Hi folks,

It's so nice to know such a great forum. I'm running a website and thinking about switch to ded. server. Can you give me some advice based on your experience. I really appreciate it!!! :stickout: :D

Any comments are welcomed!

Question:
*) Should I go for managed or semi-managed ded. server?
*) What's minimum server spec.?
*) Which ded. server provider is good for me? freeBSD prefered
*) Do I really need cPanel and WHM? (solved)

Budget:
*) around $100 USD/mon. (is that feasible? need more or less?)

Business background:
*) targeting users from CHINA;
*) don't run hosting business, just host ONLY ONE website;
*) SSL-enabeld
*) 400-800 active users or even more in peak hours;

Technical requirements:
*) VERY STABLE connection and uptime;
*) not picky with hard disk, 512M memory at least;
*) not sure about CPU (celeron, p4?)
*) root access (of course...)
*) remote reboot (will they charge me for this?)
*) can install major popular open source packags
*) can install SSL certificate

Technical background:
*) quite familiar with Solaris, Linux. but I prefer freeBSD :)
*) can handle Apache, MySQL, PHP on Windows, Solaris, not tried on freeBSD.
*) a bit network knowledge, not familiar with router, DNS, firewall

THANK YOU!

Eric

Well, i don't think you would need cpanel, because this is hosting software.

I think it's quite possible to get a server for 100 dollar a month.

You could check www.managed.com of check the advertising forum.

But most of the time the so called "managed" servers only include
kernel upgrades and patches. So you need to look at the things they update.

Thank you! vaanie

I checked cPanel's site and agree with you that I don't need cPanel, which can save me for CPU and memory... :)

I probably have to change my thread title... I go around on managed.com, fastservers and server matrix these days, it seems manged provides better deal, in terms of connection, memory...

Eric

Originally posted by w2jc
Thank you! vaanie

I checked cPanel's site and agree with you that I don't need cPanel, which can save me for CPU and memory... :)

I probably have to change my thread title... I go around on managed.com, fastservers and server matrix these days, it seems manged provides better deal, in terms of connection, memory...

Eric

Check out some threads on managed.com here. They are not in the same ballpark compared to ServerMatrix and FastServers.

Just a word of advice, never get Celeron processors :-P

My personal choice would be an Athlon XP but if you must get a Pentium 4

Could you specify how much bandwidth you need? If it's 100gb or under it is very possible to get a good server in your price range.

Hi Xenos,

There're huge discussions here bout pros and cons aof SM, fastservers and managed. sometimes I just get a bit confused, but gradully I can figure out a big view of these companies.

My really concern is the quality of connection and stability. what I want is a box running smoothly over there and get hooked stably. For the rest of things, I can almost take care of it. Oh, they may have to upgrade kernal or security patch at least.

From this point of view, which one of them would you recommend me? Thank you!

Eric

Originally posted by bobosama
Just a word of advice, never get Celeron processors :-P

My personal choice would be an Athlon XP but if you must get a Pentium 4

Could you specify how much bandwidth you need? If it's 100gb or under it is very possible to get a good server in your price range.
Thanks! bobosama

I will for sure take your advice! because there's no fancy pictures and lenghty text on my website. a lot of computation power go to SSL encryption, database queries on server side. that's why I need stable machine and connectivity.

bandwidth will below 100GB at current stage. do you have any idea about providers with good CPU, big memory yet lower bandwidth?

Thanks a lot!!

Eric

Well, the best would be to get a server thats close to where your customers are. So if your aiming for china, then get something in Asia. That way the server will be faster.