Hi:

I have been reading this forum for some time now and it has been very helpfull so far. However there are a few simple (or stupid probably) facts that everybody seems to know, and I certainly don't, so I can not really follow most of the discussions...I have tried looking for these answers here but most threads seem to asume this basic knowledge:

What is alabanza or vdi (for example) based hosts? I can guess an answer, but what does it mean exactly when choosing a host?
For example most of my users are in argentina (where I am from) but my site will be hosted in the US, so I guess the location (in the us) may have a big influence when serving pages to south america (probably what's good for an american user may not be that good for a south american one, is that correct?).

A lot of hosts (and posts here) mention cpanel. What is exactly cpanel, where can I find more info (basic info I mean, I've read detailed discussions about particular features). Is having cpanel a big adavantage? (over I guess not having it or any other option. My particular case, I am deciding among two hosts: one of them, VO, has this cpanel, the other, hosting4less, doesnt AFAIK. Because I have never used it I don't know if this is something to consider or a small advantage).

I guess that's all for now...Thanks you very much.

>>> What is alabanza or vdi (for example) based hosts? I can guess an answer, but what does it mean exactly when choosing a host?

VDI and Alabanza are data centers that house MANY servers for all different web hosting companies.
Lately VDI has been unreliable and many hosting companies are leaving them. I'm not so sure how Alabanza is doing.

Cpanel is a web-based administrative control panel. You can control just about everything from there.

Couldn't answer the first one. But for cpanel, it's a control panel for people to setup email accounts, subdomains, mailing list, check bandwidth, etc...

A demo can be found at: http://testcp:testcp@216.74.69.210:2082/

Try it and you know what you can do with cpanel.

ebird

Alabanza-based hosts also have a control panel available. Currently, the biggest news out of Alabanza is that Jumpline is leaving for Qwest's Columbus, OH facility. It appears that Jumpline and Alabanza are parting on good terms.

I hear cpanel will be working well soon. That will make it a big advantage to your customers over no control panel at all.
It also has a web based email feature for those that want it.

Alabanza has a control panel, and VDI has cpanel. Both have their good and bad sides. They just seem to be the best control panels out there. This is why you keep hearing of these two.

VDI is working to make the cpanel blow away alabanzas controlpanel (only time will tell) . But, alabanza has multiple languages, wich is a plus for some hosts.

With cpanel, you can custom design the look, and language for your customers, and select which cpanel version to load to a site when you create the site. That is a big plus for cpanel.

Your compairing what I feel are the two best control panels and both have a good host machine manager to handle a lot of the basic admin needs quickly.

VDI and Alabanza are data centers as the other member said. Hosts put their machines there, or you can get dedicated servers from them. Alabanza only has dedicated No colocated (host owned) machines.

Alabanza charges more, and has more tecs... they just don't tell them to come to work any more. ( pun intended)

Hope that helps - We have been in both places,

Tim L :cool:

Thanks for the reply! If I get everything ok:

When choosing hosts you are also choosing one of these providers...I never thought of that. Some people seem to have a strong preference for one of them, is it just personal taste, experience, etc or is there another advantage I should be aware of (geographic location and speed are my concern, other than that I can let my host make that decisions)?

I tried cpanel and it seems to be very good (I have used something like that at pair, my current host) but the posts here say that vdi hosts only use cpanel, and one of my host choices (VO) is moving from vdi to verio (from what I read here). Does that mean that they wont use cpanel anymore?

cPanel will be in use at VO, from their announcement. Hosts at other NOCs also use cPanel. The Alabanza control panel, however, is only available at Alabanza, more's the pity (at least until cPanel is a bit more stable than it is currently).

I think both would be fine for speed to your location. We have been with both, and have customers around the world. VDI is adding more OC3 lines, so the data center will be even faster.

However, to get a ture picture for yourself, you should run a ping to each, and a trace route to each from Your location.

If you have a window computer, go into dos promt, and do this:

tracert alabanza.com

after it is done,

tracert vdi.net


You can also

ping vdi.net

and

ping alabanza.com

these results will show you numbers in miliseconds... which ever one is lower is the fastest to YOU.


As for leaning towards one... Yes, my machines are at VDI, and I was on dedicated machines at alabanza. I do prefer VDI.
Your choice as a customer should be the control panel you like, and speed to you, as well as finding a host that is good with support that meets your needs.

Good luck in your search,

Tim L

:cool: