I'm thinking of taking the plunge into dedicated hosting because of recent traffic increases to my sites. The server would be on an NT platform, the sites use ASP & CGI and Access DBs. I have no experience in network admin., but I am resonably computer literate (I know a few programming languages and can talk the talk).

How realistic is it of me to think I can manage a server on my own without causing a complete meltdown? Opinions please? Perhaps some horror stories about dedicated hosting customers would snap me back into reality.

Thanks.

It's not that hard to do the simple stuff, although configuring the more advance stuff is hard

On suggestion would be to go with a managed server. It can take some of the admin burdens off you.

Managing the server can become a real pain, especially protecting it from outside intruders. But as long as you know how and you have some remote system to reboot it on the go, I think you'll be fine,

I second Mike's recommendation of going with a managed server, especially if you're running Win2K. Today, if you don't know what you're doing, and you put an unpatched IIS / Win2K server online, you will be hit by Nimda or Code Red in minutes. Going with a managed server will save you lots of headaches.

And, you might be better off starting with a shared solution and working up to a server.

Also, a word of advice....if you insist on Windows, make sure you choose a host with lots of Windows experience...probably a Windows only host. Those who host Windows only as a small part of their business may be least able to assist you and slowest to protect against security attacks.

For a dedicated Managed Windows solution, you should talk to Rackmy.

Or you could cut your teeth on a "staging box" at home/office. Test everything there first so it doesn't impact the production site. The ancillary benefit is the knowledge you'd gain. A drawback is the hair you may lose ;)

Originally posted by Potsie
Or you could cut your teeth on a "staging box" at home/office. Test everything there first so it doesn't impact the production site. The ancillary benefit is the knowledge you'd gain. A drawback is the hair you may lose ;)

Yah, this is a good suggestion, but if you do go this route, at the very least upgrade to SP2 and apply SRP1 (security rollout patch 1).

Please note - setting up a "spare" computer at home as a server is not for the feint of heart. I used to have a Pentium 166 machine I would test software out on, and I forgot to apply one very important MS hot fix. I noticed that my cable modem connection was really lagging, so I looked over at the lights on my modem - my upstream activity indictor was solid ... all of my upstream bandwidth was saturated, all because I forgot to install a patch on the little spare server sitting in the corner :(

Note: Handy also has a good reputation in the Windows community.

I have had a server at rackspace on windows, and they were good, Other windows host i can recommend is rackmy.com

Mike hangs around quite a lot here and from their posts they are specialists in windows servers,

You will be in safe hands going with them, Their pricing is also decent.

But you should be prepared to learn, signup on security mailing lists of microsoft.com , know basic things about iis, and how to apply hotfixes and service packs.

Regards,