Dedicated Server - Dedicated Server Hosting - Managed Linux Windows Servers

When choosing your next dedicated server it’s important to make sure you are always comparing apples to apples. Often shoppers searching on price alone find themselves months into their deal frustrated with lack of service, while others use overkill, and end up paying for services never even used. For the very basics, here are a few things to consider for your next dedicated server.

Operating System

Your choice of platform will depend to a large extent on the types of applications you are using and the skills and knowledge you already possess. The two most well known operating systems are Windows 2003 and Linux. Typically your purpose for the server will determine what platform you will need. If you are looking for a cost effective way to host a bunch of web sites, Linux is probably your best bet. If you have a site that uses ASP and needs Microsoft SQL server then you are going to need a Windows server. If you are using a dedicated server for something like an email server or a firewall then it can really boil down to what you are most comfortable with. There are great applications for these cases available for both Unix and Windows environments.

Data Transfer / Bandwidth

Data transfer options are getting more and more generous as the industry gets more and more competitive. Beware, just because a host says you can have unlimited transfer, does not necessarily guarantee that they can make it available. Most dedicated server plans are going to offer anywhere from 1000 - 5000 GB of transfer each month. Take note of who each host uses for their internet connectivity. A dedicated server provider should have at least 2 redundant internet connections from various providers but most have even more than that these days.

Managed Services

Look for our upcoming feature about managed vs unmanaged dedicated hosting services - so we won’t go into great details here but - be sure you know what managed services you will need from your provider and whether or not it is included with your plan. For example, some hosts may perform various monitoring, upgrade and backup services with your plan, while some provide nothing but the server. A crude analogy may be something like renting a parking space in a big city - some places may charge the battery once a month, wash it and make sure your radio does not get stolen, while others may simply be providing a place for you to park your car.

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Benefits of a Dedicated Server

* The direct benefits of a dedicated server hosting plan surround the ability to totally administer a web server. The advantage to be able to effectively maintain a dedicated server lies in one’s ability to control the variables associated with reliability and stability. In a dedicated environment, server overload, malicious scripts from other users, and too many installed applications are variables which can be controlled, as compared to this loss of management in shared server hosting.

* Furthermore, a dedicated server allows one to only install applications or software that applies to the major hosting goal at hand. Conversely, shared web hosting has installed software that may or may not be related to the web hosting goals.

* Reliance on the web host repair services and time delays of platform repairs can be minimized, as one may intervene and provide solutions to existing problems with dedicated hosting. Having the option to add patches, upgrade software, or tweak performance is invaluable and allows the dedicated server administrator to work with 24 hour access to perform adjustments, corrections, or updates.

* Lastly, speed of downloads can be determined through the amount of bandwidth that is dedicated to just your website. Statistically, visitors will quickly leave a site if the load time was long. Dedicated servers allow quick delivery of web pages, which increases the probability of keeping web site visitors on a site that may convert them to paying customers. Furthermore, quick loading pages enhance the company’s image and may encourage existing customers to refer your web-based services to others.

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There are thousands of ways to make money on the Internet. If you create a website, you may try, and the customer to your site, either to purchase goods or click on ads. Ads on Web sites generate substantial revenues for site owners. Some sites solely dependent on advertising revenue to continue.

All sides need a host. A host is a server that is the connection between your site and your customers. All websites have a server. Most small business Web sites using a shared server. This means that they pay a small fee each month shares of a server with other companies.

Large companies, but with a dedicated server. A dedicated server hosts only your website. Since you are not sharing space and bandwidth on the server with others, you have a lot more space. You also have the option of a lot more visitors to your site because of bandwidth.

If you are on a dedicated server, you can use the space to affiliate sites. They can generate revenue through advertisements and even a link to your company’s Web site. By adding a little smaller content of this site is that you can earn revenue from advertising and affiliate ads. Affiliate ads specify a percentage of the profits, if a customer buys a certain product or service, having him on your site.

Thanks to the freedom of space and bandwidth offered by a dedicated server, you can earn an unlimited amount of money on the Internet. Although a dedicated server costs more than a single server in the monthly fees, the differences in fees can be more than mitigated if the additional space for a good purpose.

Once you understand the concept of a dedicated server, the sky is the limit when it comes to making money to access the Internet.

Another way to make money on the Internet with dedicated servers is to use other host-business Web sites. If you have the opportunity, to a dedicated server with a template, and quite a bit of a computer literacy, you can use either the dedicated server to provide service to other pages on the Internet, or you can use it to your own host - Group websites.

Ads are a great way to the revenue on your site. If you have your own dedicated server, you can decide what kind of ads can be found on your website as well as the partner products that you want to sell. You can use a variety of sites, all of your dedicated servers and have total control over the money, the characteristics of each individual.

Whether you decide on the dedicated server to host your own web sites or other sites host, you money on the Internet with a dedicated server. Whether you advertising revenue, affiliate sales, your own product or service sales of other individuals and businesses, the Internet has unlimited opportunities for making money.

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When choosing a dedicated server package it is well worth your time to look at the type of control panel that comes with your server.

I should say right now that I am very biased. I have several dedicated servers and also recommend to my own clients  that they look for a server package that includes WHM (Web Host Manager). WHM is the control panel that is used with hosting accounts that have the CPanel control panel. WHM is like the ‘master control’. I have used the Plesk and Ensim control panels and they really don’t come anywhere near WHM/CPanel in terms of functionality, control and user friendliness.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a learning curve involved. With any application or script that provides many functions there is always going to be some learning involved. Here are my top 5 reasons I choose WHM / CPanel over other control panels:

Total Control - With WHM you have control over many more system parameters and constraints than with any of the other control panels.

Security - WHM provides a security center that allows you to easily allow and deny IPs, set the security level of your firewall and carry out basic system scans for trojans, rootkits and viruses.

Versatility - You can use a WHM/CPanel server to operate hundreds of your own domains and sites or you can provide reseller style accounts, giving control to others.

Utilities - Most WHM/CPanel installations include Fantastico which provides you with a large range of scripts and tools which can be installed with just a few clicks.

Support - CPanel provide excellent support and there is also a very active community forum and WHM/CPanel related training available from third parties.

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Imagine this — instead of renting a $99/month Intel/AMD dedicated box, you rent CPU slices in Google’s 400,000+ cluster/server-farm, where it provides high availability (when was the last time you can’t access google.com?), great parallel computing technology and almost limitless bandwidth. Whether it runs single-threaded PHP script for your WordPress blog is another thing…

Well, I will not say that a big clustering account would replace the dedicated server market today, as there are many reasons people opt for dedicated servers. It is like reseller account verses virtual private server — those who picked reseller accounts for their bigger storage, more bandwidth, more CPU resource and an easy to use control panel so they can just focus on content creation. VPS customers (or when they graduated, dedicated server or co-location customers) want their root (or Administrator) access, flexibility of software installation, custom configuration etc.

It’s good for the host as well. Overselling CPU time is now closer to reality. I imagine the CPU utilisation would be much better distributed, if you have 500 websites over a 10 node cluster, than 500 websites over 10 dedicated servers.

However, it is also known that not all web applications work in cluster. What if the PHP app uses a different way to track sessions and cannot afford to have different requests served by different cluster node? How many support load balanced MySQL servers? However, when there’s demand, we’ll also see more web-based apps designed for this type of environment.

Also look forward to have a cluster-ready Linux distribution for web hosting companies. Boot straight up from SAN, configured itself from the master nodes of the cluster, and read to serve requests.

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