Would anyone please help me find out
cheapunixhosting.com vs. aletiahosting.com
which is faster?

My site is on both servers.

IP: 64.46.108.35 This one is on a shared server hosted by aletiahosting.com

IP: 206.161.124.52 This one is on a semi-dedicated server hosted by cheapunixhosting.com

However on my own machine 206.161.124.52 is notably slower than 64.46.108.35 (80ms pingtime vs. 200ms pingtime)

I did a test on hostreview.com and found 206.161.124.52 much faster than 64.46.108.35 (8ms pingtime vs.20ms pingtime)

BUT the test on hitpulse.com shows a completely different result!

I'm confused. Any idea which one is faster? I understand different areas may have different results but what about the overall performance? A site on a semi-dedicated server with only a few sites should perform much better than a traditional shared one right? But why don't I see the difference?

Check out http://visualroute.com download that program. It will allow you to see the steps from your computer to the server you are tracing and see what the ping times are along the way. A great web site for tesing ping times around the world is http://www.tracert.com this allows you to ping from different servers located around the world so you get an idea of what your server pings at from different locations. Please remember the further away from the server location the higher the ping, so this is why you are getting variances.

Thanks.

I did the test on http://www.tracert.com and the result shows that the "semi-dedicated" server is indeed slower than the shared one. Is it normal?

The result also shows Cheapunixhosting.com is slower than aletiahosting.com. But from their websites it seems that first one(OC12+OC3, 28 POPs) has much better connectivity than the second one(OC3).

From the testing result is it too early to say aletiahosting.com's shared server is better than cheapunixhosting.com's semi-dedicated server? This is weird...

Originally posted by toptalent
I'm confused. Any idea which one is faster? I understand different areas may have different results but what about the overall performance? A site on a semi-dedicated server with only a few sites should perform much better than a traditional shared one right? But why don't I see the difference?

No, I just believe you lookign at it wrong, the server itself doesn't define the pign time, the network will, a 8 way Xeon will have the same pign as a Single PII as long as they are in the same network :)

If you are going to decide which is faster bandwidth wise you really need to trend your data. You can't at just one point and time decide which is faster. If you have the time do a traceroute at different times during the day to get a feel for network performance. Even then there are many things that could determine the outcome of your testing. Your ISP could be slow, Their upstream could be flapping, etc. Check traceroutes from various sites around the net. http://www.geek-tools.com is a great place to do that at.

Server hardware won't give you a faster ping unless the servers is loaded with the exact same number of clients then you can tell which server is better in terms of response time vs. hardware.

Your best bet is to ask people who have sites on the servers. Sometimes uptime or available support is better than worrying about a 20 ms difference in response.

STAY away from these guys at all costs.

Originally posted by hostman1
STAY away from these guys at all costs.

Mind clarifying the warning ?

Woa, since when a ping time will tell anything about your server? Ping time will tell you two things: the congestion on the connectivity between 2 points and also tell you a little bit about the location of the 2 points. By commong sense, the farther apart the 2 points are, the longer it will take for a data packet to travel from one point to another, hence the higher ping time. Also by common sense, the higher ping time will also tell you about the possibility of congestion (or even packet loss). As somebody suggested, you can use http://visualroute.visualware.com to see where the geographic location of your server. Knowing this will tell you how far you are from each server (and see if the ping time differences make sense). If somehow the ping time differences does not make sense (the closer serve has longer ping time), then you may start doubting about the network quality between your computer and your server.

Anyway ... nobody will be able to tell the difference in 120ms of ping time (note: ping time is time taken for a data packet to travel round trip). How fast do you think it takes your eyes to blink? I believe longer than just 120ms. Now, if your semi dedicated server seems to be slower, think of these possibilities: First, check how much packet loss do you have from your home computer to the semi dedicated server (and compare this with your other account). The bigger the packet loss, the longer it will take you to download/transfer stuffs from your semi dedicated server, hence the slowness you experience. If you do not see any significant packet loss, your semi dedicated server has capped connectivity (say 1 mbps) and hence can't transfer bandwith as much as your other virtual account server.

Good luck ....

cheers,
:beer:

Are you referring to CheapUnixHosting or Aletia Hosting? Why should we stay away from them?