To begin, every website is hosted on only 3 platforms:

Unix Windows NT Macintosh

Very few sites are hosted on a MAC server, so majority of webhosts use Unix or NT. For these reasons we will focus on only those 2 platforms.

Unix and NT both offer various options and have different abilities. Your choice of which platform to use depends on what applications you want your site to run and amount of control you want to have over your site.

Unix

Unix is oldest and one of most widely used operating systems. It is basis of internet and most webservers originally ran on a version of Unix. Unix is know as a multitasking operating system which means that it can run many applications at same time without them affecting each other. This is very important when you consider that hundreds of websites, running thousands of CGI scripts, all receiving thousands of hits could be running on one webserver.

Why Use It?:

It's reliable Ability to host many websites on same machine. Almost all CGI scripts run better on Unix. Programming flexibility. Much more administrative control.

With Unix, webmasters can really tweak their websites (assuming they know what they are doing) to run at optimal levels. Developers can run CGI scripts and create applications specific to their needs.

Down Sides:

Is case sensitive. It is not an easy operating system to learn. Must use telnet or Ftp to make changes.

Windows NT

NT is a relative newcomer to webhosting game but it is fast gaining a large share of business. NT was built to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft's web authoring tool, Frontpage. As such, it is often perfect solution for newcomers who do not want to learn HTML or CGI programming or deal with day to day hassles of administering a webserver.

Up Sides:

UNIX/ NT/ The two most popular hosting platforms to choose from are UNIX and NT. UNIX is by far favorite, as it was only choice way back in early days of Internet. It is easy to configure, great for setting your own file permissions and platform for most of free scripts available for download. It is flexible, reliable and supports scripting languages like Perl and PHP3.

NT is Microsoft's baby. One problem that I have found with NT servers is a lack of readily available scripts that work on this platform. Also, (unlike UNIX) many NT users need assistance from their Web Host Administrators to set file permissions. NT supports MS applications such as ASP, Access, FP and scripting languages such as Perl, Cold Fusion and ASP.

TECH SUPPORT/ When you need help you'll want to make sure you can get it. Some web hosts offer phone support or even live chat. Make sure they have good tech support in place as there's nothing more annoying than needing assistance with your site and not being able to get it.

SET UP FEE/ MONTHLY FEE/ Some hosts charge an initial set up fee to get your site set up and running on their server. Make sure you check on this when comparing prices. I've seen monthly fees ranging from 9.99 to 39.99, depending on plan and services offered. My advice to you would be to look past cheapest and most expensive ends of scale and go with a mid-range pricing plan to be on safe side. You should be able to pick up a reliable web host for 20 to 25.00 per month.

HARD DRIVE/ SPACE/ How much space they're willing to give you is important if you're going to compare apples to apples. You need to keep in mind size of your site when deciding how much space you really need. Generally, 20 to 30 MB is plenty for a small site. You might want to ask if you can pay for more space should your site ever outgrow its present state.

FTP ACCESS/ TELNET ACCESS/ Even if you plan on using Frontpage to manage your site, you'll still need to have FTP access. It is usually standard, but it never hurts to ask. Make sure you keep your user name and password in a safe place. You'll use FTP to set file permissions and to upload your files to web server.