Five Steps To Choosing A Dedicated Server Host

I'll like to first point out that each step listed below is not necessarily in the order of importance as I deem each point to be just as important as the other. Choosing a dedicated server host is a very critical aspect of your business online. To put it simple, it could make or break you. Issues ranging from downtime, slow support, a very slow network can all kill your website and revenue FAST! I've outlined five points that you should consider when selecting a host for your dedicated server.

1) Reliability

This is not something you can actually know by just looking at their website, so you'll have to do a bit of research. It's always a good idea to do a search about the host to find any reviews from past or current clients. To do this, simply search using Google for keyword phrases using the company name. For example, Rackspace review or EV1Servers review, or you can even take a step further, by reviewing the support forums of the host if they have one. There you can easily find as much information as you need. How does this help with regards to reliability? Simple, it can show how fast they respond to complaints and issues by reviewing what past or current clients have said, and postings in the forums can show how they handle customer feedback.

2) Cost

We are all looking for a cost effective deal. It's important that we factor in quality over cost when choosing a dedicated server host. Selecting a $29/month server may not be the best option if it's backed with poor support and perhaps your server built with recycled hardware. Take note, this is not saying that cheap dedicated server hosts produce low quality service, but I'm saying that in 8 times out of 10 you do get what you pay for. Do price shopping and take note of each host's price along with their server specs, bandwidth, network, and support guarantees. Review each and then you'll be able to figure, which one is truly the most cost effective. Is it really worth it to have a $29/month server with only 256 MB RAM which may be slow and unresponsive if hit with a spike in traffic? It's going to be up to you to weigh those options.

3) Support

This is crucial for issues such as downtime, ddos attacks and general issues dealing with your server. It is important that you communicate with the support team before purchasing a server. Why? Simply because you want to test their response before investing any funds. If you would rather not send an email or call before making your purchase, if the site you're thinking about has a support forum, you can register and post your technical question there or review the questions asked prior to get a better idea of how solid their support technicians are with regards to answering questions.

4) Longevity

This is usually not listed as a priority as many startup dedicated server companies are solid, but it's usually a best bet to track the length of time that a company has been in business. You can do a whois of the host's domain name to see how long a host has been in business. It can be a good indication that they're in for the long haul if they've been around for awhile. This is not to discredit choosing a new company, as many solid server hosts are started regularly who go on to be huge successes. Simply use your best judgment when reviewing if to go with a host that's been around for years instead of one that's now getting started. I should point out here, that in some cases newer hosts will fight harder for your business and give you an overall better support in the beginning in some cases as they really treasure your business. It's really a toss up here, that's where your natural instincts for decision making will have to be the deciding factor.

5) Network

A fast upline provider is very important. Unfortunately not all networks are fast, secure and of high quality. When choosing your server host, it is important that you find out who is the backbone provider, i.e which company is feeding their connection to the internet. Not only do you want to know which company, but you also need to know what's the speed and maximum burst that can be achieved. Many networks have crumbled due to starting with too small of a connection causing all the servers hosted to literally crawl when traffic spikes occur. In addition, you'll need to find out if your server will be automatically behind a firewall or if that's an optional service. Every network should offer the ability for firewall protection but not all offer it as a standard inclusion. Do not overlook this, as if any attacks on your server do occur, and you are not behind the firewall your server can crash.

This is obviously not a total guideline, but a brief overview of what you should look for when choosing a host. In most cases, just using common sense and asking questions will help you make the right decision. Above all else, when choosing a host, if you follow the steps above, you'll be making an informed decision instead of taking the gamble just based on what you've read on the host's website.

More information can be found at http://www.dedicatedserversearch.com

4 Steps To A Dedicated Server

1) Reliability

This is not of moment you can fully distinguish by just looking at their website, in consequence you'll have to obtain a works of research. It's always a applicable idea to finish a search about the host to find any reviews from past or current clients. To do this, simply search using Google for keyword phrases using the company name. For example, Rackspace review or EV1Servers review, or you can even take a step further, by reviewing the support forums of the host if they have one. There you can easily find as much information as you need. How does this help with regards to reliability? Simple, it can show how fast they respond to complaints and issues by reviewing what past or current clients have said, and postings in the forums can show how they handle customer feedback.

2) Cost


We are all looking for a value hyped up deal. It's wanted that we influence in style now market price when election a fired server host. Selecting a $29/month server may not be the top option if it's backed with poor support and perhaps your server built with recycled hardware. Take note, this is not saying that cheap dedicated server hosts produce low quality service, but I'm saying that in 8 times out of 10 you do get what you pay for. Do price shopping and take note of each host's price along with their server specs, bandwidth, network, and support guarantees. Review each and then you'll be able to figure, which one is truly the most cost effective. Is it really worth it to have a $29/month server with only 256 MB RAM which may be slow and unresponsive if hit with a spike in traffic? It's going to be up to you to weigh those options.

3) Support

This is toilsome for issues agnate as downtime, ddos attacks and characteristic issues dealing with your server. It is foremost that you express with the help team before purchasing a server. Why? Simply for you yearning to demur their response before investing any funds. If you would rather not send an email or call before making your purchase, if the site you're thinking about has a support forum, you can register and post your technical question there or review the questions asked prior to get a better idea of how solid their support technicians are with regards to answering questions.

4) Longevity

This is usually not listed as a bearing as manifold startup fired server companies are solid, but it's usually a elite risk to lane the twist of cut that a transaction has been in business. You can seal a whois of the host's domain name to see how long a host has been in business. It can be a good indication that they're in for the long haul if they've been around for awhile. This is not to discredit choosing a new company, as many solid server hosts are started regularly who go on to be huge successes. Simply use your best judgment when reviewing if to go with a host that's been around for years instead of one that's now getting started. I should point out here, that in some cases newer hosts will fight harder for your business and give you an overall better support in the beginning in some cases as they really treasure your business. It's really a toss up here, that's where your natural instincts for decision making will have to be the deciding factor.

The author writes about a number of different topics visit Cheap Web Hosting Reviews

About Dedicated Servers

A web hosting service provides its clients some space on its web server on monthly or yearly rate through which clients can use of setting up and running a website of their choice which can be accessed through the World Wide Web. A large number of web hosting services have come up.

The various types of web hosting services found today are:

1) Free web hosting service: Free web hosting service provides limited storage space and there are no additional features like data base support.

2) Shared web hosting service: Shared web hosting service supports many websites on the same server, all of which may use the same resources.

3) Reseller web hosting service: In this type of service, clients could themselves become web hosts again and resell their storage space on the server to other clients.

4) Virtual dedicated service: Though all clients may use the same server, they may not realize this because their servers have been virtually separated.

5) Dedicated hosting service: Dedicated hosting service the client can rent or lease a web server and own complete control over it.

6) Colocation web hosting service: In this case, the client can buy the server and virtually own it. He can use it resources for any purpose.

Among all these services dedicated services are most popular. Before deciding if a dedicated server is for you, you should consider the level of your website. If you operate a small business or a basic website, a dedicated server is likely not the best choice. However, if you have a high traffic, large, and massive website, a dedicated server will be the likely choice.

Overall, it is important to understand your space needs, reliability, bandwidth, and budget prior to choosing dedicated server website hosting. Generally, a large website, a large company, with high traffic, may want to consider a dedicated server. A small business, with minimal traffic, will likely want to stick with shared servers.

The only disadvantage of a dedicated server is mostly very expensive. Make sure to consider the price with that of the total cost of shared server space. If a dedicated server has a best hosting option for your business, ultimately it is worthy to pay.

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Derek is content writer for gigenet.com; Visit the site(http://www.gigenet.com) for more information about Dedicated servers.

Should You Invest In Dedicated Server?

There are millions of websites out there, and most of these websites are hosted on shared servers. The owners of these websites know that they are to getting too much traffic, so it's smarter to outsource their hosting and have them hosted on someone else's server. Outsourced hosting costs $10-$100 a month, and it is a great solution for webmasters who are just starting out, and have a small site or sites. But what about dedicated server? At what point does it become worthwhile to use one? Dedicated server is, simply put, a server that is owned by someone else, but you have exclusive use of it.

Dedicated server may cost $500-$1000 a month to use. You can alternatively buy your own server for a one time cost, but this requires having a technical person who will be able to address any problems, so if you don't have a technician at hand, dedicated server is your best option. What will you gain from using a dedicated hosing server?

1. A more reliable host - you don't share your bandwidth with outer webmasters, as you do in the shared hosting situation. This promises a more reliable connection that will not be interfered with what other webmasters are doing.

2. Faster load time - you're not sharing resources with other sites, so your site will upload much faster

3. You can consolidate all your websites into one server - this will lower the over all costs, if you have more than one website.

4. Better security - your own dedicated server is much more private that shared servers, where others can prey into your business. This in itself is a prime motive for many businesses to use dedicated hosting.

To conclude, dedicated hosting is recommended if you take your website seriously and conduct some real activity on the web. This can be even more true if you conduct any kind of ecommerce or password based activity, that require greater security. Just make sure you use a professional company that will take good care of your website.

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What to know while go for dedicated server hosting

What is Dedicated Server Hosting?

Now a days the world wide web grows like anything and the need of website security, standreds and bandwidth also need to consider while going to start a web based business or a information portal to make things better. How to measure that a hosting package will fit for your corporate website need? There is a solution for corporate websites who think about security and uptime..Dedicated Server.

Dedicated server hosting can alleviate the need to share hardware or software with any other sites or web pages. Webmasters are given the autonomy to decide on applications that are installed on the server to create specific configurations for their web needs, and have the ability to provide a secure environment for their site. As compared to a shared-server environment, dedicated server hosting offers a peace of mind that a site will be delivered in a reliable and secure manner.

There are major benefits of dedicated hosting, as discussed below. However, the major disadvantage, cost, is quickly being overcome. Because of continual growth in the dedicated server hosting industry, the rates for dedicated server plans are rapidly declining. A competitive environment drives up the level of service and decreases cost. This reduction is powered by an increase in small and medium-sized businesses gaining an online presence and the rapid proliferation of web hosting providers.

Advantages:

Dedicated hosting is favorable because of 2 major assets: control and reliability.

Since a dedicated web administrator has more control over a dedicated server, it tends to be more secure, compared to a shared web server. By knowing what exactly is installed on a dedicated server through full root access, a system administrator is able to confidently make decisions on the software and application updates necessary to maintain the dedicated web server and keep it running in its most optimal configuration.

Increased reliability is another major asset of dedicated hosting, as a server administrator has the self-sufficiency to optimize page loads by tweaking variables such as page load speed and general server resource allocation. This server reliability translates to customer satisfaction and an increase in the bottom line goals of a web site's presence.

Disadvantages:

While the benefits of dedicated hosting is apparent, the bottom line consideration, especially for business purposes is cost. Dedicated hosting is significantly more expensive compared to shared or virtual web hosting, and until recently, could most commonly be quoted at several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars per month. Although cost may still be exorbitant, most businesses are able to justify the use of dedicated servers through a true web analysis to weigh the resources necessary to run applications and code.

Another drawback is the need to be able to monitor, install, upgrade and configure programs, add sites, deal with potential hacks, and troubleshoot systems. Therefore, the necessary system administration skills, if one does not possess them, may definitely inhibit the successful implementation of a web site hosted on a dedicated web server.

Benefits

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.

What is the best application of a dedicated hosting service provider?

Utility of a dedicated server environment is best suited to those with a working knowledge of server operating systems and those who don't mind troubleshooting problems which may arise.

Server administrators must be able to apply kernel upgrades, service packs, and software patches, as well as provide ample security, monitor traffic, update server applications, balance server loads, and configure email, FTP, and DNS services.

In exchange for competency in the above functions, the best uses for a dedicated web server environment would be:

mission-critical sites requiring custom server management and software implementation.

dedicated hosting resellers, web developers and designers who need greater flexibility, reliability and security for their clients

backbones of corporate intranets

robust and dependable servers for streaming media, online gaming, and e-mail or chat applications

complex application sites with high traffic and secure information such as ecommerce, database, and multimedia sites.

enterprise-level web sites

Web sites which may have content restrictions if hosted elsewhere (e.g. adult targeted sites.)

How to decide

Overall, the cost, security of data and equipment, bandwidth availability, the knowledge and integrity of the web-hosting provider, uptime, hardware maintenance, and any technical support offered by the dedicated web host are important deciding factors. Although your specific dedicated server hosting needs may be unique in a few ways, generally, one can make a decision on a dedicated web server provider by considering the following things:

Data Transfer Rates

Data transfer will need to be determined based on the amount of information that will be downloaded, as well as the type of content a site will be sharing (general text vs. high resolution graphics and multimedia). A dedicated server host will generally have various packages that will allow one to choose the data transfer level, normally measured in "gigabytes per month". Higher levels of data transfer rates normally mean more cost, so utilization of the first few months to correlate data transfer rates and traffic patterns is key.

Platforms

The two most common systems available are Windows based servers versus some flavor of UNIX (Linux and Solaris). Windows is historically more expensive, but is generally regarded as more user-friendly, especially with the ubiquitous presence of Windows-based pc's and administrators. Linux, on the other hand, is less expensive to install, but harder to maintain, as a steeper learning curve exists for those unfamiliar with it. Therefore, the operating system installed on a dedicated web server should depend on a couple of factors.

First, the platform should be conducive to the coding in which the website and necessary applications are developed. Next, since administration of the dedicated server will be done by the subscriber, the necessary skill base to support the platform must be in place. Commands and administration techniques are definitely platform-specific.

Monitoring

Dedicated server monitoring works to prevent service interruptions. The web host will provide a service that can, at a pre-set frequency, check a website to see downtime.

Automation

Although dedicated web servers may require a greater degree of skill, certain dedicated server hosting companies may offer software that will automate common procedures, thus lessening the high level knowledge necessary to maintain servers and implement new services.

Data Backup

Some dedicated server providers assist the web hosting subscriber with data backups. Finding a dedicated server provider who will assist in this process could alleviate the hassle of doing it yourself and can allow one to devote time to other things.

Scalability

Dedicated server hosting providers should be able to account for major growth. Progressive expansion can be accounted for by asking a web host if modules of extra space, bandwidth, or better yet, larger packages can be purchased to allow easy transition to better hardware and software.

Service Level Agreements

More dedicated server hosts are publishing their SLA's, which thoroughly documents what they will do in exchange for what the customer is responsible for. For instance, some dedicated server hosts are offering features such as: 100% uptime guarantees, unlimited live answer technical phone-based support, free upgrades of patches, hot-fixes, personal Dedicated Sales account managers, maintenance staff with spare parts for all server configurationsFeature Articles, and more. A full understanding of the commitment that a dedicated server host is offering will help in a decision to utilize that service.

Types of dedicated server platforms?

There are several types of platforms available with server providers to fit for your website, application development need.

1. Coldfusion Dedicated Server for coldfusion application development.

2. Windows Dedicated Server for application development using ASP, ASP.Net, MSSQL.

3. Cpanel Dedicated Server for linux dedicated server with cpanel control panel.

For more information on refer Web hosting articles

A internet bee having good knowledge over concepts like server hosting, internet marketing, seo and ppc programs. He runs complete dedicated server hosting website for dedicated server information