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Dedicated Webhosting

1. Bandwidth Amounts and Providers

When it comes to bandwidth for dedicated servers there are hosts that provide bulk cheap bandwidth usually from a company called Cogent and there are those that provide higher quality bandwidth from other providers. Usually hosts with cheap bandwidth provided unmanaged dedicated servers which means you are responsible for maintaing the server's security and the technical aspects of all programs on the machine. There are several hosts providing dedicated servers with 100 to 500 gigs of transfer mostly Cognent for $100 to $200 a month.

2. Hardrive Size and Speed

When it comes to hardrives for dedicated servers the big choice is rather you want standard IDE hardrives or high performance SCSI ones which are much faster. Usually SCSI equipped dedicated servers are much more costly than their IDE equipped counterparts. With IDE most hardrives in servers are either 7200 RPM or 5400 RPM which are slower. Higher end dedicated servers may be equipped with RAID capabilities which allow for multiple hardrives to worktogether for increases in speed and data integrity. With dedicated servers your host decides on the components that are in their machines so being very particular about brand or technical hardrive benchmark tests is a nonissue. If you are very particular with your hardrive requirements it might be easier to avoid dedicated servers alltogether and just build your own machine and colocate it.

3. CPU Speed and Dual Capacity

With most dedicated server plans what you start out with CPU wise is what you have got. Hosts usually don't allow upgrades of CPU, and if they do its often cheaper just to cancel your current plan and get another more powerful dedicated server. Some servers have dual capacity and if this is what you are going to need you need to get a server with dual capacity from the beginning. Some dedicated hosting plans have dual cpu capable servers which can have a second CPU added for a fee which is usually recurring monthly. If you can add a second CPU for a one time fee this might be something you can plan on doing later. But if your host requires a monthly recurring fee to upgrade a server CPU it would be wise not to plan on having to do this. So in short plan on working with what a machine has CPU wise until its time to get another more powerful dedicated server.

4. Ram Capacity

Ram capacity might seem like a relatively unimportant aspect of shopping for a dedicated server but if you need more ram and a host only has servers which support a given amount of RAM you may have a problem. Database intensive sites like message boards, free email services, and sites with interaction often require lots of RAM. Many low end dedicated servers use cheaper motherboards which allow for less RAM capacity. If you are going to need a lot of RAM make sure to look for a dedicated server that supports lots of RAM or consider colocating your own machine. If the plan of your host allows you to increase RAM capacity of your server some allow a flat fee to handle the setup, while some require a monthly fee. If your host requires a monthly fee for RAM upgrades you need to keep this in mind.

5. IP Availability

Ip's are needed for each site you plan to host with its own IP. It is possible to do name based hosting where one Ip is used for many websites. But for certain secure server features and for other reasons you might need or want Ip's for many sites rather than using name based hosting. One to five Ip's are often bundled with a dedicated server offer, but if you want more they might cost you $1 or more a month each or have to be bought in groups of five or more more depending on how a host prices them.

6. Your Name Servers Vs Your Hosts

Most dedicated server plans allow you to use the hosts DNS servers for your sites. You can always set up your own DNS as part of your dedicated server but that requires just a bit more technical knowledge. The advantage of setting it up yourself is that you can add, edit, or delete domains and the ips they use any time all the time. If you are going to rely on your hosts DNS servers you will be relying on their systems and reliability in updating your DNS records. This method should be automatic and even if you do run your own DNS server you probably will be using your host as a secondary backup DNS server unless you plan to have another server to act as your secondary DNS.

7. Speed and Reliability of Host

With dedicated hosting you don't have as many concerns as far as speed and reliability that you would have with virtual hosting. The popularity of other sites and their share of system resources is not a factor with dedicated hosting as it is with virtual hosting. Only your sites are on your dedicated machine after all. Provided your machine is built from reliable parts your machine should be capable of doing certain things and this will not change so you don't have to worry about using too much of a server's CPU to as large of a degree as you would with virtual hosting. However you need to be certain that your host is reliable and not going to shut down operations anytime soon or be slow to fix hardware problems if they arise. Also you need to be certain that if your machine's bandwidth is provided in set gigs per month that the host has enough available bandwidth to accomodate you easily. If your machine is hooked up to a dedicated pipe then your data transfer potential will always be guaranteed. Your host also should not be a haven for Spammers or your ability to use yourdomain.com email may be severely limited due to other ISP's blocking email from your hosts servers including yours. If your are using unmanaged hosting then you will be responsible for securing your server which you would not be responsible for under virtual hosting. So the burden of security is on you unless you use managed hosting.

8. Control Panels

With a dedicated server you can opt to install any control panel you want to ease administration of your server and the sites on it. But often webhosts through bulk buying can provide them cheaper to you or perhaps for free. Usually a webhost bundles some sort of control panel with their dedicated servers. Popular control panels that are often bundled include Plesk, Cpanel, and Ensim. If you have a control panel preference it might be cheaper to go with a host that provides it with their servers as part of their standard hosting packages. It is a somewhat technical procedure to remove one control panel and install another but it is doable. It is easier to get a machine already installed with the control panel you want though to start with.

9. Operating System

Most dedicated servers that are on the market run on Linux in its various formats which is quite different from the Windows platform that many people are used to. Linux is free while the popular Windows 2000 server software is not. Linux works more efficiently with system resources as compared to Windows 2000. The most popular Linux operating system in use on webservers is probably Redhat in all its various versions. Unlike a control panel, you generally can not install an operating system on a dedicated server other than the one your host provides. If you will require Windows 2000 or Windows NT or something other than a standard Linux based opearating system on your server you might have to look for a specialty host. Windows NT and 2000 hosts usually charge more because of the complexities of dealing with Microsoft server software because of security concerns, cost, and performance issues. With a good control panel working with Linux for day to day tasks is much like working with icons in a Windows consumer operating system. But some knowledge of the Linux comand line may be necessary for doing more technical things as well as for taking care of system security.

10. Tape Backups of your Data

Virtual hosts usually perform tape backups of everyone's data on their machiens, but coloaction and dedicated server customers are usually not provided this service. It can often be purchased for an extra monthly amount usually about $50 to $100 a month. If you wish your host to have a copy of your site that can be utilized in the event of a hardware failure this is something you might should consider. You should be backing up your site's data at home as well.

11. Managed vs Non Managed Hosting and Level of Technical Support

Most dedicated server offers are unmanaged. That means you will be maintaining the security of the machine and keeping up on patches and software installs. In the event of a problem; hacker attempt, Denial of Service Attack, or Operating system error you will be responsible for fixing it. With Managed hosting your host would take care of such things for you. People who use unmanaged deciated servers usually have greater technical knowledge than those who use unmanaged dedicated servers. The lowest end unmanaged dedicated servers run $100 to $200 a month while managed servers could run $300 to $500 or more a month often with less bandwidth than unmanaged servers have as well. There are companies that can manage your server for you outside of your host as well if you wish to go that route as well.

12: Adult Vs Non Adult Hosting

Some webhosts do not allow adult content at all on their dedicated servers. This usually has less to do with morality and more to do with the fact that adult sites are infamous for using email spam and for charging clients credit cards more than they agreed to for a given adult service or site. Such things can bring down the reputation of an entire webhost, draw them into legal matters, and make it more likely that domain based email from the host may be blocked by ISP's. Also adult hosts tend to use a higher amount of bandwith than non adult sites. This is an issue if a dedicated server plan provides X amount of bandwidth as the host really does not want everyone using an amount that approaches X amount of bandwidth. If you plan to host adult sites on a dedicated server you should read the terms of service of the webhost and make sure they allow adult content.