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  1. #1

    Going to Order a Dedi Server Tomorrow

    Just need to figure out which company to go with. My friend suggests Layeredtech, Softlayer, or The Planet. That being said, I've seen some recommendations for Gigenet here and their Opteron system looks like a sweet deal. My questions are:

    1. Which one of the aforementioned companies would you go with? I'm looking to spend around $200, preferably with some management but not necessarily fully managed.


    2. I feel more comfortable ordering straight from the provider, rather than through a reseller. Is that a rational thought, or is a reseller just fine?

    3. If I've never managed a server before, will I still be able to get by with cPanel?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Jersey
    Posts
    2,971
    Quote Originally Posted by airrob
    Just need to figure out which company to go with. My friend suggests Layeredtech, Softlayer, or The Planet. That being said, I've seen some recommendations for Gigenet here and their Opteron system looks like a sweet deal. My questions are:

    1. Which one of the aforementioned companies would you go with? I'm looking to spend around $200, preferably with some management but not necessarily fully managed.


    2. I feel more comfortable ordering straight from the provider, rather than through a reseller. Is that a rational thought, or is a reseller just fine?

    3. If I've never managed a server before, will I still be able to get by with cPanel?
    Well its better off you dont order anything from The Planet for a while. They dont seem to be taking care of the customers they have so I doubt you will have a good experience.

    Between LT and SL, I would say SL, in terms of the features offered.

    It depends, the problem with resellers is that if there are any drive failures or any type of hardware failure or server being down, the resolution times are usually, not always, slow because they are the middle man who have to communicate with the actual host.

    Even if it costs a little more, I highly suggest you go directly.

    I would prefer no control panels at all but I can understand your reason so, yea, you will do fine with cpanel.

    *braces for attacks from managed hosts*

    If this is something mission critical and your business if going to lose gazillion dollars every second its down, then I guess you can get a 3rd party server management if this is a learning phase, which I am assuming since you said you never bought a dedicated server before then you dont really need management.
    Email: info ///at/// honelive.com

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    94
    No experience with LT & Giganet, but you should not have problem with any of them. I can say a "no" about ThePlanet and a big "yes" for SoftLayer. The advantage of working with SL is not only a reliable network, but also some perfect staff, who really care about your business.

    For management, if you are ready to learn and your support is not so critical, the SL support seems to be enough, otherwise you can hire someone. You can also take platinumservermanagement for doing security hardening and primary settings and at any time you feel you're ready to run your server cancel with them. (though I believe it worths to keep them even without asking any help.)
    No Signature!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Jacksonville, FL
    Posts
    981
    Quote Originally Posted by airrob
    2. I feel more comfortable ordering straight from the provider, rather than through a reseller. Is that a rational thought, or is a reseller just fine?
    Yes it's more than rational. Some resellers are fine and even provide value added services that you can't get direct. But by and large, resellers add an extra layer of complication. If you search long and hard enough, you'll even find a few reseller scandals involving people taking money and running.

    Much is not usually the case when you're dealing directly with a datacenter. Needless to say, those of us who own the hardware used to provide dedicated service tend to adhere to higher standards than those who don't.

    Now selling BigVPS's!
    Jacksonville Colocation and dedicated servers by colo4jax
    We are *not* a reseller. We own our servers, switches, routers and racks.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Philadelphia, PA
    Posts
    2,517
    There are a lot of choices do a search on here. Quite a few hosts can meet your needs.

    Check my signature thats who im hosting with, very happy.

  6. #6

    The Best

    I concur with Vigor. I recently moved from a virtual ENSIM server at OLM to a dedicated Plesk server at Steadfast. A night and day difference:

    1. Dedicated Life is wonderful! I actually enjoy working with the Plesk platform. it is wicked fast, and there are no shared resource and partitioning issues. What freedom!

    1. Support - Responsiveness at Steadfast: Immediate access to staff, rather than a lengthy wait. Where I once sometimes spent an hour listing to music and waiting for a techie, that wait has simply vanished.

    2. Support - Intelligence: "Flashes of Brilliance" is the phrase that comes to mind vis-a-vis Steadfast. I've never seen anything like it. (I once tried Mosso, a managed hosting Rackspace spin-off, but it doesn't compare in terms of the insightfulness of the support offered).

    3. No overselling: I wanted an overpowered server. I was guided into one that was less expensive but more than suits my minimal needs. And if I insist, I can upgrade later quite simply.

    4. I signed up for the Silver management plan (included), but for non-techies I would recommend the Gold plan. IMHO, it is a far better option, and still less expensive, than the fanatical concept. I actually think Steadfast can go very far with this Gold idea - particularly in the dedicated, non-techie niche such as small business owers - if they promote this plan to a greater extent.

    Gary

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    88
    Best of luck, that's all I can say. There are so many out there to choose from, and it's very hard to find "just the right one."

    If you're just starting out, I'd be mindful of the service and the hourly billing for tech work, because more often than not, you'll really need it when you're just starting out.

    Try not to buy on impulse, and keep in mind that if your budget is, say, $189, but you see a better deal for $199 - in the long run, that extra $10 will be better invested in the higher-end machine.

    Getting a dedicated server is like deciding to get married or move in with your lover - it's fixable, but you really want to make the best choice right off the bat.

    (no techie - just starting too)

  8. #8
    Alright now I'm truly stuck. I've got a couple options that I see right now:

    1. Layeredtech - They have a dual Xeon 2.8 special that looks good.
    2. Softlayer - I can get a dual core Opteron 175.
    3. Gigenet - Either their Core2Duo option or the dualcore Opteron look good.
    4. Steadfast - Either the Core2Duo or Opteron 1212.

    Here's my new set of questions for you guys:

    1. Any major differences in provider here?
    2. Does location matter all that much for a webserver? Most of my viewers are from the Northeast, so Chicago is about 15-20ms better, but Dallas is only 50ms. And better to the West Coast, where some of my viewers are. Shouldn't make that big of a difference right?
    3. I think I'm going to go with PlatinumServerManagement to harden and optimize my server for the first month. Good choice?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Posts
    366
    I'd recommend your #2 option. It's even $20 off this week at softlayer on their specials page.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    Quote Originally Posted by airrob

    3. If I've never managed a server before, will I still be able to get by with cPanel?

    Absolutely NOT. You need someone who knows what they're doing to properly manage and secure your server. You can't do that from a control panel or with a few hours of reading through tutorials.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    New York, NY
    Posts
    10,710
    airrob,

    I strongly recommend you go with Gigenet, they offer a more personal level of service than those listed (at least from my experience) and include Express Management with the Core 2 Duo offering you were referring to. Make sure you don't overlook the free extra gig of RAM and 100mbit port upgrade. Also, if you were interested in the dual core opteron, you can get a free upgrade to a total of quad cores (and also the extra gig of ram and 100mbit port). Gigenet also has a very reliable network, I have not experienced any outages in my time being there, and doing a search on this forum only shows very minimal issues (and those that appear are from ages ago). Their support has been really fast for me, and I have had reboots done in just minutes (they also include remote reboot, which LayeredTech, for example, does not).

  12. #12
    Here is a suggestion -

    Call each one of them and see which of them list "support" as the first option. Then patch through to support and see how quickly you get through.

    gc
    p.s. I am enjoying the Plesk interface.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    1,648
    Quote Originally Posted by AH-Tina
    Absolutely NOT. You need someone who knows what they're doing to properly manage and secure your server. You can't do that from a control panel or with a few hours of reading through tutorials.
    Strongly agree here. cPanel (or any control panel) is made to automate tasks that affect hosting operations, and does not address management of the entire server. Hackers don't cut you a break because you're still learning, but rather they exploit the fact that many beginning admins make common mistakes and leave doors wide open for them.
    Eric Spaeth
    Enterprise Network Engineer :: Hosting Hobbyist :: Master of Procrastination
    "The really cool thing about facts is they remain true regardless of who states them."

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    88
    Speaking of hacking - my server has been up for only seven days and last night, somebody tried breaking in 4700 times.

    It was from lggtest.com - anyone heard of them?

  15. #15
    Alright, tomorrow is the big day. Last couple questions before I go with Softlayer, who I've decided to go with.

    1. CentOS 32 bit or 64 bit? I need cPanel, does that matter? (Besides that, just need LAMP and Subversion.)
    2. Softlayer will install MySQL 4, but is 5 better? Should I ask PSM to install that for me?
    3. Is SCSI or Raptor necessary, or will I do ok with one SATA drive?

    Quick responses greatly appreciated!

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    88
    MySQL 5 is better, but a lot of programs aren't playing nice with it yet - like Horde for instance, so it's safer to stick with My4.

    As I understand it, SATA should be adequate unless you're going to do some gaming stuff, then you want SCSI.

  17. #17
    Wait a tic - cPanel is only supported on Red Hat? I was going to go with CentOS - is Red Hat a good alternative?

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    198
    cPanel works with both, Red Hat and CentOS:
    http://www.cpanel.net/products/cPane...quirements.htm

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