If you are a customer that wants total control of your web site administrative functions then you might want to look at unmanaged web hosting services to give you complete remote control administration over your server. The technical side of the server can be controlled by a designated administrator that you pick to handle your web information.
You have to have a technical person to install the server and manage the server if you don't have the expertise because you as the customer will be responsible for maintaining the server environment. That's why unmanaged servers are recommended for individuals and businesses with server administration resources.
As far as developing applications and controlling the applications without going through technical support personnel on the managed server side, these types of servers are usually used when companies are developing real time response systems on the internet, such as geographical, science, engineering and multimedia/entertainment applications.
Unmanaged servers allow you to add extra hard disk space to increase your space capacity and many computer companies sell physical servers that are configured for unmanaged hosting applications. Companies like Dell and HP have software programs that not only will run an office network but also handle web server and development applications.
Small businesses that don't need a server on site and deal with administrative web packages should go with the managed host packages that provide assistance and administrative support. Managed applications will do just fine because of the costs that are incurred with maintaining an unmanaged server. Unmanaged servers need constant upgrades of software and hardware constantly which could cost your small business a big chunk of change.
Unmanaged servers are expensive to maintain and run unless you are a small firm that develops in house web applications. The best advice is to have a consultant draw up an IT plan to see if you need this type of hosting service or not.
For anyone who wants to begin creating a podcast,
podcast hosting is the most important part. Before
anyone can begin distributing a podcast, they need a
place to store the files and keep the feed file that will
tell their subscribers about the new episodes available.
The first thing required is a domain name where the site
will be located. Many domain registrars are available
who will help one register a domain name for a small
fee. Once the domain is registered, hosting is required,
and again there are many different companies willing to
do the hosting for a small fee. One of those is
bluehost.com, but many others are available. When
looking for a host, the most important thing is to make
sure that a lot bandwidth and storage space is available
and cheap. Since podcasting deals with large media
files, a lot of disk space will be taken up storing the
files and bandwidth will be eaten quickly when they are
downloaded by the subscribers.
After podcast hosting has been acquired, it needs to be
used and the site needs to be set up. The DNS addresses
of the site need to be set to the addresses that the host
provides you so that the servers that underlie the
internet will know where your site is. DNS addresses
can be set by going to the domain registrar that was
used to acquire the domain and inputting the addresses
provided by the host. After that is done, it will take a
few days before the master list the domain registar
updates will be shared throughout the internet and all
name servers know where to find your specific domain.
You can then go about setting up your own podcast.
Using the podcast hosting you now have, you will need
to look at the disk space allocated to the site using
something called and FTP browser. The host may
provide one as part of their hosting plan, but if not there
are many available free to choose from. Using the FTP
browser, log on to the host and upload a file called
dircaster.php after editing it to fit the specifics of the
site. Dircaster.php is an easy to find piece of coding that
generates a feed file by looking at the contents of its
directory or folder. The individual episodes to be
podcasted can then be uploaded to the same folder as
dircaster.php for cataloging. Make sure that all the meta
data, or information about the mp3 file is correct before
doing so.
The podcast hosting you now have will allow you to
distribute a podcast. It would be best to upload more to
the site, such as an index page that tells visitors about
the podcast and provides the address of the file
dircaster.php on your site. When they subscribe to that
file, the podcast client thy use will access it and recieve
information about the latest podcasts available.
