Dedicated Server FAQ
Discover what to look for in a dedicated host and when you should host your site on a dedicated server. Our Dedicated Web Hosting FAQs provide answers to the most frequently asked Dedicated Web Hosting questions.
What is the best place to get stable and reliable dedicated web hosting?
itsALLnet.com lists ten highly-rated dedicated Web hosting companies that provide excellent service and customer support. We limit our listings to 10 hosts per category because our site focuses on quality rather than quantity. On our website, we display cost, features, support, and other information to make it simple to select a dedicated Web host.
What exactly is dedicated hosting?
The Dedicated Hosting environment provides you with a dedicated server or servers that are solely dedicated to your website. As opposed to shared hosting, you do not share a server with other customers.
When is a dedicated server required?
While simple text-based websites are better suited for a shared server, enterprise-level websites run much more efficiently on a dedicated server because dedicated hosting provides higher reliability, increased performance, greater security, and exclusive use of system and network resources. As a result, dedicated servers are better suited for sites with high traffic, secure information, a large number of visitors, or complex applications (e.g., e-commerce, dynamic content, database applications, and multimedia applications).
Why should I not go with dedicated server hosting?
Dedicated server hosting is powerful, but it is also expensive. If your site does not necessitate a lot of resources or third-party applications to function properly, dedicated hosting is probably not for you.
What are the benefits of hosting a dedicated server?
Dedicated hosting has a plethora of appealing features, including:
| You do not have to purchase or maintain your own equipment. | |
| Better website performance due to dedicated machine (s). | |
| No chance of your website being affected by another website in the same box, as in shared hosting. |
What are the disadvantages of dedicated server hosting?
The most disconcerting factor of Dedicated Server Hosting is the cost, but alas, there are other disadvantages, such as:
| The cost is generally much higher than shared hosting. | |
| The Web Hosting Provider charges excessive monthly fees because you are paying not only for physical hosting but also for the hardware on which the site is hosted. While this is less expensive in the short run than the large capital outlay required to get co-location up and running, it is more expensive over time. | |
| The server is the property of the service provider, which means all you own is the data you put on the server. | |
| Unlike co-location, you can not simply pick up your server and walk away if you’re unhappy with the service. |
What is the difference between a dedicated server and co-location?
A dedicated server is a server that you can rent from a web host. You have remote access to the server and can tailor it to your specific requirements. The server is owned by the web host, and you do not have physical access to it. Co-location entails storing your own server at a co-location provider’s facility. A co-location provider connects your server to the Internet and gives you physical access to your server when you need it.
I do have a dedicated server now. When should I make the decision to switch over to one?
You may want to move up to a dedicated server if your needs match or surpass the following:
Programs require access by a system administrator
A backup server is required
Multiple IP addresses are needed
Daily data transfer becomes excessive
Storage capacity becomes excessive
Third party software needs to be run on your site.
What is the difference between managed and unmanaged dedicated hosting services?
Managed Hosting is for customers who prefer to have their web host provider maintain and monitor their dedicated servers, operating system and all supported applications. Companies or individuals who do not have the required system administration resources on-staff commonly choose this option. Unmanaged Hosting is for customers who have extensive system administration expertise to maintain and manage their dedicated servers. This option generally provides customers with full access to their server, allowing them to customize configurations.
What should be my main concerns when searching for a dedicated hosting provider?
First, you need to determine whether or not your website is large enough to justify the cost of such an endeavor. That aside, the most common concerns are:
The cost
Security of data and equipment
Bandwidth Availability
The knowledge and integrity of the web-hosting provider
Technical support from the web-hosting provider
Uptime
Hardware maintenance
Who manages the hardware maintenance?
It is the web host providers job to maintain the hardware for their dedicated servers.
How does a web host provider guarantee the hardware?
The web host can do this in a variety of ways. Ideally, the provider will have spare parts on hand to cover the most common server problems. If some components are not kept on hand, it is critical that the provider be able to obtain replacement parts quickly, preferably overnight. Finally, if the web host uses a specific brand or model of computer, it is advantageous if they have a direct relationship with the hardware provider. This ensures top-tier support for the server’s prompt repair (s).
What exactly should I look for in regards to hardware for my site?
Depending on the requirements of your website, there are many answers to this question. These are some of the most important factors to consider.
| Brands | When it comes to hosting business-critical applications, such as websites, name-brand computers are highly desirable. A well-known brand typically has a reputation for dependability, as well as a dedicated support channel for troubleshooting hardware issues. A web host that uses name-brand equipment is usually more sought after than a host that builds their servers from generic components. |
| CPUs | Obviously, the speed of your server’s CPUs will affect its ability to serve your website. Depending on the size of your site and the load on the system, having multiple processors available to better accommodate the workload may be beneficial. |
| Memory | Web servers, for the most part, require a lot of memory. This means that when it comes to hardware requirements, memory is a valuable commodity. If your dedicated server is running on a Windows platform, you will need to allocate more memory because the Windows operating system is memory intensive. |
| Mirrored Drives | Most dedicated hosts provide drive mirroring to ensure data redundancy, which essentially keeps two sets of hard drives in sync with all of your website’s data. In the event of a drive failure, there will be no downtime because the system has an immediate backup that can be used until the broken drive is replaced. This is a fantastic extra feature for dedicated hosted sites. |
| Multiple Servers | Depending on the needs of your website, hosting it on more than one server can be extremely beneficial. For example, if a website includes an integrated database, the database should be hosted on its own server. By separating the processes, one server can focus on processing web requests while the other focuses on database activity. This type of segregation has an immediate impact on a website’s performance.Is it possible to have the ability to remotely control my server? |
The ability to remotely administer your web server and its associated applications is usually available, depending on the web host provider. Tools such as PC Anywhere and VNC are excellent tools when working with a dedicated Windows server, while shell access is generally used to administer Unix and Linux boxes.
What are some good questions to ask a dedicated hosting provider before I sign up?
As described above, some good questions to ask your prospective hosts are:
What brand of computer do you use?
If something breaks, do you have spare parts to fix it immediately?
What kind of maintenance plan do you have with your hardware provider?
What are the hardware specs you have available (CPU speed, drive size, memory, etc.)?
What kind of connection to the Internet do you have?
What management methods are available for me to administer my server?
What kind of backup options do you offer to save my data?
Glossary of terms:
Co-location
Co-location, in general, refers to the movement or placement of objects together, which may or may not imply a specific order. On the Internet, this term refers to the provision of space for a customer’s telecommunications equipment on the premises of the service provider. For example, a website owner could host the site’s own computer servers on the Internet service provider’s premises (ISP). Alternatively, an ISP could place its network routers on the premises of a company that provides switching services to other ISPs. The alternative to collocation is to have the equipment and demarcation point at the customer’s location.
IP Address–
An IP address is a 32-bit number that identifies each sender or receiver of information sent in packets across the Internet in the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (IP) today. When you request an HTML page or send an e-mail, the Internet Protocol component of TCP/IP includes your IP address in the message (actually, in each packet if more than one is required) and sends it to the IP address obtained by looking up the domain name in the Uniform Resource Locator you requested or in the e-mail address you’re sending a note to.
Mirrored Drives
Drive mirroring (also known as RAID-1) is the practice of duplicating data into separate volumes on two hard disks to make storage more fault-tolerant. Mirroring provides data protection in the case of disk failure, because data is constantly updated on both disks.
PC Anywhere
PC Anywhere is a software program available for the Windows operating system that allows a remote computer to take virtual control of another computer, as if the user were sitting at the remote computer itself.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is Web hosting in which the service provider serves pages for multiple Web sites, each having its own Internet domain name, from a single Web server. Most web hosting companies provide shared hosting. Although shared hosting is a less expensive way for businesses to create a Web presence, it is usually not sufficient for Web sites with high traffic.
Uptime
Uptime is a computer industry term for the time during which a computer is operational. Downtime is the time when it isn’t operational. Uptime is sometimes measured in terms of a percentile. For example, one standard for uptime that is sometimes discussed is a goal called five 9s-that is, a computer that is operational 99.999 percent of the time.
VNC
VNC is an abbreviation for Virtual Network Computing. It is essentially a remote display system that allows you to view a computing ‘desktop’ environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and across a wide range of machine architectures. In essence, VNC is a free application with similar capabilities to PC Anywhere. VNC is available for a variety of platforms, including Windows and various Unix and Linux flavours.
About The Author
Nohman Habib
I basically work in the CMS, like Joomla and WordPress and in framework like Laravel and have keen interest in developing mobile apps by utilizing hybrid technology. I also have experience working in AWS technology. In terms of CMS, I give Joomla the most value because I found it so much user freindly and my clients feel so much easy to manage their project in it.
