Recommendation for a Dedicated Server...UPDATED...I'm transferred...thanks for your help!

Hi Jack,
yep sure can ... Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, and Dedicated Website Hosting w/ cPanel - HostGator I have had 2 dedicated servers with them almost from day one since they opened the doors..

Not a bit of trouble, support sometimes on live chat can be a pain but you just got to know how to talk to some people.

James

Details Included

Specs: 2.x ghz Athlon 64-bit processor
1 GB DDR Ram
250 GB SATA Drive
1.2 Terabytes of Premium Bandwidth Free Monthly Security Audits!
Free Monitoring
dDoS Protected Network
Linux, BSD or Windows
The Athlon 64 system that Fused Network offers is sufficient for most small to medium scale operations. Coupled with our 24/7 monitoring, basic management & monthly security audits it's a great starter package for most companies looking to host a number of dynamic & static websites.
Price: $200 / Month

http://tipsforstudents.com/hosting

Thanks so much for your suggestions.

Is there any type of "metric" that can be used to gauge roughly how much traffic a server can handle?

Say you are going to send 20,000 visitors to a salespage at once...is there a way to verify that the server you have can handle that load?

Thanks,
Jack

Thanks so much for the great tips...

Has anyone sucessfully used a Mosso Cloud Site?

I'm curious to see if anyone has found this to be a good alternative to a dedicated server...

Thanks,
Jack

Hostdime.com or Liquidweb.com both top notch companies. If I had to pick one it would be Hostdime, they are a great company and I have had 6 or 7 servers over the years with them.

Derrick

Go hostgator if you are new . If not cut out the middle man and go straight to there source which is the planet . Alot of people I noticed plug hostgator but trust me they are nothing special . They are just a middleman .

Check it out google it The Planet .

I have 2 servers with the planet and it only runs me 165 a month . These 2 servers each have 250 gig hard drive and 2 GB ram .

You also have to take into account how much sever management you can do yourself(or outsource).

Different companies will provide either no management(self managed) or a variety levels of management(sometimes for different prices).

Lidquidweb.com and HostDime.com are fully managed. I know server management and I still used these companies so I have a backup to consult if I get an issue I am unsure how to fix. The obviously have an experience factor over myself since they manage thousands of servers compared to the handful I have managed in my time.

Derrick

Thanks so much for all the good tips.

The Planet is looking pretty good at the moment.

Yes, The Planet are the actual server farm for Hostgator but I've always found the extra cost of going with Hostgator to be worth it - their support has got me out of the doo so many times, and so quickly, that they put pretty well everyone else to shame.

Your asking for trouble if u go with hostgator dedicated servers, I nearly had a nervous breakdown when I used their grotty old outdated servers (And remember they get their servers from the planet!!!)

In fact I do believe it was when the Planet took over from hostgators previous providers they started having problems.

www.pacificrack (not an affiliate) are fabulous, and their support is unbelievable

They will also do u a deal if you bargain for one

Kim

A couple of comments here about dedicated servers at Hostgator catch my attention. I've had my own there for about two years. My only issue with them during the first 18 months is that I didn't realize how much/little actual server management they provide.

Consequently things like firewalls, and rules configuration weren't being actively taken care of, and I was regularly having issues with malicious code being inserted into my php/html files.

I hired a trained server admin who spent about $150 of time configuring everything, and haven't had a problem since.

I think the eye-opener here, is that your expectation with a dedicated server from Hostgator, is that you will be responsible for a certain amount of server configuration and management. It's not a completely 'plug-n-play' situation.


Talltom

I have been using DataKL for my hosting, really great service and price is affordable too: Malaysia Web Hosting Domain Name Registration Dedicated Server Colocation

I agree... HOSTDIME.COM is the way to go.

Talk with Mike at HostDime. He'll handle everything and you can even call him. They are a real company that owns the data center and they take calls 24/7.

Mike is the operations manager and we've been with them for 3 years. Dedicated Servers, Reseller Hosting, Dedicated Web Hosting

Life

It seems to me that there are many options.

Just don't use GoDaddy

Your going to send 20,000 to a sales page? Are you going to be installing some kind of software to the server?

Hey Jack,

We were with the planet for nearly two years - TOTALLY lost a lot of business with them because the server was really bad. Mail didn't get through to customers and subscribers, constantly hack attacks (that often got through!) and it was up and down like a yo-yo.

We finally moved to Liquid Web.

I've also used Alabanza (more expensive)

but Liquid Web will be my absolute top recommendation. When you have a dedicated server with them, they are 24/7 *in the US* available, by private message type support area or by phone.

They are quick to fix anything if need be - our server has been up and running for I think its over 400 days without issue

They have various pricing points, depends what you want, but very reasonable. (We spent three days comparing and talking to several server hosts before we chose LW).

Amber

Jack!

Why not just have text on your site hosting server and all multimedia A/V, images etc. on Amazon AWS?

-Lakshay

I use and love wiredtree.com

Garrie

I've been with Hostgator for several years and in that time I've had 2 dedicated servers with them.
Yes, the servers are sitting with The Planet but Hostgator provides the support.
I have always had prompt attention from them when I have issues or need something added/changed.

My suggestion to you would be to call them and talk to their sales department and discuss what your needs are. My present server was a custom build for someone else that I got for a lot less than their advertised equivilent system. It has functions that they don't typically sell.
So, you never know whats sitting with them waiting for a new user.

As for the configuration of the system. I send them an email and we discuss whats needed and its installed.
They set up my firewall so I can monitor it easily
When I had trouble last fall with a Joomla plugin not working properly they fixed what I needed.

When I got this new server I also ordered extra IP's as my stores are all on dedicated IP's. It turned out a couple of them were on the ISP ban list.
Hostgator looked after getting them all cleared and whitelisting me with the bigger ISP's. I didn't have to do a thing.

So, I don't have any complaints

I use VPSland VPS services..


they are good with the customer service.....


Moreover they are cheap too.... They also offer a 50% off on the first month......

Josh is on point. ThePlanet, Softlayer and Rackspace are the very best. But the prices are high.
Personally, I've settled on LiquidWeb for VPS. The support is extraordinary for VPS. I could only imagine for Dedicated. Highly recommended. Look for deals at Sitepoint and DigitalPoint. You could save a bunch.

Definitely a vote for Softlayer here. Excellent value. Excellent service.

I've used quite a few dedicating hosting services and I have to say when I needed a server to handle high traffic, Gigenet.com is who I was happiest with. In fact, I'm thinking of moving all my sites over to them. The only thing stopping me is that I'm paranoid and never like to have all my sites in one place. After one of the larger companies (theplanet) went through a few days of downtime, I don't think any host can truly be 100% safe.

Thanks so much for the great ideas...it seems that there were a ton of "good" places to find dedicated hosts.

After visiting all these links and looking specifically at my needs (very high spikes in traffic), I ended up going with Mosso Cloud Sites (Rackspace)

It ends up being $100 a month...but is backed by their 100% uptime guarantee and their uber awesome customer service.

I was able to make the switch yesterday...very simple.

The customer service is truly unbelievable. Right inside your Control Panel you have a "Live Help" link...and you are connected in just a couple of seconds...and you get really knowledgeable techs at the other end.

Yesterday alone I used it 3 times. They helped with the hostname settings of my config.php and getting my database transferred over properly from the old site.

The minute I switched over, I managed to increase the speed of my site by 700%...impressive.

My favorite thing, though, is the fact that it is instantly scalable. I get unlimited number of sites and I never have to worry about "outgrowing" my server...because it's a cloud network.

I'll be moving everything over from Amazon S3 as well...because I now have ftp access to the cloud network (instead of having to use Firefox S3 plugin or Bucket Explorer to post content to S3)

It's a real win-win...and I'd encourage you to take a look if you are having trouble with server crashes.

(man...I guess I'll never be able to send that "server crashed" email when I launch products after all...)




-Jack

P.S. Now...for those of you who read this and think $100 a month is too expensive...just consider this... Because of poor server management at my previous "budget hosting provider", one of my sites databases was hacked into recently, resulting in all my sales for the day being sent to someone in the Phillipines...once again, "you get what you pay for"...