I am thinking about upgrading to a dedicated server. My site is split across several domains and several hosting companies. All together the site uses about 50 GB/month. I expect this total to increase by about 15% per month. The site is primarily static HTML files and pictures. I have a CGI-based message board, which gets about 20% of the site's traffic. There is some adult-related content, but I do not consider the site pornographic.

After looking through a few messages, I am thinking about hosting with www.4webspace.com . It looks like a reliable company and a good value. I am concerned that the home page says, " due to high demand, we are currently out of RaQ3 and RaQ4 servers. "

Are they likely to get new servers soon?

4webspace offers packages beginning at $100/month for a cobalt server with 32 MB RAM.
Is my site likely to need additional RAM or anything else that would increase my monthly bill?

Would you recommend any other companies for reliable dededicated servers at $100/month or less (preferably less)?

Thanks.

a dedicated server ofr under 100/month??

just a thought... in most cases, you get what you pay for...

I have a dedicated server at VenturesOnline, their prices start at 200/month.

My experience with them so far has been nothing but good news. They come highly recommended by me, if that counts for anything :D

http://www.venturesonline.com/Dedicated_Servers/dedicated_servers.html

Another Thumbs up for Ventures Online as long as Daniel never sells his company to anyone ever again and thumbs down for Burst who will take forever to reply to your support requests and then when they screw up after you beg them for a month not to, will find a way to blame you for it....

Due to your message board, I don't think anyone will tell you that 32 MB of ram is enough no matter what server you get. If you want to know if they can get you a server, I'd suggest contacting them.

Thanks for the help. I have some followup questions.

If 32 MB RAM is too low, how much RAM do you think I'd need. DC Forum message boards are not server intensive. One guy who gets 5x the traffic I do, says he only uses 2% of his server CPU.

I do not want to seem cheap, but why pay $200 when there are seemingly quality companies like 4webspace.com that are offering servers for $100/month? Wouldn't a Cobalt RaQ be acceptable for hosting a single web site? Is 4webspace not able to afford quality customer service?

NVB, well the short answer is yes, but the longer answer is...

You ask, "Wouldn't a Cobalt RaQ be acceptable for hosting a single web site?"

A minimally configured Cobalt RaQ server may *not* be enough to host a site depending on a variety of factors (this applies to any server, not RaQs specifically). Things such as overall traffic, peaks in traffic, types of scripts run, etc. can effect server performance.

Now we come to the specifics. Your site includes, "...a CGI-based message board, which gets about 20% of the site's traffic". Well 20% of 10 hits is 2. Hard to really give you advice.

Again, "DC Forum message boards are not server intensive. One guy who gets 5x the traffic I do, says he only uses 2% of his server CPU..." -doesn't help all that much as he gets 5 x what, and it uses 2% of his CPU, which is what, and how much ram is on *that* machine? Many variables you are leaving out here.

So the long answer is no, you can't shove a busy site on a machine with 32 MB of ram and say, "but it is dedicated..." It will work until it doesn't, then you upgrade (ram, server, etc.)

"Is 4webspace not able to afford quality customer service?" - eh?

By the way, we were just checking out your site the other day (someone mentioned it in the chat room)., heh! :D

4webspace has proven to be a pretty reliable company with good tech support. Search through the forums and you'll find lots of people talking about them and most of them happy.

Originally posted by NVB
4webspace offers packages beginning at $100/month for a cobalt server with 32 MB RAM.
Is my site likely to need additional RAM or anything else that would increase my monthly bill?
[/B]

4webspace charges only a one time fee for additional RAM not a monthly charge like many others.

Even given all the variables it extremely difficult to tell if a given server can handle the load placed on it by a given site. I can tell you that a RaQ 2 can't handle Yahoo and an E10000 can handle my site just fine but it's the finer divisions in between that are hard to say.

FYI I get decent performance out of my RaQ 3 with 1.5 million page views with about 75% of them being servlets/MySQL generated. Performance pretty much goes to hell when the SE spiders gang up on the site but it stays up.

Things such as overall traffic, peaks in traffic, types of scripts run, etc. can effect server performance.

Now we come to the specifics. Your site includes, "...a CGI-based message board, which gets about 20% of the site's traffic". Well 20% of 10 hits is 2. Hard to really give you advice. I see the problem. I will provide more detailed information. The site gets approximately 7 million hits per month. 20% of the hits are .HTM files (page views). 7% are .CGI files (mostly from message board). 1% are .JS files (from spell checker). There are no other noteable scripts. There is no MYSQL, PHP, or databases.

I estimate 95% peak traffic to be at 18,000 hits per hour (130 MB/hr). The site will reach a bit over 100,000 hits per hour (720 MB/hr) during TV shows that replay about 4 times per year.

4webspace charges only a one time fee for additional RAM not a monthly charge like many others. My plan is to order a Raq3 for $99 month with and initally purchase RAM for a one time fee. I am thinking about purchasing 128MB.

Is this server likely to meet my needs?

If this server is not up to par, I could either purchase more RAM or host a portion of the site on a virtual server. It is probably is not to my advantage to ask 4webspace how much RAM to purchase. I imagine their sales agents would err on the side of excess. I want to avoid spending $200/month if possible.

With that amount of traffic, you might consider going for 256 megs of RAM.

Originally posted by NVB
If this server is not up to par, I could either purchase more RAM or host a portion of the site on a virtual server. It is probably is not to my advantage to ask 4webspace how much RAM to purchase. I imagine their sales agents would err on the side of excess. I want to avoid spending $200/month if possible.

NVB that helps. I'd say your plan is fine, although I'll mention that I've found them to be extremely reasonable in listening to my needs and recommending configurations.

I would present the info you posted to Steve (at Tera-byte) and see what he says, but ultimately the choice will be yours. 128MB may work, but only checking the load after the site is up will tell you that (there are nifty little php scripts that you can check so you don't have to log into the server, and the server will send you messages begging for more ram, heh). Basically, it will work until it doesn't. I'd agree however, that 256 might be better to start.

When that doesn't work any more, up it again. One of the short-comings of the RaQ3's is that the maximum amount of ram you can load in is 512 MB, so after this point, you'd have to look into moving to something else.