Does your Website have specifi c software requirements?

Knowing which operating system you’ll need for your hosting account is a start, but you’ll probably need to be more specific to ensure that your website will function properly. For example, I mentioned that if you have soft ware that runs on PHP (the most widely used scripting language on the Internet), you’re best off with a Linux server. But does the soft ware require PHP5 or PHP4; even more specifi cally, does it require a minimum of, say, PHP4.3? These are the kinds of details you’ll want to get.

You don’t need to know what any of this means; you simply need a list of the requirements that you can show to potential web hosting providers or give to the person who’s arranging hosting for you.


To use another example from this list: You know that WordPress requires a database. In particular, it needs a type of database called MySQL, and furthermore it needs a version of MySQL newer than version 4.3.

Here are some examples of other types of soft ware hosting requirements:

1. Special graphics capabilities for scripting Q languages such as PHP or ASP.net
2. Nonstandard modules for the server soft ware (Apache, IIS, and so on)
3. Running special services such as Ruby on Rails, Front Page extensions, JavaServer Pages, and so on

Again, you’re not expected to know what any of these requirements mean, but I just want to make you aware of asking these questions of web designers, developers, and anyone assisting you with your website. If someone’s suggesting that you use certain soft ware for your website, they should be taking care of ensuring that requirements are met—but now you know to ask the question as a double-check.