoy.
Mail Servers
The mail server is one of the most important elements of a hosting package. This type of program acts a transport agent that processes email from within the same domain. Some of the most common examples of mail servers include Sendmail, qmail, Exim and Microsoft Exchange. These applications typically work in conjunction with mail clients such as Outlook and Eudora, which forward messages to the server.
What’s Your Software?
There is definitely no shortage of software tools in the web hosting business. Whether you are a novice or pro, your needs modest or complex, the features you get the most out of will surely be enabled by one form of software or another.
