Where to host web services?

Okay, I'm thinking about learning developing web services. I was wondering, what kind of hosting plan that will allow me to deploy web service of my own? What features am I looking for in that hosting plan? Could you pin point to me the most basic hosting plan out there for this purpose? I'm interested specifically for .NET web service, but would like to know the requirement for hosting Java web services as well.

Thnx in advance

Your question is a little broad. Define "web services". I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to accomplish or what you want to write, but what .NET language are you going to use? ASP.NET? Otherwise you're stuck with vb scripting, which I'm not sure has a ".NET" component... it may, I just don't know about it.

I also don't know anything about Java web services unless you're going to be doing CGI programming, and that can be used on nearly any host that supports CGI, although I'd check to make sure that they have a "Java" module installed, if there is such a thing. I'd personally go with Perl or Python for CGI if I were you, but I'm not.

Make your question a little more defined.

It's gonna be done in ASP.NET. The web service I want to implement is something like what Amazon does where we could retrieve info about the stuff they sell. So I'll be hosting the information database and a client script in a different server will retrieve it.

Long term goal is to be able to do automatic installation/upgrade of web application. I will distribute the application and the application will check for update through my web service and if the client wants to update, he'd just click on update from that application and the update (new/updated files, etc) will be retrieved through my web service. I don't know if a web service is capable of doing this. If not, would you suggest me the technology?

Sample case: http://www.typeworks21.com/
Read the description under "Campfire" and "Concierge". What possible technology is implemented?

Yeah, that's how far I could define it as this stuff is new to me. What are some examples of web services? Isn't like weather forecast, stock quote?

Thnx for the answer

That could be almost anything. Server file manipulation can be done using anything from PHP to CGI programming with Perl or something else... even a DLL written in whatever language you see fit.

I still can't grasp what it is you intend to accomplish by getting all of Amazon's selling information.... do you want to index it on the user's computer? That would take ages because the amount of data they'd have to download is sick.

The majority of what you want to do can be done from a desktop application, and doesn't require any "web service". Sure, some of it can be done from the web, but if you're going to make the user install something, you might as well do all the work there.

Personally, it's better if you can do everything from your website. That way the user doesn't have to download anything and everything can be accessed from anywhere. Still, calling it a "web service" is just a fancy way of saying you have a website that actually interacts with other websites.

Stop using fancy words for things you don't understand.

>>Okay, I'm thinking about learning developing web services

I suggest buying a book first...but that's just my opinion

To clarify, I'm not developing desktop application. It'll be most likely PHP/MySQL application where user has to install on their own server. And the web service will allow the updating (or installing plugins, etc) of the software from the admin panel of that software. The web service I'm referring to is the one that involves SOAP, XML, etc. What I want to do could probably implemented different way, but I heard that web service is "the way to go" a.k.a. "the future". Based on the following list ( http://www.xmethods.net/ve2/Director...D-gkY(QHyMHiRM) ), .NET is the most popular implementation so I'll go with that (ASP.NET)

So is "SOAP" the keyword to look for when searching for web service host? Or just look for "ASP.NET"? If I know how to get this work, I already know how to make use of it, that's why I'm looking for a web service host.

Maybe you should find a host that supports that (many don't) and then actually talk to them about your possibilities instead of asking a bunch of people on a web forum about it. And I doubt many hosting packages will actually list SOAP on their "we support this" list. You'll have to ask around.

Okay, I thought I could eliminate some webhosts by asking here first. Thanks for the help.

SOAP is just a protocol, every web host supports it because it's just a way for communicating with XML files....
read this: http://www.w3schools.com/soap/soap_intro.asp
then get a book, and please just stop throwing around buzz words.

Thanks for the info. Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about, just yet. I haven't read the book (yes, I have a book) thoroughly but I kinda need to know if it would be feasible for me to deploy it once I get it done. If it required me to rent some out-of-budget dedicated web server, then I might not want to learn it right now. Otherwise, your info is appreciated.

fyi you can do all your developing and testing on your own pc using apache (open source webserver). No need to buy space on a server.

if you are looking for .net host then i say you should go for http://pcking.ca
I bought the gamers package from them and haven't seen any downtime yet.