Web host - what are asp scripts?

[Calum_H]

Hi folks

A technical question here regarding a suitable web host.

I am in the process of finalising the purchase of retail business which also has two web addresses, one for business and one for sales, which are included in the sale. I assumed it would be a case of just taking the host and the domain over but I recived the following response from the seller:

I am sending you a cd with all website files.

Please note, as the website was on a friends server, he has stopped the server facility for you to organise your own server space. Please note you will need the server to run asp scripts. Then have the domain point to your new server space.

I already have a website for another business but I'm a little confused as to what asp scrips are and if I need a specific type of host?

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[TotallySport]

asp is a server side script, simply look for a host that runs asp, although asp is fairly old now and has been superseded.

TBH if the sales hasn't gone through I would stop, they shouldn't have taken the site down until you were ready to change it over, and you may have lost the database information, certainly all the web stats.

 

[Alan]

asp is a microsoft technology.

It is most likely (guessing) that you current host is Linux (LAMP) based, e.g. php especially if you are running common software like Wordpress or Opencart.

As far as I know you cant run asp.net on a LAMP server.

However, you can easily get a Windows based hosting service, tends to be a little bit more pricey than LAMP e.g. here http://www.eukhost.com/




post contains an affiliate link

 

[Calum_H]

Thanks for the responses.

The actual main website of the business is still up and running but, for whatever reason, when you wanted to buy the products online it took you to another website where you could shop. This is still up but you can no longer buy the products.

It may be easier to see what I mean if I show you the two sites:

cocochocolate co uk

buycoco co uk

What are my options here? I intend to have the site completely reworked as it is very dated but in the mean time I don't want to loose out on online purcahses.

 

[TotallySport]

if you want something quick, I would ring Vidahost, and ask if they can migrate the site to their servers, ask about cost for transfer and monthly fee for hosting, they should be able to run it on their cloud server, so should be cheap, unless there is some fancy setup.

I will also depend on if its currently running on windows or linux, but vidahost should be able to sort it either way.

https://www.vidahost.com/

If you want something long winded, you can look for a host yourself, ask about migrations or do it yourself.

 

[webhostuk]

Thanks for the responses.

The actual main website of the business is still up and running but, for whatever reason, when you wanted to buy the products online it took you to another website where you could shop. This is still up but you can no longer buy the products.

It may be easier to see what I mean if I show you the two sites:

cocochocolate co uk

buycoco co uk

What are my options here? I intend to have the site completely reworked as it is very dated but in the mean time I don't want to loose out on online purcahses.

Try redesigning on subdomain of your working website with password protection, so that you can work on new website sidewise without loosing presently traffic or customers on your present working site right now.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Please note, as the website was on a friends server, he has stopped the server facility for you to organise your own server space. Please note you will need the server to run asp scripts. Then have the domain point to your new server space.
!

If it's a proper business why would they be running from a friends server and not using a proper hosting company ?

Make it a condition of the sale that they (at their cost) move it to a proper hosted environment which you will take over payment of once the sale goes through, otherwise you may end up with a CD full of code which is a nightmare to get working.

You may want to get the ASP code checked by someone prior to use just to make sure there are no bugs, security holes etc.

 

[MikeJ]

Thanks for the responses.

The actual main website of the business is still up and running but, for whatever reason, when you wanted to buy the products online it took you to another website where you could shop. This is still up but you can no longer buy the products.

It may be easier to see what I mean if I show you the two sites:

cocochocolate co uk

buycoco co uk

What are my options here? I intend to have the site completely reworked as it is very dated but in the mean time I don't want to loose out on online purcahses.

The first site looks to be pure HTML, I couldn't see any links to ASP there.

It's probably easier to set up a new ecommerce site with a purchased script than to try to reuse whatever they had on that one.

 

[astutiumRob]

The shopping site is php/mysql - *if* you're also being provided with the database etc then it shoudl be straight-forward enough to get working again.


No obvious signs of ASP on the main site - I'd really need to see what they're providing you with to be completely sure, but initial glance is that anything they're saying about asp is misinformation.

 

[Alan]

Both sites are running on LAMP servers not ASP.

The first is running on a Easily.co.uk
The second (the webshop) is running on 1-and-1, not 'a friends server'.

You have been given misleading information.

I hope technology (the website & webshop) were a material part of the sale!!! As you know buyer beware, and really if it was/is a material part you shoudl get an expert to do your due dilligence.

By the way, I hope you are getting the shop databse, as the expensive part of building an online shop is getting teh product data in good shape.

 

[ServWise]

I would point out that just looking at a site via the web may not give a full idea of if ASP is used anywhere in the site, Classic ASP is an older scripting language superseded by ASP.NET and so many older sites my have legacy code writen in ASP with newer code in for example php bolted on. e.g. an admin in ASP with a the front end website in php.

Most Windows hosting can handle both ASP and PHP without problems so if in doubt go for a Windows hosting package..

 

[Alan]

I would point out that just looking at a site via the web may not give a full idea of if ASP is used anywhere in the site,

Just looking at the headers tells me the sites are being served by Apache => on a LAMP server.

Just looking at the IP addresses of the sites tells me what shared hosting the sites are on and the other sites that share those servers.

In anycase, the OP has been misinformed and I expect the OP will post back here when the OP knows the full story.

 

[ServWise]

Just looking at the headers tells me the sites are being served by Apache => on a LAMP server..

You can run ASP on a LAMP server. Having said that it is fairly uncommon and you are probably right. Although making a specific mention of ASP would be an odd thing to say if it wasn't involved.. To make sure the OP should just do a search for .asp files on the cd to confirm, there may be legacy code not even part of those two sites..

 

[Alan]

Funny you say that, I was going to put in post that you'd be insane to tray and put asp on a LAMP server when you can get a windows hosting so cheaply it wouldn't be worth the agro. But I thought I'd leave that out incase I insulted anyone that has done that

 

[lynxus]

Funny you say that, I was going to put in post that you'd be insane to tray and put asp on a LAMP server when you can get a windows hosting so cheaply it wouldn't be worth the agro. But I thought I'd leave that out incase I insulted anyone that has done that

Not to mention the endless security risks you add by trying to get ASP to run on linux.

ASP - Windows.
PHP - Windows & Linux.

That to me is how it should stay.

If you have PHP then id suggest using linux for the security. ASP obviously needs to ideally be hosted on windows otherwise you could get no end of issues with functions now working correctly, file path issues etc etc

Anyway,
Just my 2c.